Rejuvenating Umfurudzi: a critical step in Zimbabwe’s conservation efforts

As first appeared in Zim Morning Post, here. Written by Farayi Machamire.

March 17 2023

Previously rich in biodiversity, the park’s wildlife was decimated over two decades by mining and poaching

A new office block and tourist facilities show signs of the park’s revival.

Image by Zim Morning Post.

Tented camps and chalet accommodation whose proceeds are channelled towards wildlife conservation, form part of a sustainable model for the once distressed Umfurudzi Safari Area.

Its leafy accommodation, overlooking the Umfurudzi River, provides tourists with a scenic experience and has become a viable source of funds for conservation.

Umfurudzi Park, located 100 km northeast of Harare in the Shamva district, is making concerted efforts to revive its wildlife populations.

From a period of overhunting and dwindling numbers of wildlife species, the Park has been on a steady climb back to sustainability over the last 12 years.

Through conservation partnerships and efforts, the once distressed area has seen a growth in tourists due to attractions such as game drives, limestone caves, secret pools, bushman paintings, Chizinga Mountain Range and Umfurudzi pot holes.

The Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975 officially designated Umfurudzi Safari Area, and placed the land under the control of the then Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management (now ZimParks).

In the early 1980s the Park flourished with Black Rhinos in abundance.

However, as pressure mounted on the Rhino due to rampant poaching ZimParks captured and translocated 44 Black Rhinos from Umfurudzi to intensive protection zones (IPZ).

The area continued as a hunting area until 2007 when ZimParks suspended all hunting due to low animal populations, Park officials say.

In more recent history the Park was settled by colonial mining prospectors, whose footprints still remain through disused mine shafts.

The extremely fragile wildlife populations and Highveld environment also took a battering at the turn of the millennium as the economy tanked.

To plug further bleeding, Umfurudzi Park Pvt Ltd was formed in August 2010, as a joint venture owned by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority and Unifreight Africa Ltd with the aim to rehabilitate and sustainably operate the Umfurudzi Safari Area.

Park manager Tawanda Chipere says since then “it has become (the Park’s) personal crusade to protect and sustain wildlife for future generations as well as to repopulate vacuums created by overexploitation.”

“Umfurudzi Park provides a perfect environment to make the vision a reality as it is protected by ZimParks and the Umfurudzi Act,” Chipere says.

“The success of Umfurudzi Park will be to create a sustainable model that can be duplicated to other distressed Parks within Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa.”

Through the partnership, a game count was conducted to quantify the animal species and numbers which existed in the Park.

Consequently it was ascertained that the numbers were very low and were and still are threatened with extinction within the Park.

“It was agreed to actively restock the Park over a three year period to build numbers of existing species, as well as to reintroduce species which had been wiped out over the past 20 years,” reads a general guide to the Park, given to tourists upon arrival.

“Cambridge University conducted studies in the 1980s and Umfurudzi Park had healthy populations of animals ranging from Black Rhino (100+), elephant (100+), buffalo (unknown, Sable (1500+), Rhone (250+), eland waterbucks as well as many predator species, lion, leopard, hyena, cheetah, and other small predators.”

Pre-2011, not a single elephant remained. To shore up the population, authorities re-introduced about 1,808 animals.

“The vision of Umfurudzi Park is a hybrid developed by the joint venture partners, Pioneer Corporation Africa and the ZimParks through consultation, to create an environment where wildlife can survive, thrive and multiply,” Chipere says.

Today the Park is largely populated by eland, warthog and impala,leopard, Buffalo and giraffe with the number of impala reaching over 700.

The Park, which was officially opened by then President RG Mugabe in 1981, with the promise of becoming a beacon of conservation had become a picture of two decades of decay.

Now it hopes to continue to make efforts to replenish its delicate population, particularly the elephants, which in 2011 stood at zero.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority and Unifreight Africa Ltd partnership saw 13 elephants being reintroduced in 2013.

“It’s been a tough journey given the teething troubles, mining and politics, but Umfurudzi Safari Area is showing recovery towards restoring its wildlife population and environment, and if anything, demonstrates that with consistent effort, any nature reserve can be revived,” says Talent Mariwa, a resident near the Park’s jurisdiction.

“Through awareness campaigns, assisting the community in various ways including capacitating the local school, the Park is creating an environment where the community realises benefits from the wildlife for its own development which in turn protects the park and its resources for future generations.”

Beyond the control of Park authorities, the government could support conservation efforts in beefing up law enforcement to safeguard against destruction in protected areas and critical ecosystem areas such as rivers.

For first time guests, a beaming entrance, spruced up administration block and tourist office show signs of revival.

The steps stones are in place. It will need all hands on deck to ensure the Park realises its vision of creating a legacy of sustainable wildlife management for future generations to enjoy.

This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organisation Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Written articles from the Mozambican and Angolan cohorts are translated from Portuguese. Broadcast stories remain in the original language.