Conservation and the Environment in Namibia 2020

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020 INSPIRING R E S P O N S I B L E T R AV E L

N A M I B I A’ S COMMUNAL C O N S E R VA N C I E S

N OW H E R E E L S E O N EARTH SPERRGEBIET ’S ENDEMIC FLORA

SIGNS OF SUCCESS C O M B AT T I N G W I L D L I F E C R I M E

A N U P D AT E N AT I O N A L L E O PA R D S U R V E Y

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA

from the PUBLISHER

2020 “Conservation is not on lockdown”

is published by Venture Media in Windhoek, Namibia www.travelnewsnamibia.com Tel: +264 61 383 450, Hyper City Unit 44, Maxwell street, Southern Industrial PO Box 21593, Windhoek, Namibia PUBLISHING EDITORS Rièth van Schalkwyk & Elzanne McCulloch

The devastating collapse of the tourism industry this year as a result of the pandemic, the cancellation of flights, the closing of lodges, airports and borders one after the other, caused bewilderment, then panic and eventually fear. What will the effect be on all of those who depend on tourism for their livelihoods? What will happen to communities in conservancies who not only receive cash, but food from hunters, wages from the lodges they work for and income from selling their handcrafted wares to visitors?

LAYOUT & DESIGN Liza de Klerk design@venture.com.na CUSTOMER SERVICE Bonn Nortjé bonn@venture.com.na COVER IMAGE Dana Allen PRINTERS John Meinert Printing, Windhoek

2015

and the Environment in Namibia

14

YEARS

When this phrase was coined spontaneously in our office during the first week of lockdown in Namibia, it immediately resonated with the community. Venture Media has been involved with the lives and work of those in the conservation field for many years. More recently we were able to provide assistance in diverse ways through the annual RMB Ride for Rhinos Cycle Tour, which we initiated in 2015.

We never imagined how enlightening it would be to get to know the people who actually trek the miles, those who see to it that the trackers have food and boots, binos and water tanks. Sitting behind a computer in an air-conditioned office it is easy to focus on stats and figures and words, especially when all goes well.

1

As a media company we have always acknowledged how co-dependent tourism and conservation was, because we saw the positive effect of joint ventures on communities and on tourism companies. We have written their stories, taken their photographs and made videos of their work and lives since independence. We have grown and adapted with the tourism sector. We have seen the development and growth. In the poorest rural communities tourism is often the only employer since much of the Namibian tourism story is based on people, the natural environment and wildlife. We love to boast about “the biggest wildlife recovery story ever told”. We are proud to sneak the line “47% of our land is under some form of conservation management” as often as we can into messages we send into the world.

Since March not one tourism dollar has been earned. Thus not one percentage of a dollar could go to conservancies, to conservation projects, to communities.

We have been confronted with the truth in the past when economic events in our source markets and health issues elsewhere on the continent had a direct effect on our tourism figures. We quickly found solutions and although times were tough we got through and slowly won back our market share and the trust of our tourism partners.

But this time no amount of dedication and hard work can change our fate. We have no influence on what happens in the rest of the world where our visitors come from. There are too many variables out of our control.

The editorial content of Conservation and the Environment in Namibia is contributed by the Namibia Chamber of Environment, freelance journalists, employees of the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) and NGOs. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies held by MEFT or the publisher. No part of the magazine may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.

What we do have is a beautiful land. Rugged, natural, soulful and liberating.

Conservation is not on lockdown and the natural world does not need deadlines and budgets and strategies to recover and thrive. We have dedicated people on the ground to walk the miles in all directions all over the country. This edition is again testimony to the success of all their work, done mostly behind the scenes. Venture Media will continue to share the Namibian tourism and conservation story with the rest of the world. There are no borders or quarantines for what we do. With partners like the members in the Namibia Chamber of Environment we will never run out of stories to tell and good news to share.

Rièth van Schalkwyk

ABOUT VENTURE Media Venture Media is the pioneer of Namibia tourism promotion. We are the leader in spreading the tourism word around the world. We distribute accurate, credible, up to date and regular tourism-related information on paper, in social media, on the World Wide Web, and on mobile apps.

