The COVID-19 pandemic does not bode well with conservation efforts, in particular, most if not all anti-poaching programs are now grossly under-resourced and thereby placing our wildlife resource at risk.
Already Zimbabwe is witnessing a spike in poaching including human-wildlife conflict due to the sudden decline in tourism revenue.
The concern is how Operators in these areas maintain the effectiveness of their wildlife patrolling and security when about 90% of their planned revenue for the year has now dropped to zero.
Be that as it may, and in order to mitigate against a prevailing dire situation we continue to advise operators to persuade international clients to postpone bookings to a future date including rescheduling to 2021 season,” says -Emmanuel Fundira (president of Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe.
