(Posted 16th October 2024)
Courtesy of African Elephant News and Albertina Nakale, New Era Live
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.