We have reached hundreds of thousands of people over almost three decades. Be part of our community and let’s do it together.

Namibia TRAVEL NEWS

H O L I D A Y

&

T R A V E L

BIRDING:

SNAKE EAGLES

Namibia

WE'RE A SOCIAL BUNCH

Coast GINNING AT THE

ON A STUDENT BUDGET

THE TINY TOWN OF UIS

Iona FEATURED:

VOLUME 28 No 2 AUTUMN 2020

N$45.00 incl. VAT R45.00 incl. VAT

Skeleton Coast TRANSFRONTIER PARK

www.travelnewsnamibia.com

2020/21 THE OFFICIAL NAMIBIAN TOURISM DIRECTORY

w w w. n a m i b i a h o l i d a ya n d t r a ve l . c o m

TRAVEL NEWS NAMIBIA is a high-quality glossy Namibia travel and lifestyle magazine tasked with promoting Namibia to the world. Travel News Namibia is published quarterly in English and annually in German.

The NAMIBIA HOLIDAY & TRAVEL is an annual tourism directory with over 200 pages of updated information on the country, regions, people, activities and wildlife.

The NAMIBIA TRADE NETWORK is an annual trade and industry portfolio and is the pillar of information dissemination to the private-sector and the promotion of foreign investment.

R

T

H

O

L

I

D

A

Y

A

&

1

/2

20

IAN MIB R Y NA C TO IAL E IC IR FF M D E O IS TH U R TO

20

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

1

V

E

L

ABOUT Namibian chamber of environment The Namibian Chamber of Environment (NCE) is a membership-based and -driven umbrella organisation established as a voluntary association under Namibian Common Law to support and promote the interests of the environmental NGO sector and its work. The Members constitute the Council – the highest decision-making organ of the NCE. The Council elects Members to the Executive Committee at an AGM to oversee and give strategic direction to the work of the NCE Secretariat. The Secretariat (staff) of the NCE comprise a CEO, Director and Office Manager. Only the Office Manager is employed full-time. The NCE currently has 52 Full Members - Namibian registered NGOs whose main business, or a significant portion of whose business, comprises involvement in and promotion of environmental matters in Namibia; and 13 Associate Members – individuals running environmental programmes and non-Namibian NGOs likewise involved in local to national environmental matters in Namibia.

A list of Members follows. For more information on each Member, their contact details and website link, please go to the NCE website at www.n-c-e.org/members.

THE NCE HAS FOUR ASPIRATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND FIVE OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES AS FOLLOWS: Aspirational Objectives • Conserve the natural environment • Protect indigenous biodiversity & endangered species • Promote best environmental practices • Support efforts to prevent & reduce environmental degradation & pollution

Operational Objectives • Represent the environmental interests of Members • Act as a consultative forum for Members • Engage with policy- & lawmakers to improve environmental policy & its implementation • Build environmental skills in young Namibians • Support & advise Members on environmental matters & facilitate access to environmental information

The NCE espouses the following key values: • • • • • •

2

To uphold the fundamental rights and freedoms entrenched in Namibia’s Constitution and laws, including the principles of sustainable use, protection of biodiversity and inter-generational equity; To promote compliance with, uphold and share, environmental best practice, recognising that the Earth’s resources are finite, and that human health and wellbeing are inextricably linked to environmental health.

To recognise that environmental best practice is best promoted by implementing the following seven principles: sustainability, polluter pays, precautionary, equity, effectiveness & efficiency, human rights and participation; To develop skills, expertise and passion in young Namibians on environmental issues; To ensure political and ideological neutrality, be evidence-based and counter fake information; and To promote inclusiveness and to fiercely and fearlessly reject any form of discrimination.

