2020 ANNUAL REPORT

BSU has a strong history of collaboration with Zimbabwe’s Parks & Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks). They conduct anti-poaching patrols for the protection of all wildlife, including elephants, pangolins, and painted dogs; promote the conservation of habitat and natural resources; and deliver local community support and education. Projects funded and initiated by BC/BSU are at the request of Zimparks.

Anti-poaching work

• No elephants were poached in Mana Pools National Park in 2020.
• All collared elephants were protected from legal hunters.
• Three bulls, scheduled for new replacement equipment, were recollared.
• Five incursions by poachers were stopped from entering the park.
• One month of roadwork was completed, and existing roads were reopened.
• The remote bases of Mazunga and Kanga were upgraded with new tents, and the National Park ranger presence was maintained.
• One elephant was poached in the Nyakasanga area in 2020. Four land-based call signs reacted using our vehicle, and two boats were launched, one of which was ours. Unfortunately, the poachers made it back to Zambia, but we recovered the tusks.
• We hired four scouts to supplement the park ranger presence.
• There were illegal activities taking place in the southern boundary, including woodcutting, snaring, and buffalo hunting. This has already stopped due to our presence on the boundary.
• 73,705 km were covered by Bushlife vehicles on ranger deployment.
• As we cover a wider area in the valley and have more remote bases with vehicles strategically deployed, we have reduced the mileage on our vehicles, leading to less wear and tear and less maintenance.
• We carried out 37 days of river patrols. Six canoes were confiscated and several kilometers of nets were retrieved.

Kariba & Chinoyi Investigation Offices
We fund payment to informers who provide information that leads to the arrest and conviction of poachers, and our funding provides fuel and maintenance for two vehicles deployed on investigative work. Below are some of the results of these investigations:

• Three arrests—1 pangolin recovered
• One arrest—1 pangolin skin recovered
• Three arrests—python recovered

Gold Panning Mitigation
The investigators continue to monitor the Angwa River and Secret Valley areas of Chewore and Doma safari areas. A total of 130 arrests have been made on six raids. Equipment was confiscated including hundreds of metal detectors, pans, and shovels.

Remote Bases in Operation

• Vundu is a base for the manager and his vehicle, a boat driver and a launching location for boat patrols, as well as a maintenance area for vehicles.
• Nyamepi is the base for Mana Pools area manager Edmore Ngosi, the four rangers covering Mazunga, and the other four covering Kanga bases. It is also a launch location for river patrols. The base also supplies food to the families in the village when the spouses are on patrol.
• Kanga houses four rangers, one vehicle driver, and provides fuel and food to them.
• Zavaru is the location for one vehicle and twenty rangers. Hopefully, by the end of January we will have two vehicles instead of one.
• Mazunga houses four rangers in two tents and one vehicle. Mobile tents are provided for patrol personnel. Food and fuel are also provided at this base.
• Chitangazuwa is a new base on the southern boundary. There are three tents housing three Bushlife scouts. Food, vehicles, fuel, drivers, water bowser, and water tanks are provided. Our goal is to encourage community involvement at this location. We will employ people to make bricks and build a permanent base. We are feeding the scouts by purchasing food from the community. To date, we have been successful in stopping a significant amount of illegal logging and meat poaching in the area.
• Marongora is a permanent ranger station located on top of the escarpment. One vehicle and driver are based here. The deployments to the Nyakasanga and Rifa areas of the Hurungwe safari area, as well as the Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) management, originate from this location. If funding permits, we would like to see a vehicle based here permanently in the future for HWC mitigation. We captured, collared, and translocated to another area a lioness and leopard in 2020. The leopard killed 70 goats, and the lion killed 12 cows. We plan to collar an elephant this rainy season to act as an early warning system to village farmers.
• We continued with our elephant-collaring program, now in its fourth year. We have collared a total of 11 iconic bulls and 3 cows for their protection. This will enable us to monitor their movement in the valley. In 2021, we would like to collar 5 elephants in the Chewore Safari Area. This will require us to use a helicopter, and it will be a 3- to 4-day exercise.
• 2020 saw the launch of the Zambezi Valley Carnivore Project with a goal of monitoring lions, hyenas, leopards, wild dogs, and cheetahs. We have collared 6 lions, 6 hyenas, and 2 leopards for this project. In partnership with Zimparks, we hope to expand this research project in 2021.