Absalom Shigwedha
29 April 2008
Windhoek — THE Ministry of Environment and Tourism is close to granting an annual black rhino trophy-hunting quota in protected areas.
No such quota has been granted since Cites gave permission for it in 2004, because Government has been working on a policy on tourism and wildlife concessions on State land, Louisa Mupetami, a conservation scientist in the Ministry, said last week.
Cabinet approved the policy last year, she said.
"The Ministry is now preparing for the allocation of concessions on State land, including for the trophy hunting of the five black rhinos," Mupetami told The Namibian.
The 13th conference of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) held in Thailand in 2004 gave Namibia and South Africa permission to allow the hunting of five black rhinos a year.
Mupetami said Namibia's black rhino population had recovered from 90 individuals in 1967 to an estimated 1 300 individuals today.
"The Namibian black rhino population is very healthy and the biggest of the sub-species Diceros bicornis," she added.
She said only "surplus" animals will be considered for trophy hunting and preference will be given to post-reproductive males, but occasionally other males considered as problem animals would be targeted too.
The Cites decision to allow rhino hunting in Namibia and South Africa drew huge opposition from animal rights groups.
Cites lists the black rhino as a critically endangered species.
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