Row over elephant meat - by Staff Reporter 24 June 2010


WINDHOEK – Residents of Sampule village have written to the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, alleging they are being deprived of a raft of benefits they are entitled to Sobbe Conservancy in their capacity as members.

Sampule, near Kongola, is part of Sobbe, a conservancy they accuse of depriving them of jobs and meat from trophy-hunted elephants, among other wild animals.

The cause of the recent discontent stemmed from the distribution of thousands of kilogrammes of meat from two elephants that were trophy-hunted from the conservancy, but which were only distributed to households in Masida, depriving Sampule residents of the game meat.

Well-placed sources said after the latest meat saga, several meetings were held with environment officials at Katima Mulilo, but no agreement was reached. This prompted Sampule residents to write the letter to Minister Nandi-Ndaitwah.

In the letter dated June 21, 2010, the residents say that despite being bona-fide members of Sobbe, only Masida residents have derived elephant meat from the conservancy at the expense of Sampule residents.

Apparently the Induna of Masida sympathises with Sampule residents and is of the opinion they should benefit from the conservancy, but the sons of the Induna object to the sharing of meat.

In the letter, the community wants the Minister to “terminate” the current hunting concession until the issue of resource sharing and fair job allocation is amicably resolved, so that the conservancy equally benefits them and the people of Masida.

Another bone of contention is that they have been cut out of concession fees, ranging from N$15 000 to N$20 000, the trophy-hunting concessionaire pays to the community annually.

Although some of the villagers at Sampule are registered as members of the conservancy that was established in November 2005, others have not yet been registered. The same applies to some community members at Masida.

One of the ways in which trophy-hunting benefits rural communities is through receipt of meat, while hunters are mostly interested in trophies, such as the horns, skulls, skins, claws and teeth.