Three communal conservancies given game by Ombengu Farm

* LINDA BAKER
ABOUT 180 head of game have been translocated to three communal-area conservancies and a national park from the Ombengu Game Farm in the Outjo District.




The total value of the game, their capture and translocation is estimated at N$370 000.

A mixture of kudu, blue wildebeest and oryx were captured by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism's Game Capture Unit at Ombengu Game Farm, about 70 km north-west of Outjo.

A weeklong operation successfully translocated animals to the //Huab and Ehirovipuka conservancies in Kunene Region and the Mayuni Conservancy and Mudumu National Park in the Caprivi Region.

//Huab Conservancy, situated about 40 km north-west of Khorixas, received 47 kudu and 54 oryx, while Ehirovipuka Conservancy, about 100 km north of Kamanjab, received 36 eland.

Caprivi's Kwando, Mayuni and Mashi conservancies worked in partnership with the MET to decide upon the best release venue for 29 kudu and 16 blue wildebeest.

Through the Mudumu North Complex Wildlife Committee, the three conservancies and the MET jointly manage the area along the Kwando/Linyanti River from the Zambian border, incorporating Mudumu National Park.

The goal of the partnership is to increase wildlife in the Mudumu North Complex and the committee has identified strategies to achieve this, including law enforcement, habitat management, human-wildlife conflict resolution, and translocation of game into the area.

A joint decision was taken to translocate kudu to Mayuni Conservancy south of Kongola while 16 blue wildebeest were moved to Mudumu National Park.

The game was donated by the Environmental Conservancy Group (ECG), which owns Ombengu Game Farm.

ECG believes wildlife is a valuable resource that can provide economic opportunities, especially through tourism and hunting, to communal-area conservancies.

ECG views the translocation as a contribution to Namibia's development through re-stocking of conservancies and areas where wildlife reserves are low, but good management practices are in place.

The donation of game is an example of how commercial farmers can assist communal farmers, particularly conservancies, by strengthening links and partnerships between farmers.

This is in line with targets under the Wildlife and Tourism section of Vision 2030.

The initiative was facilitated by the World Wildlife Fund's Living in a Finite Environment (WWF-LIFE) Programme, in partnership with the MET, Environmental Conservancies Group, and the involved communal conservancies.

Since 1999, about 3 500 head of game have been translocated to nine communal-area conservancies through initiatives jointly supported by the MET and the WWF-LIFE Programme.

Game translocations have accelerated the recovery of wildlife populations in conservancies that have high potential habitat, but suffer from low densities of game.

The secretary of the Ehirovipuka Conservancy Committee, Bernhardt Tjindjumba, welcomed the donation of eland, saying that all members appreciated the value of the donation.

"We want to live with these animals and eland are of special significance to us as the animal is represented on our conservancy logo," he explained.

Tjindjumba said that about 40 community members gathered to witness the release of the animals.

Plans are underway to take groups of schoolchildren from the area to see the animals in their natural environment.

"We hope that increased numbers of eland will act as a drawcard for tourism and create spin-off industries for our conservancy," he stated.

He said it was encouraging that local conservancy residents had already begun to report sightings of the animals to conservancy game guards, who monitor wildlife movements using Event Books.

The capture was undertaken in close collaboration with MET regional offices and staff from Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC).

From the 42 gazetted conservancies, //Huab, Ehirovipuka and Mayuni were chosen as recipients of game based on factors such as good conservation efforts, reduced poaching, suitable habitats and historic occurrence of the donated wildlife species.

//Huab Conservancy, gazetted in 2003, surrounds the catchment area of the ephemeral Huab River, which forms a linear oasis for desert-dwelling elephant, leopard, mountain zebra, kudu, duiker, warthog, steenbok, klipspringer, ostrich, oryx and springbok.

Gazetted in 2001, Ehirovipuka Conservancy has small numbers of elephant, leopard, lion, cheetah, eland, kudu, duiker, warthog, steenbok, oryx, giraffe, springbok, ostrich and mountain zebra.

Situated adjacent to Etosha National Park, incidents of human-wildlife conflict are high, but good conservation efforts have helped reduce poaching.

Lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, steenbok, kudu, duiker, lechwe, reedbuck, crocodile, hippopotamus and bushbuck inhabit Mayuni Conservancy, which was gazetted in 1999.

* Linda Baker is a freelance environmental publicist

Of all the plains game at Ehi-rovipuka, we saw fewer eland than anything else.