Elzanne McCulloch

TO EFFECTIVELY IMPLEMENT THESE OBJECTIVES AND VALUES, THE NCE HAS DEVELOPED EIGHT STRATEGIC PROGRAMME AREAS: 1. Support to Members

The NCE provides office facilities, boardroom, internet and safe parking for its out-of-town Members when in Windhoek; in partnership with Westair, a Cessna 182 for conservation purposes such as aerial surveys, radio-tracking and anti-poaching work; registration and research permit facilitation; and any other support requested by Members.

2. National facilitation

The NCE organises symposia and workshops on topical and priority issues; strategic Best Practice Guides at sector level, the first on mining, the second (in preparation) on hunting; review of policy and legislation on and/or impacting Namibia’s environment; and representing the sector and Members on national bodies.

3. Environmental information

The NCE hosts and supports the development of Namibia’s Environmental Information Service (EIS at www.the-eis.com) in partnership with Paratus Telecom, a one-stop-shop for all environmental information on Namibia. The EIS comprises an e-library with over 18,000 reports, publications, maps, data sets, theses, etc., which are searchable and down-loadable. It provides an Atlasing platform for citizen science data collection that currently covers mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, invasive alien plants and archaeology, and records are conveniently entered via a free cellphone App. The NCE has also established a free, open access scientific e-journal – Namibian Journal of Environment – now in its fourth year (www.nje.org.na). The NCE and Venture Media recently launched a new environmental website “Conservation Namibia” (www. conservationnamibia.com) to tell Namibia’s conservation stories via blogs, factsheets, video and articles from this magazine. The NCE informs the public on topical environmental issues on its website (www.n-c-e.org) and Facebook page.

4. Environmental advocacy

The NCE addresses national threats to Namibia’s environment and natural resources by first attempting to work constructively with the relevant government or other entity but, if necessary, through public exposure. The NCE has addressed the issue of Chinese incentivised poaching and illegal trade in specially protected wildlife, the over-fishing of pilchards in Namibian waters, illegal and unsustainable timber harvesting and export, and the need to reduce and eliminate single-use plastic from Namibia’s environment. It has also initiated a highly successful Pangolin reward scheme in partnership with MEFT, some NCE Members and communities. The scheme rewards people for providing information on pangolin trafficking leading to arrests – more than 90 criminal cases were opened in the first two years and 160 people were arrested.

5. Environmental policy research

When we talk about the “environment” we mean the interrelationship of ecological, social and economic aspects – essentially sustainable development. This is appropriate for a country with an economy reliant mainly on natural resource-based primary production where ecological and socio-economic issues are two sides of the same coin. However, this conceptual approach is rarely understood by people from western industrialised countries who think of environment as being just the green environment. To get around this problem, the NCE has established a socio-economic / livelihoods component that works seamlessly with the environmental component. The current focus of the new component is on the urban environment where about 50% of Namibians now live, projected to rise to 70% by 2030. The priority areas are access to affordable urban land for housing, appropriate sanitation, energy and research on the economics of poverty and how best to escape this trap.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

3

6. Young Namibian training and mentorship

Over the past three academic years the NCE in partnership with Woodtiger Fund has provided 65 bursaries in the broad environmental field (including subjects such as environmental economics, environmental law, environmental engineering) and 25 internships, mainly for NCE bursaryholders, that involves close mentoring by experienced environmental professionals. The aim is to build the capacity and confidence of young Namibians to become the environmental leaders of tomorrow.

7. Fund raising

Core funding for the NCE is currently provided by B2Gold. This means that all additional funding received is invested directly into environmental projects and programmes – there are no overhead costs. The NCE focusses on corporate support and avoids targeting funding sources that may compete with its Members. The corporate sector assists with fund raising by approaching their clients, partners and networks. Our main sponsors are shown on the back cover.

8. Grants making

Funds raised by the NCE are used strategically to support priority environmental projects and programmes in Namibia. Emphasis is placed on legacy initiatives that have tangible outcomes. These are often based on national policy and bring together government and NGO partners, communities and the private sector, and frequently lead to investments by larger bilateral or multilateral funding organisations. An on-line grant application process allows NCE Members to apply for funding. To date more than 40 grants have been awarded to projects and programmes, 80% of which are to NCE Members. Some of these projects are showcased in this magazine.

