Bumi Hills Foundation.
Zimbabwe is losing its wildlife at an alarming rate, and we need your help. Up until the beginning of 2020, when COVID arrived, and tourism within Zimbabwe departed, we were managing to keep (just) on top of things. However, in February 2020, Bumi Hills Safari Lodge was forced to abruptly close its doors, due to the pandemic. This resulted in several devastating repercussions for us:
- The immediate cessation of bed night levies, which up until that date had provided us with up to USD1500 per month, which went straight towards our Rangers salaries .
- The almost immediate start of snaring, which has since risen to alarming proportions. This snaring can be traced back to job losses due to the pandemic – the lodges round our concession have all been forced to make many staff redundant, in an effort to remain viable for when tourism does return, but those same staff have to feed their families – its bitter Catch 22 situation, in which the wildlife suffers.
- The loss of donations from guests – our Unit is close to the Lodge, and we were able to show many interested guests our video/power point presentation, followed by a Q & A session – this often resulted in immediate cash donations, or wired transfers once the guest had returned home, all of which were so helpful.
Quick recap of our unit:
In 2009, the Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit (BHAPU) was formed to combat the issues of diminishing wildlife and environmental degradation due to heavy poaching, Illegal fishing and unmitigated human strain on the land and water. In March 2016 the Bumi Hills Foundation Trust was founded, incorporating BHAPU, to help achieve long term sustainable conservation in our region in Northern Zimbabwe.
Since 2013, over 254 Elephant carcasses have been investigated forensically by BHAPU, the majority of which were concluded to be victims of poaching. And since the Units inception, we have removed over 20 000 wire snares (utilized to trap unknowing wildlife for bush meat).
More recently, the poaching situation has evolved into a serious threat with armed gangs operating within the wildlife area and surrounding hunting areas, targeting predominantly Elephant for their ivory but also other large mammal species to supply the lucrative bush meat trade.
Loss of wildlife and environmental degradation can be in part directly linked to the lack of social and economic opportunities the local population has available. The plight of both wildlife and people needs to be addressed for a sustainable and long term solution to Zimbabwe’s needs.
And that is where we come in – our passion for wildlife and the associated environment is ultimately entwined with education, awareness and leadership. We have managed to keep going in our own, supported by our local patrons, up until now, but we simply cannot do it any longer.
www.bumihillsfoundation.org