Parks and Wildlife Amendment

The Parks and Wildlife Amendment Act rewrites large parts of the Parks and Wildlife Act [Chapter 20:14] and repeals two standalone statutes — the Trapping of Animals Control Act [Chapter 20:21] and the Quelea Control Act [Chapter 19:10] — folding their subject matter into the principal Act as new Parts XIIIA and XIIIB.

The headline for rural communities is the Human-Wildlife Conflict Relief Fund. It pays monetary relief to people killed, maimed or injured in an encounter with a wild animal, on a prescribed scale, provided a claim is lodged within 12 months. Nothing is payable where the victim was illegally harvesting wildlife or negligently interfered with animals. The Fund is financed by its own annual hunting quota and by a 0,5 per cent human-wildlife relief levy on revenue from consumptive and non-consumptive tourism and wildlife-based business, with administration capped at 30 per cent of income. Claims must be supported by the victim's affidavit, a Parks officer's affidavit, a police incident report and a medical report — or, where the victim has died, a post-mortem report and death certificate. The Director-General administers the Fund, and the Act states expressly that it creates no cause of action against the Authority.

The industry gets a regulator. The Wildlife Professionals Council of Zimbabwe is established as a body corporate of nine members, six elected by professionals in the industry, serving four-year terms, with the chair and vice-chair alternating between the consumptive and non-consumptive sectors. Registration with the Council becomes a precondition for operating as a wildlife professional; the Council keeps the register, enforces codes of ethics, and may deregister or impose penalties, with its by-laws capped at three times level 14.

Problem animals are redefined and the response codified. An animal qualifies where it endangers people or livestock, damages property, obstructs its use or causes serious annoyance, judged by location and by whether it has destroyed livelihoods or killed livestock. The Authority or appropriate authority may chase, capture and translocate, or euthanise an animal that has killed or threatened human life — but a declaration does not entitle anyone to kill it except where life is immediately threatened, and appropriate authorities must produce containment plans on request.

Trapping is now regulated inside the Parks Act. Traps are classified into three schedules: making, possessing or using a class I trap is an offence carrying up to level 8 or three years' imprisonment, class II traps require a permit, and courts must order compensation to the owner where a domestic animal is trapped, killed or injured. Quelea control brings duties to report nesting or roosting colonies.

Other changes run through the Act: definitions of "animal", "alienated land" and "appropriate authority" are widened, communities gain delegated appropriate authority status and community conservancies held by the Authority as trustee, land may be donated into the Parks and Wildlife Estate, a Learner's Professional Guides Licence is created, park rangers and honorary park rangers are formally recognised with prescribed powers, animal welfare guidelines become enforceable through conditions on permits and leases with Authority officers deemed inspectors under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and wildlife trafficking carries up to level 7 or two years — except where the facts involve rhinoceros or ivory, which must be charged under the special penalty provision in section 128 instead.