MEMBERS FULL MEMBERS A. Speiser Environmental Consultants cc African Conservation Services cc Africat Foundation Agra Provision (Agra Ltd) Ashby Associates cc Biodiversity Research Centre, NUST (BRC-NUST) Botanical Society of Namibia Brown Hyena Research Project Trust Fund Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) Desert Lion Conservation Trust Development Workshop Namibia (DW-N) Earthlife Namibia Eco Awards Namibia Eco-logic Environmental Management Consultancy cc EduVentures Environmental Assessment Professionals Association of Namibia (EAPAN) Environmental Compliance Consulting EnviroScience Giraffe Conservation Foundation Gobabeb Research & Training Centre Greenspace Integrated Rural Development & Nature Conservation (IRDNC) JARO Consultancy LMEnvironmental Consultants N/a’an ku sê Foundation Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) Namibia Biomass Industry Group Namibia Bird Club Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) Namibia Scientific Society Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) Namibian Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS) Namibian Hydrogeological Association NamibRand Nature Reserve

4

Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia (NNDFN) Oana Namibia Omba Arts Trust Ongava Game Reserve/ Research Centre Otjikoto Trust Progress Namibia TAS cc Research & Information Services of Namibia (RAISON) Rare & Endangered Species Trust (REST) Rooikat Trust Save The Rhino Trust (SRT) Scientific Society Swakopmund Seeis Conservancy SLR Environmental Consulting Southern African Institute of Environmental Assessment (SAIEA) SunCycles Namibia Sustainable Solutions Trust Tourism Supporting Conservation Trust (TOSCO) Venture Media

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Bell, Maria A Bockmühl, Frank Desert Elephant Conservation Irish, Dr John Kwando Carnivore Programme Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research Lukubwe, Dr Michael S Mountain Zebra Programme Namibia Animal Rehabilitation, Research & Education Centre (NARREC) Seabirds & Marine Ecosystems Programme Sea Search Research and Conservation (Namibia Dolphin Project) Strohback, Dr Ben Wild Bird Rescue

Elzanne McCulloch

Foreword The year 2020 will always be remembered for the global coronavirus pandemic and its socio-economic impact. Yet the 2020 edition of Conservation & Environment is deceptively (perhaps refreshingly) coronavirus-free. Most of the articles were written before the outbreak, or before anyone realised the severity of its impact on our world or how quickly the virus would spread.

During the short time between writing and publishing, our socioeconomic system has been thrown into disarray. Yet nature has carried on without batting an eyelid. The state of the natural world is nonetheless closely linked with human economics, particularly when conservation funding relies on income from international tourism. Air travel restrictions, closed borders and domestic lockdown measures spell tough times for the tourism sector, which in turn squeezes the conservation purse.

The Namibian Chamber of Environment (NCE) and its members have faced these challenges by looking at innovative ways to fund conservation during these tough times. The NCE and its members have worked closely with B2Gold on an amazing programme to turn 1,000 ounces of gold from the Namibian Otjikoto mine into 1,000 limited edition Rhino Gold Bars to generate income to support communitybased rhino conservation in the Kunene and northern Erongo regions.

The first disbursement of about N$3.5 million has already been made, to support all the rhino rangers and guards in the conservancies with rhinos for the next 12 months. This contribution is part of a much larger drive led by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) and supported by several NCE members to buffer conservation from the current and on-going economic shocks. The NCE has also made a number of grants to support the work of those of its members most severely impacted by the loss of income related to tourism.

While funding strategies may change due to coronavirus, our members’ commitment to conservation remains the same. Consequently, the commendable efforts presented in this edition will either carry on – in a modified form, if necessary – or pick up again when the world returns to its new normal. The 2021 edition of Conservation & Environment will no doubt showcase how Namibian conservation has adapted to these conditions. For now, you can enjoy reading about conservation in the ‘good old days’, as it were.

