Namibia is preparing to hunt hundreds of animals, including elephants, hippos, buffalo, impala, wildebeest and zebra. The reason: a devastating drought. Faced with the challenge of dealing with a serious food crisis and preserving its fauna in a state of emergency due to lack of rain, the country’s authorities have made a Solomonic decision: they will hunt more than 700 animals to feed their populations, reduce the risk of “encounters” between elephants and humans looking for water, and relieve pressure on parks where fauna already exceeds what natural resources such as meadows and lakes can provide.

This is another effect of drought.

723 animals condemnedThe announcement was made this week by the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism: the country has decided to cull 723 wild animals, including 300 zebras, 100 blue wildebeest, 100 eland, 83 elephants, 60 buffalo, 50 impala and 30 hippos. The samples will come from several national parks spread across the country, which have already been selected, as well as “common areas” that include “sustainable hunting”.

For example, elephants will be hunted in areas such as Kunene, Otjozodjupa, Erongo, Oshana, Kavango or Zambebzi. In the latter alone, about thirty specimens will be sacrificed. The Namibian Government has also decided how to end them: the task will fall to professional hunters and safari companies contracted by the ministry and nature reserves. At the beginning of this week, they had killed 157 animals of different species.

So what is the reason? Drought. And its derivatives. Namibia is suffering from a devastating water shortage that led to a state of emergency at the end of May, which has hit crops and livestock hard, among other problems. The result is a worrying “food insecurity” problem that organizations such as the United Nations and the IPC have been warning about for some time. One of the purposes of the sacrifice of more than 700 wild animals is to obtain game meat to provide for the population, and to partially “alleviate” the problem.

Use of natural resources“This practice is necessary and in line with our constitutional mandate that our natural resources be used for the benefit of Namibian citizens,” the government said. In a statement announcing the decision, the ministry said an agreement had been reached “to provide game meat to the drought-affected relief program.” The 157 animals sacrificed have already contributed 56,875 kg.

The administration recalls that it has supplied meat on different occasions over the years, and has cracked down on poachers by complying with its own “policies and laws.” “The benefits of pine meat extend to rural communities, especially those in conservation areas.”

“Overcome the pastures”. The plan is not just aimed at feeding Namibians most affected by water scarcity. The government puts forward two other reasons, both related to the country’s rainfall deficit. The first is the “need” to “mitigate the negative impact of drought on wildlife conservation in both our national parks and common areas,” a word used several times throughout the ministry’s statement.

“There is no doubt that drought is affecting most sectors, including conservation,” the government said. “If we reduce the number of wild animals in some of the parks and common areas where we think the population has outgrown the pastures and available water resources, we will be able to better manage the existing grazing pressure and water availability.

Avoid “encounters”The second argument for the administration is to avoid dangerous encounters between wild animals and humans as they move in search of water and vegetation. Reuters, for example, notes that 50 people died in Zimbabwe alone last year due to elephant attacks, and the Namibian government itself slips in its statement that a villager from Uukwaluudhi died on Sunday for exactly the same reason, although it does not specify whether the incident was somehow related to water scarcity.

“The 2023 National Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict Management decided, among other things, that elephant numbers should be reduced as a measure to reduce the current incidence of human-wildlife conflict,” he said, noting that “the severe drought situation the country is experiencing is such that conflicts are expected to increase if left untreated.”

Is the drought that serious? All it takes is for the government to declare a state of emergency on May 22. Like other countries in the region, Namibia is facing the effects of El Niño, a phenomenon the UN has warned will have consequences in the northern part of the continent in the spring.

“More than 61 million people in southern Africa have been affected by drought and other weather conditions caused by El Niño, exacerbated by the climate crisis, including the most intense mid-season drought in more than a century,” the UN report said. May. In Namibia, 1.4 million people are believed to be facing a famine crisis due to water shortages.

Pictures | Thijs Boom (Unsplash) and Joshua Kettle (Unsplash)

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