Despite the commercial significance of tourism, human-wildlife conflict remains a challenging conservation dilemma in the Kunene Region due to the escalating effects of climate change and resource competition.
This is according to Moses Araseb, the region’s warden for resource management under the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, in a recent interview with Nampa.
Araseb said these conflicts have become more frequent and severe in recent years, citing human population growth as a cause, including the extension of transport routes and farmers penetrating wildlife areas in search of greener pastures due to the recurring drought.
“The expansion of agricultural and industrial activities, including the recurrent drought, which has forced livestock farmers to penetrate into wildlife areas for grazing, has led to increased human incursion into historically wild and deserted areas,” Araseb stated.
It has now devolved into a battle between wildlife and farmers, as farmers who lose properties to elephants seek to respond by harming elephants.
“We have serious problems with elephants destroying properties. On the other side, the region is still suffering from a lengthy drought, with dams and ponds drying up, causing wildlife to seek water in nearby settlements,” he noted.
This issue, he said, requires long-term solutions to reduce the continual conflict between wild animals and humans and suggested that the ministry focus on educating people on how to coexist with wild animals through community participation.
According to Araseb, around 15 incidences of human-wildlife conflict are reported each month.
He also bemoaned the lack of funding to compensate farmers who lost property to wild animals, claiming that demands are stacking up every day, draining conservancies’ coffers.
Kunene is home to 46 per cent of the country’s conservancies, which house wildlife such as desert elephants, rhinos, lions, giraffes, and other wild species.
Chief Public Relations in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Romeo Muyunda said Namibia recorded 1 175 human-wildlife cases in the last three years, with 621 of those involving crop damages. The overall number of cattle cases lost was 475, with 45 humans injured and 34 people killed by wild animals.
He said the ministry had dispersed millions of dollars in compensation to make up for different damages caused by human-wild animals, with more than N.dollars 29 million in payments made from 2019 to date.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency