Absalom Shigwedha
3 July 2008
THE Ministry of Environment and Tourism has started catching game in Waterberg Plateau Park and Etosha National Park to be put on auction this month.
Dr Fanuel Demas, Director of Scientific Services, said wildlife auctions of rare and high demand game species from State-owned game parks were approved by Cabinet in 2003.
The auction will be held on July 25.
The Ministry's auctions are held every second year.
The last one, in 2006, generated over N$9.2 million which was deposited in the Game Products Trust Fund, which funds rural conservancies and community development programmes.
Demas said the captures started last month with a rhino and buffalo already in the pens at Waterberg Plateau Park.
This week, the team is in Etosha.
The eight black rhinos will be for export only and not for farming within the country as the entire Namibian population of black rhinos is being managed as a meta-population (where government manages the country's black rhino population as a whole a group).
Fragmented privately owned and state owned rhino will result in biological management complications of this flagship species which is tightly controlled through the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES)," he said.
A total of 90 black-faced impala, 40 disease-free buffaloes, 16 sables and 21 giraffes will be captured.
Demas said due to veterinary restrictions, placement of buffalo south of the Cordon Fence (with the exception of the Waterberg Park) is prohibited and like the black rhino, the buffalo will be for export only.
The auction will be held at the Safari Hotel.
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