'Africans Are Forced Into Structure That is Managed by People' Who Don't Know African Wildlife: Zimbabwean Expert
'Africans Are Forced Into Structure That is Managed by People' Who Don't Know African Wildlife: Zimbabwean Expert
A clear policy framework is needed "to give primacy to African leaders and governments" to determine how people on the continent coexist with wildlife, lawmaker David Butau told Sputnik Africa, challenging the global approach to elephant conservation.
The global conservation debates often ignore the realities facing African communities that "bear this load of managing wildlife," Butau said as the world marked World Elephant Day.
"Elephants are ripping off fields of sorghum and millet [...] in Mbire we hardly grow maize because maize attracts elephants, and elephants, when they are in a small village, they can cause harm to human life."
The present framework—born from the General Agreement on Tariffs Trade (GATT)—is managed by people "who do not even have an idea of what a hyena, an elephant, a lion look like, how they behave," he underlined.
"GATT was meant to undermine African freedom, African politics and policy making."
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