Wildlife Can’t Keep Up with Hunters’ Demands
Tuesday, 29th of July 2008

By Wezi Tjaronda

WINDHOEK

With the growth of the trophy hunting industry in the past few years, Namibia should see wildlife as an agricultural enterprise that has great potential, the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (Napha) has said.

“We have come to a point where we need more wildlife production to keep demand and supply in balance. There is a great opportunity to go into wildlife production,†said Diethelm Metzger, President of Napha yesterday at a workshop for upcoming farmers on trophy hunting as a lucrative form of land utilisation.

Besides, the looming threats associated with global warming may make Namibia revert to game farming as a substitute to livestock farming, the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said.

Trophy hunting has grown by 12 percent annually in the past 10 years. This is five percent more than the goals set in the country’s blueprint for economic development, Vision 2030.

According to Napha, the industry has the potential to grow more by the development and careful management of additional game and trophy hunting operations on commercial farmland, and through developing untapped markets.

In communal area conservancies, trophy hunting has become the second highest source of income. Ndaitwah said that with the conservancies accounting for 14.7 percent of Namibia’s total land surface, many people would benefit from trophy hunting.

According to statistics, trophy hunting, which has grown to N$316 million in revenue, represented 2.3 percent of the entire GDP in 2005, while small stock and other livestock amounted to N$285 million and N$258 million respectively.

Statistics also indicate that cattle and small stock production have declined by between 60 and 48 percent between 1971 and 2006 because of various reasons, including bush encroachment.

Metzger said people have invested money in the industry because they know it is an investment that brings returns.

Ndaitwah said, when she opened the workshop yesterday, that trophy hunting is a new sector of tourism as traditional hunting was only associated with food security.

While the industry contributes to the national economy, it has become so popular that the number of wildlife on private land had increased threefold.

Apart from trophy hunting being a form of land utilisation, it also creates jobs and is a source of meat for local communities, besides being an export commodity that could be in high demand on foreign markets.

Ndaitwah however challenged Napha to bring in camp assistants and hunting assistance in the mainstream of the hunting profession, for upcoming farmers to be on their own or as equal partners.

“Should that be realised, we can then talk of the balance benefit sharing of our national resources,†she added.

Over the years, the Nappha Education Committee and the Eagle Rock Hunting School have trained 148 formerly disadvantaged Namibians as hunting guides and professional hunters. Presently, there are 377 registered hunting assistants and 76 registered camp attendants.

However, the numbers of professional hunters still remains low because formerly disadvantaged Namibians only account for three percent.

The workshop was organised to introduce trophy hunting to emerging commercial farmers with a focus on the most effective utilisation of land for the direct use of human beings.

The workshop, coordinated by Napha and the Lazarus Ipangelwa Foundation also delved into the legal requirements of setting up a hunting operation, effective game management, the principles of ethical and fair chase hunting, the costs involved in setting up an operation and running a trophy hunting operation.