Keep Namibia's wildlife on the land
Ellanie Smit, The Namibian Sun
January 12, 2021
See link
https://www.namibiansun.com/news/keep-namibias-wildlife-on-the-land2021-01-12/
for photo.
WINDHOEK: Widespread concern over wildlife declines is motivating ongoing
global calls for action, yet interventions often do not differentiate
between countries with a good conservation track record and those with
declining wildlife populations.
This is according to a new report, titled 'Keep Namibia's Wildlife on the
Land', published last year by the Namibian Association of Community-Based
Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Support Organisations (NACSO).
The report says attempts by foreign organisations to stop declines through
field interventions often do not address the actual problems.
“Interventions ignore the needs of local people and conservation priorities
on the ground.” It adds that the public is also not informed about the main
causes for large-scale wildlife declines.
“People are confusing the wellbeing of an individual animal with the health
of entire populations of the same species. Through passionate but misguided
social media outcries, many people want to prevent all animal deaths to
stop perceived cruelty to animals and wildlife declines.”
Cruelty
The report says preventing all wildlife deaths forces people to replace
wildlife harvesting with other land uses.
“Wildlife will only remain on the land if land stewards benefit from it.”
According to the report Namibia's lion population is healthy and increasing
and is today at its highest since independence in 1990. The lion range has
also expanded significantly, especially in north-western Namibia.
Furthermore, Namibia's populations of both black and white rhinos have been
partly rebuilt over the last three decades and former ranges were
re-established by providing economic incentives as a basic for their
conservation, the report says.
Namibia's elephant population has tripled since independence and elephants
have recolonised former ranges, largely facilitated by community
conservation and benefits to local communities.
“Most other large wildlife species in Namibia have healthier populations
today than at any time over the last 150 years.”
The report notes that differentiating between countries with successful
conservation approaches and those without is essential, because
conservation is a science-based management activity and successful
approaches should not be undermined by generalised emotional responses and
inappropriate actions.
“Conservation by the people for the people is extremely successful in
Namibia – by conferring rights to own and manage wildlife to local
communities, the Namibian government has empowered land holders to conserve
wildlife in a healthy balance with other land uses.”
It says that Namibians embrace wildlife management as a land use, thereby
safeguarding wildlife habitat throughout the country and that Namibia has
documented significant wildlife recoveries in parks and on communal and
freehold land throughout the country for several decades. “By harvesting
small percentages of surplus animals, Namibia is keeping overall wildlife
populations healthy, just as farmers anywhere in the world keep their
overall livestock herds, gardens and fields healthy while harvesting an
annual crop to generate income and enable development.”
Habitat Loss
The report says that some of the main causes of wildlife declines can be
caused by habitat loss through human land uses that are incompatible with
wildlife, displacement of wildlife by agriculture and degradation of
habitat by unsustainable land uses.
Other causes can also include destruction of habitat through infrastructure
development, disturbance by human activity and poaching.
https://www.namibiansun.com/news/keep-namibias-wildlife-on-the-land2021-01-12/