Parks and Wildlife Management Authority director general Morris Mtsambiwa said the elephant herd ' now at an estimated 100 000 ' was growing especially in protected areas such as Sebakwe, Zambezi Valley and the South East Lowveld.
"When the last national survey was conducted in 2001, there were an estimated 89 000 elephants with an annual growth rate of 5 percent," he said.
He dismissed reports that the herd was around 45 000.
Zimbabwe, he said, had tried to reduce the increasing numbers through the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) where communities were allowed to hunt up to 500 trophies a year.
He, however, said because of logistical problems, most rural district councils that were supposed to participate in the CAMPFIRE programme were not doing so.
The authority was working with CAMPFIRE to look at ways of increasing participation and how communities in areas where there are no animals could benefit, said Mtsambiwa.
He said CAMPFIRE could increase benefits to communities through giving them meat, selling it cheaply or selling it to crocodile farmers at commercial rates.
Elephants remain endangered species because of increased poaching activities that the authority is battling to contain. ' New Ziana.
