Govt refutes claims on sale of 170 elephants

The ministry of environment has refuted allegations that its plans to sell 170 elephants would be devastating for Namibia’s elephant population.

The ministry in a statement also rubbished the concerns of, amongst others, international media, animal rights groups and conservationists, that the sale “is orchestrated to advance a corrupt agenda” and is not aimed at reducing elephant numbers to mitigate the impact of drought and human wildlife conflict.

The ministry plans to auction 30 elephants from the Omatjete area which has a population of about 60 elephants; 50 elephants from the Kamanjab area which has about 120 elephants; 60 from the Grootfontein-Kavango cattle ranch area where there are about 130 elephants and 30 from the Grootfontein-Tsumkwe area where there are about 70 elephants.

It said these figures are extremely conservative and the 170 elephants would amount to less than 1% of Namibia’s elephant population, which is growing at 5% per year.

“The intention is to remove around half of the elephants in four conflict hot spot areas only, and not to reduce the elephant population in general.

The elephants will not be removed from conservancies and national parks, but from communal and commercial farming areas,” the statement said. It further said funds from the sale of elephants will be deposited in the Game Product Trust Fund for use on wildlife conservation and rural development projects, including wildlife crime prevention and antipoaching programmes, protected area management and human-wildlife conflict mitigation measures, including the provision of alternative water points for elephants to prevent them from using community water points.