Garth Owen-Smith
9 September 2008
(Page 2 of 2)
Selective killing of big tuskers by poachers in the 70s and early 80s, the shooting of bulls as problem animals and the number of trophies hunted south of the veterinary fence have all contributed to there now being a severe imbalance between adult bulls and cows.
According to Johan Haasbroek this is particularly so in the Uchab River, and as IRDNC has not worked in this area since the early '90s, and no reliable count has been carried out recently, we do not have any reason to dispute this.
So what should be done? Firstly the Ministry deserves praise, not criticism or threats, for a community-based policy and enabling legislation that is widely recognised as the most progressive in Africa.
Without this we may not have had any elephants left in Kunene Region.
Instead we now have wildlife populations, including elephants, recovering and extending their range in virtually all of Namibia's communal areas - in stark contrast to what is happening over the rest of the continent.
COMMUNITY It is equally important to recognise the contribution made by the communal area farmers, who are not only prepared to bear the cost of living with elephants and large predators, but have set aside land exclusively for wildlife and tourism, as well as employing game guards at their own cost to stop poaching and thereby safeguard the business interests of their private-sector partners.
From the early 1980s NGOs have also played a major role in supporting Namibia's community-based natural resource programme and the fledgling conservancies that have grown out of it, with their many donors having invested close to N$100 million in the Kunene Region alone.
Here EHRA's contribution of building protection walls around water-points in the Uchab and Huab catchments is also recognised.
Namibia's professional hunters have played their part by paying good prices (determined by a closed tender process) for the few animals that are shot as trophies every year.
Their injection of funds directly to conservancies has often been crucial in their early years, and will continue to be needed to make them into sustainable community-based organisations that improve the quality of life for the residents of communal areas.
Considering the combined contributions of all the above to make the Kunene Region the conservation success story that it is, why do we still need to shoot precious elephant bulls in the west? Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, one party has not yet come to the table in a meaningful way: The lodge and photographic safari operators who profit from the wildlife that the local communities conserve for them.
As part of the Ministry's policy of allowing communities who live with elephants to benefit from them, in 2008 Purros Conservancy could have claimed a quota to trophy hunt one bull.
They did not do so because their income, primarily from their own campsite, but also from two joint ventures and traversing rights to the Skeleton Coast concessionaire, had given their elephants a non-consumptive value much greater than what they would earn from one being shot.
I believe Sesfontein and Anabeb conservancies would have done the same if they had been earning sufficient income from the Palmwag tourism concession - 550 000 hectares of land that in the 1980s their communities agreed not to use and to reserve for wildlife.
For the first 17 years, while it developed into one of Namibia's premier tourism destinations, they received nothing at all.
Even under the new exclusive concessionaire, which operates three lodges and a very lucrative campsite here, the income they received up to 2007 did not even cover their staff salaries and other conservancy management costs.
In order to give their members some long awaited benefits, in 2008 they decided to jointly trophy hunt one elephant.
Most of the conservancies south of the Huab River have to date received little or no non-consumptive income from their wildlife, in spite of the area being an extremely popular destination for both local and foreign tourists.
Until this situation is rectified the MET will continue to be faced with demands for elephants to be shot here, either as problem animals or trophies.
No conservationist, government or NGO, wants to see any more of the western elephant bulls killed, but sensational headlines and one-sided opinions in the media do not help.
Therefore, my advice to Johan Haasbroek is to stop being a "lone ranger" and work with us to find a solution that addresses the local communities' legitimate problems, as well as Namibia's international responsibility to conserve this unique sub-population of 'desert elephants'.
And to the private sector: If they are also concerned about the real conservation issues in the Kunene, and not just their profit margins, then recognise what the local communities have done to make your businesses possible, and pay them a fair price for the right to operate on their land.
If this does not happen much of what has been achieved over the last 25 years could be lost.
* Garth Owen-Smith is the Co-director of IRDNC Namibia
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Firstly to call Garth a wanker can only come from the elephant whisperer himself. Get someone to read and interpret Garth's comments again and see if you could do better. What have you done for conservation in this country or for the community for that matter. Chasing young girls is not conservation...asshole!
Brilliant Garth- "but if they are to expand their range beyond our national parks the cost to the people living there must be taken into account."
It is exactly the opposite- we have destroyed their ranges and relegated them to a few small parks, while we 'two-leggers' continue to expand and crowd them out... perhaps we should pay rent to them: do not reproduce if you cannot afford to live in their backyard. Nice try wanker.