Even so, we saw plenty of eland and chased a small herd for quite a while, alas to no avail.

It's good to see this kind of cooperation.

quote:

Gazetted in 2001, Ehirovipuka Conservancy has small numbers of elephant, leopard, lion, cheetah, eland, kudu, duiker, warthog, steenbok, oryx, giraffe, springbok, ostrich and mountain zebra.

I guess the "small numbers" is not for all species as we saw lots of game and had four leopards on bait at one time -- of course they wouldn't cooperate with me. I did not see warthogs, elephant, cheetah, or lion on the conservancy but I think we saw pretty much everything else on the list (might be confused on one of the dinkalopes), some in great abundance.

I have to agree, though, that more Eland could only be an improvement.

The eland is certainly good news for Ehirovipuka. I believe the quota for eland is limited and hopefully this will help in the future. We cerainly saw some dandy bull eland but not in the numbers of other game. Nonetheless, I hope to be going back soon to hunt eland there.

Charles or mrlexma, maybe y'all know the answer to this question. I know there are red hartebeast on game ranges in northern Namibia and some for the purpose of releasing into "historically freeranging areas" similar to the efforts mentioned in the above article. However, red hartebeast is missing from the relocation efforts. Do either of you know if red hartebeast historically occurred in the Ehirovipuka region?

George

Kathy-Good to see you posting.I have missed you lately and feared you had been put off by all the nastiness that has gone on as of late.

Thanks for your informative contributions.

quote:

Originally posted by Jorge400:
Charles or mrlexma, maybe y'all know the answer to this question. I know there are red hartebeast on game ranges in northern Namibia and some for the purpose of releasing into "historically freeranging areas" similar to the efforts mentioned in the above article. However, red hartebeast is missing from the relocation efforts. Do either of you know if red hartebeast historically occurred in the Ehirovipuka region?

George

I don't know the answer, but we did see three lost Hartebeest on the side of the highway on the way to Kamanjab. Gert thought they were escapees from a fenced ranch.

quote:

Originally posted by Charles_Helm:

quote:

Gazetted in 2001, Ehirovipuka Conservancy has small numbers of elephant, leopard, lion, cheetah, eland, kudu, duiker, warthog, steenbok, oryx, giraffe, springbok, ostrich and mountain zebra.

I guess the "small numbers" is not for all species as we saw lots of game and had four leopards on bait at one time -- of course they wouldn't cooperate with me. I did not see warthogs, elephant, cheetah, or lion on the conservancy but I think we saw pretty much everything else on the list (might be confused on one of the dinkalopes), some in great abundance.

I have to agree, though, that more Eland could only be an improvement.

We also saw no warthogs, though we saw elephants and their sign, as well as lion sign. There was a large number of gemsbok and springbok, and kudu were fairly plentiful. Giraffe and ostrich were there, but like you we saw only a few eland. Moving some in seems like a good idea.

There were free ranging red harteebeast on the ranch I hunted near Kamanjab, and our PH indicated that all the game on his ranch was in its original range. Bob

quote:

Originally posted by DesertRam:

We also saw no warthogs, though we saw elephants and their sign, as well as lion sign. There was a large number of gemsbok and springbok, and kudu were fairly plentiful. Giraffe and ostrich were there, but like you we saw only a few eland. Moving some in seems like a good idea.

We actually saw one warthog. In fact, it was the first game animal I saw on Vaughan's concervancy. From what I understand, this was one lost warthog.

Jorge400--I don't know whether the red hartebeest's natural range ever included Vaughan's conservancy. I have wondered about that myself. You'd have to think so, though, wouldn't you? They seem to be found on game ranches all around there.

As I read this, I could not help constantly wondering how the game would fare in the future. I wish the people involved with the communal conservancies all the luck in the world - for their sake, for the sake of conservation and for increased options for hunting. I hope they manage to find a way in which to put the game to good and sustainable use. Not all places (to be diplomatic) under native control have managed to find this balance.
- mike

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
Jorge400--I don't know whether the red hartebeest's natural range ever included Vaughan's conservancy. I have wondered about that myself. You'd have to think so, though, wouldn't you? They seem to be found on game ranches all around there.

I guess it depends on how water dependend they were. Now that I think about it, I believe I have had this conversation before with either Vaughan or Thorsten. If memory serves, they were native to this area, but only during the rainy season and migrated out during the dry season, as many other game species did.