MUTARE – Lack of formal wildlife training of lawyers, prosecutors and magistrates has been undermining the competent handling of wildlife crimes in Zimbabwe.
In a bid to plug the gap, a wildlife rights defender, Speak Out for Animals (SOFA), yesterday held a two-day wildlife law training for prosecutors in Manicaland province, aiming to enhance legal practitioners’ roles in wildlife management.
“The challenge is that we don’t have wildlife being taught in law schools so we saw that as an opportunity for us to teach prosecutors, magistrates and judges on the different laws that protect wildlife since it’s not being taught at school,” said SOFA director Advocate Everlasting Vimbai Chinoda.
She said this was important as they were part of the legal infrastructure for wildlife protection.
“(They are all important) since they are also part and parcel of the law enforcement team or the people that guard wildlife,” added Chinoda.
SOFA recently spearheaded the introduction of a wildlife law module at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) Faculty of Law as it pushes to promote wildlife conservation through legal systems.
The organisation has been conducting training for public prosecutors for three years now with the current workshop being the 10th.
The animal rights defender said out of a target of 120 public prosecutors they have now reached 115 having trained 100 in the previous nine engagements.
She said beyond understanding the law, her organisation sought to help state lawyers to appreciate the value of wildlife to the nation which range from economic to ethical and spiritual benefits.
“The (other) objective of the workshop is to just equip prosecutors with knowledge on the value of wildlife. Wildlife is important to Zimbabwe we get a lot of revenue and foreign currency from wildlife. There is a lot of employment that comes from wildlife. There are also other social, ethical, spiritual benefits that we derive from wildlife,” Advocate Chinoda said.
She said the problem was not limited to Zimbabwe only as the challenge existed throughout the region and similar trainings were being carried out.
“Even in those areas (southern Africa) wildlife law is not taught as a formal subject in class or in law school so you find prosecutors and magistrates going to prosecute or to adjudicate without having had prior theory on the value of these animals and the offences that are supposed to be preferred against the perpetrators of crimes against those animals.
“That is why we have embarked on educating people here in Zimbabwe and even beyond. Training are being done in Zambia, Namibia and Botswana of the same nature,” said Chinoda.
