I will never leave – Travers

Gomo and the other four black rhino on Imire Farm, about 120 km east of Harare, were proof that one of the last endangered species of large mammals on earth can reproduce out of the wild and have a good chance of a solid future.

Imire is the work of Norman Travers, who should have been 86, one of the first farmers in Zimbabwe to realize the potential of farming wild animals alongside cattle and crops. The farm is also renowned for its domesticated African elephants.

But now Imire is under siege and is reported on the path to acquisition by a senior army brigadier.

Gun-toting soldiers two weeks ago attacked the conservancy, killing three black rhino here, Gomo, DJ and Amber. Suspected members of the Zimbabwe National Army, dressed in camouflage uniforms and carrying AK-47 rifles, arrived at the lodge on a Wednesday night a fortnight ago, beat up the maid and tied her up. They then force-marched a game racher to to the rhino pens, where they manhandled the guards protecting the animals and tied them up. The men then shot and killed the endangered black rhinos, leaving a one-month-old calf as the sole survivor. One of the black rhino was due to give birth this week.

The Travers family is stunned.

Its was a senseless and heinous slaughter, said Norman Travers’ son John, aged 54, who runs the park.

If they take it over there would be no animals anymore. They would all be poached and snared. The rhino project would seize to exist. It would be the end of everything here.

Government continues to seize more farms despite assurances that the land grab was a done deal. There has been no attempt to stick to assurances that productive properties and wildlife conservancies will not be touched.

Instead farms targeted for seizure under the renewed land grab are dominated by the most intensively farmed properties in the country, as well as sports clubs, hospitals and schools.

And now the Imire Farm has a serious problem with poachers laying snares in the game park and netting fish in the farm’s dams.

People think they can do just anything now, said John Travers.

The resettlement listing and concerted efforts to hound him out of his farm has intensified his commitment to Imire’s animals.

We had found a way out of total extinction for them. In 10 years we were hoping we could get the numbers back to where there should be in Zimbabwe. We could be exporting black rhino to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. But what hope do we have now?

And the commitment to his farm.

I am a Zimbabwean. I was born and bred here. This is where I live and this where I am going to die.