LAST week, Namibia was one of 46 countries that signed the London Declaration on Illegal Wildlife Trade. The declaration outlines the steps that need to be taken to curb illegal wildlife trade globally.
Namibia’s delegate to the London Conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, was able to offer hope at the conference by sharing one of the “greatest wildlife recovery stories ever told”.
Namibia’s successful implementation of conservation policies has seen the country’s wildlife population rebound dramatically in the past two decades.
Despite poaching showing “its ugly face in our country” in 2012, when 78 elephants were poached, Nandi-Ndaitwah said that in response Namibia’s govern- ment acted swiftly and since 2012 only 30 elephants have been poached.
More than 25 000 elephants exist in Namibia currently, up from a mere 700 elephants in 1995.
During the past few years, Namibia has stepped up its anti-poaching measures, including policy and conservation law amendments, capacity development and increased use of technologies and tactics to fight poaching.
Furthermore Namibia has the largest population of free roaming black rhinos in the world, while in 1982 the species was nearly extinct. Namibia remains “the cheetah capital” globally, with more than 2 500 animals.
Much of the success of Namibia’s re-population of wildlife is linked to the successful implementation of the Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme, which gives local communities access to state land and the power to manage the biodiversity in terms of both fauna and flora.
The minister noted that to date, Namibia has 78 conservancies run according
to the CBNRM model and more than 200 000 Namibians benefit.
“This programme has become a successful conservation drive and has resulted in the exceptional recovery of wildlife”, she said. In addition, the pro- gramme has seen a link between conservation activities and poverty reduction.
The minister admitted to her global colleagues that success in conservation “has come at a cost”. Due to increased wildlife in areas where human populations live, “incidents of human wildlife conflict are increasing, and consequently human lives and properties are lost”.
Put simply, Namibia’s policies on sustainable utilisation have become critical and in order to “create a balance for human and wildlife to co-exist” communities are annually allocated quotas for own use and for commercial use to earn an income for their livelihood from wild- life products. Nandi-Ndaitwah said that Namibia’s government “strongly believes that to effectively fight poaching, ensure sustainable conservation of wildlife, and bring an end to illegal trade on wildlife products. The communities who live with wildlife need to be empowered, so that, the would-be international criminal gangs will not get a chance to influence them and thus turn a blind eye on the poaching”.
Concluding her talk, Nandi-Ndaitwah invited the international community to Namibia “to come and see for yourselves and [we\ will gladly share our success story with you”.