Parks & Wildlife Amendment Bill H.B. 1, 2024

This is a Bill — H.B. 1 of 2024 — not law. Everything below describes what it would do if passed. It would substantially rewrite the Parks and Wildlife Act and repeal both the Trapping of Animals Control Act and the Quelea Control Act, folding trapping into the main Act.

Communities would gain ground. All rural district councils would become appropriate authorities for wildlife, subject to the Minister's power to withdraw that status temporarily, and communal land areas could obtain "delegated appropriate authority" status, catering for CAMPFIRE and other community structures. The Authority would be required to devolve wildlife conservation and management responsibility to communities adjacent to wildlife areas as far as possible, and to promote community participation in both consumptive and non-consumptive wildlife commercial activities.

The Bill would settle who owns wild animals. The general rule would remain that wild animals are ownerless, but specially protected animals would be vested in the President, and private ownership would be recognised for exotic wild animals lawfully held, animals purchased and kept in captivity, and animals lawfully captured or killed under permit. Anything hunted in contravention of the Act would carry no ownership at all. Importing or buying an exotic animal would need the Minister's approval and an Authority permit.

A Wildlife Professionals Council of Zimbabwe would be created — nine elected and appointed members serving two-year terms — to register wildlife professionals as a precondition of operating, keep the register, write and enforce codes of ethics for the consumptive and non-consumptive sectors, and deregister or penalise those who breach them. It would be funded mainly by registration fees, with administration capped at 30 per cent of income, and its monetary penalties could not exceed three times level 14.

A Human-Wildlife Conflict Relief Fund would pay monetary relief to people killed, maimed or injured in encounters with wild animals, on the prescribed scale, provided a claim is lodged within twelve months. Nothing would be paid to someone injured while illegally harvesting wildlife or who negligently interfered with animals. The Fund would be financed by its own annual hunting quota and by a 0,5 per cent human-wildlife relief levy on the revenue of consumptive and non-consumptive tourism and wildlife businesses, plus parliamentary appropriations. Claims would need an affidavit from the victim, a Parks officer's affidavit, the police incident report and a medical report — or, where the victim died, a post-mortem report and death certificate. Administration is capped at 30 per cent of income and nothing in the Part would create a cause of action against the Authority.

Other changes: hunting quotas would be formalised as scientifically determined annual allocations with a civil penalty for exceeding them; leasing would extend beyond safari areas to national parks, recreational parks, botanical gardens and sanctuaries; hunting in or removing animals from a recreational park would become a crime; park rangers and honorary park rangers would be formally appointed with defined powers; the Authority could retain confiscated property such as ammunition and boats for law enforcement; mining in national parks, botanical gardens and botanical reserves would require consultation with the President and the Minister; problem-animal containment would become the responsibility of appropriate authorities rather than open licence to kill; the Parks board would be six to twelve members with at least half women, fair regional representation and a traditional leader nominated by the Chiefs' Council; and designated water bodies such as Tugwi-Mukosi, Darwendale and Osborne would be brought into the Fifth Schedule.

This summary is written from the Bill's memorandum and the first part of its text; the extract does not run to the end, so the later clauses — including the detailed penalty provisions — should be read in the Bill itself.