Cypermethrin has become a common poisonous chemical that illegal fishermen are using to catch fish in the Bua River, which flows through the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, posing serious health threats to consumers and aquatic life in the river.
Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve Park Manager David Nangoma lamented that apart from such health risks, illegal fishing, gold mining, and poaching remain major challenges undermining efforts to promote tourism in the reserve.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting held at Kasungu District Council, where the reserve’s authorities presented their third-quarter report and sought feedback, Nangoma revealed that 257 arrests have been made between January and October this year, including over 100 cases of illegal gold mining.
“The illegal fishers are using poisons and only come to sell the fish to unsuspecting buyers. So, at the end of the day, the unsuspecting buyer is the one who is going to be adversely affected — not now, perhaps, but the long-term effects of the chemicals they are ingesting are quite devastating, and we are so worried about that.
In the meeting, I asked the stakeholders and chiefs to make a clarion call to their communities to desist from eating fish that is killed from the reserve because it is killed with poison,” said Nangoma.
Senior Chief Kapelula of Kasungu North East acknowledged that some of his subjects are involved in such illegal activities within the reserve, describing it as a serious concern that requires collective action to protect the area’s natural resources.
Meanwhile, Leonard Moyo, Central Division Manager at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, said the department is aware of the ongoing illegal gold mining in the reserve and has intensified joint efforts with African Parks to address the problem.
“There have been a number of approaches on how to handle this issue, such as engagement meetings with various government agencies like the Ministry of Mining. We are working hard to train a wildlife prosecutor for the reserve to assist in handling wildlife cases, including illegal mining activities in the reserve,” Moyo added.
Covering 1,800 square kilometers, the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve stretches across Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Kasungu, and Mzimba districts. It is currently managed by African Parks.
By Topson Banda
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(Photo Credit: Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve)