Shifeta pushes ivory stockpile sale
Shifeta pushes ivory stockpile sale
Albertina Nakale, New Era Live
October 14, 2024
Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta has revealed plans to submit a Cabinet
proposal to allow Namibia to sell or dispose of its tonnes of ivory and
rhino horn stockpiles.
In May, five nations that make up the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) trans-frontier
conservation area: Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Angola jointly
called for the lifting of a ban on ivory sales imposed by the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
In fact, the states threatened to pull out of an international convention
on endangered species if they are not allowed to sell their ivory and rhino
horns worth billions of dollars.
The KAZA summit held in May in Livingstone, Zambia, considered options
available within and outside CITES, including diplomatic engagement,
withdrawal, reservations, arbitration, and trading with non-CITES parties
to benefit from wildlife and wildlife products.
Handing over grants, infrastructure, and equipment worth N$17 million to
communities living within conservancies in Zambezi and the two Kavango
regions, Shifeta stressed the need for Namibia to sell its stockpiles of
ivory and rhino horns.
“We need to utilise our natural resources, including the ivory stockpiles.
We need to sell and dispose of them. We are in the process of doing that;
that’s why we keep them in our banks. We can keep our rhino horns and ivory
in our banks, but it is very costly to maintain them. One day, we will get
an offer and dispose. So, whoever has an offer should do so. All of us as
KAZA states have decided to use our natural resources. It is our sovereign
right to use our natural resources for the benefit of our people,” Shifeta
remarked.
Asked how much stockpiles of ivory and rhino Namibia has in its banks,
Shifeta said, “We have tonnes of ivory and rhino horns; we can’t reveal the
figures for security reasons.”
He disclosed that soon he will give a submission to Cabinet on the way
forward to make sure Namibia disposes of its ivory in the banks and sells
its animals from areas that are overpopulated. “We are going to do that,”
he assured.
CITES, an intergovernmental body made up of 184 members, regulates wildlife
trade to protect certain species from overexploitation.
In 1989, CITES banned the international commercial trade in African ivory
after populations of elephants declined sharply in the preceding decade.
Despite the ban, CITES in 1999 and 2008 allowed one-time ivory sales by
countries with “healthy and well managed” elephant populations, such as
Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, with proceeds going to
conservation programmes.
Shifeta also lashed out at animal lovers and conservationists who were
bashing Namibia for culling more than 600 wild animals to assist in its
drought relief efforts.
He said such efforts and decisions are scientifically done, and more so as
conservation efforts to deal with human-wildlife conflict within
communities.
“When I was in the United States recently, some people didn’t understand.
Animal rights groups were asking why Namibia is killing animals.
I didn’t know what to say because if I had to take out my true words, it
would hurt him. I remained calm, and I asked the guy, ‘How many wild
animals do you have in your area?’ He said, ‘I live here in the city.’ I
asked him, ‘So you don’t have a farm? Then I said, ‘then you don’t
understand as you have not seen the danger these animals pose’,” Shifeta
narrated.
According to him, since these wild animals live alongside humans,
human-wildlife conflict is inevitable.
Sometimes, he said, there are losses of human life, and these are the
incidences the government wants to mitigate.
“This thing of telling yourselves lies and rumours that we are killing
animals or culling them to eat – it’s not the first time we are doing it,
and we are doing it almost every year to mitigate the impacts of drought.
In most cases, our country has an overpopulation of animals. We have taken
care of these animals, which is why we have an overpopulation of them. If
we were killing and eating them up, we wouldn’t have this number of animals
now. Today we are proud to say we have a large population of various
species of animals. So, we must reduce them. We must harvest them
sustainably,” the minister said.