African Wildlife & Environment Issue 77 FINAL ISSUE

GOOD READS

mistake, the poachers would not hesitate to shoot their way out of a threatening situation, and game scouts too were killed and injured in this war. Silvana was on the spot when many such events occurred, and she flew in light aircraft and helicopters with the dedicated people trying to prevent the extinction of the rhinos in the valley. The task was made harder by severe economic and political constraints, and also by adverse international public opinion due to the so- called 'shoot to kill' policy and the controversial management of elephants in Zimbabwe. Dr John Hanks has also written about this attack from international animal rights movements in his book called Operation Lock . With Zimbabwe's move towards a dictatorship, and as its economy imploded, political interference negatively affected the National Parks and Wildlife organisation that had been such a success in times gone by. Many of the leading players, including Glenn Tatham, found their positions untenable and left. From the visionary government conservation policies of old, rhinos are today found only in private conservancies and some small, heavily guarded national parks in Zimbabwe.

In his Foreword, Clive Walker writes: "This book is a tribute to those who gave so much in their efforts to save Zimbabwe's rhino. The battle and the war now continue in my own country, and rhino elsewhere in Africa remain under grave threat. 1994 is not 2019 and the desire to acquire rhino horn and the prices paid today are staggering. Where will all this end? Some believe only when the last rhino left standing dies." This is an important book. For me it is further confirmation that in a world where some people are prepared to pay 'staggering' prices for rhino horn, the obvious solution, and the only hope for the survival of rhinos, is to establish a legal trade and controlled market for rhino horn. Continuing the same kind of war that was lost in the Zambezi Valley thirty years ago seems like a mindless repetition of a futile exercise that can only end in tears.And those that are so adamantly and aggressively opposed to a trade in rhino horn, from government ministers to royalty to animal rights campaigners, will have contributed in no small part to that bucket of tears.

Don't miss our article about the African Pygmy-goose on page 37

9 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 77 (2020)