While international tourism is an important source of revenue for conservation, its positive contribution must outweigh potential negative impacts. Three of our articles look to improve tourism’s direct contributions to conservation by 1) marketing communal conservancies as sustainable destinations, 2) creating a direct link between mobile tour operators and community projects, and 3) in partnership with tourism operators adding extra value to species that are under threat.

Two articles focus on reducing possible negative impacts – planting trees to reduce tourism’s carbon footprint, and introducing a new way to measure hunting trophies to reduce impacts on hunted species.

Conservation relies on scientific research to guide our actions.

This research stems from curiosity about how nature works and questions about how to improve our relationship with nature. Dr John Mendelsohn awakens our curiosity by asking several questions about the natural world that can drive Namibian research forward.

Furthermore, the spotted hyaena, giraffe and leopard research efforts by various institutions and individuals provide insights into how we should manage those species. Dr Antje Burke gives us a peek at the special plants and fragile ecosystems that she has studied for many years in the Tsau //Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park and shares her passion for this special place, which is soon to be opened for guided tourism.

While research is critical, we need to ensure that the general public understands the importance of their environment and what they can do to help conserve it. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) introduces children from in and around Windhoek to the wonders of the natural world found in the Daan Viljoen Game Reserve. Meanwhile in Swakopmund, the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) has opened a brand new centre to educate children and the general public on how they can adopt more sustainable lifestyles.

Tourism, research and education all have a role to play in conservation, yet some of the most crucial work on the ‘frontlines’ involves reducing the threats posed by wildlife crime and human-wildlife conflict. Namibia has tackled the challenge of wildlife crime by employing a highly collaborative, inclusive approach that is starting to show real signs of success. Two articles look at how the approach works and what we have learnt along the way. In terms of human-wildlife conflict, N/a’an ku sê share some of their work on reducing livestock losses to spotted hyaenas and responding to requests for assistance from farmers with carnivores on their land.

This edition is dedicated to the memory of Garth Owen-Smith, one of the pioneers of community-based conservation in Namibia. Brian Jones and Chris Weaver were privileged to work closely with Garth during the early days when they witnessed his gentle yet persistent approach. Their article gives a small taste of what it was like to work alongside Garth when community-based conservation was still a foreign concept. While Garth will be sorely missed, his legacy lives on through our collective efforts to conserve the country he loved.

Yours in conservation,

Chris Brown and Gail Thomson

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

5

Elzanne McCulloch

contents About NCE Foreword

2 5

TRIBUTE TO GARTH

8

COUNTING CATS – AN UPDATED NATIONAL LEOPARD SURVEY FOR NAMIBIA 20

Leaving more than just dust

10

Working with Farmers to conserve Namibian carnivores

26

Paving the way for Carbon-Neutral Travel with trees

12

Helping Livestock Farmers Coexist with Spotted Hyaenas

30

Inspiring responsible travel to Namibia’s communal conservancies

14

Hyaena Research and Conservation Efforts

32

Wildlife Credits - Innovation in Conservation by and for Namibians

16

Namibia at the Forefront of Giraffe Conservation

34

6

“ Conservation is humanity caring for the future.

- Nancy Newhall

ON THE EDGE OF NAMIBIAN ENQUIRY

38

Environmental Education in Action

42

New Education for Sustainable Development Centre

46

Unlocking the Treasure Box

50

Nowhere Else on Earth - The Sperrgebiet’s endemic flora

54

SIGNS OF SUCCESS - AN OVERVIEW OF THE COMBATTING WILDLIFE CRIME PROJECT 58 What is being done to fight Wildlife Crime in Namibia?

62

Rewarding Sustainable Conservation Hunting in Namibia

66

NCE Supports Fast Facts on Namibia

68 69

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

7

Chris Botha

Tribute to Garth

By Brian Jones and Chris Weaver

G

Images by IRDNC

arth Owen-Smith, well-known Namibian conservationist and pioneer of community-based conservation, passed away peacefully in the presence of his long-time partner, Dr Margaret (Margie) Jacobsohn, on 11 April at the age of 76 years. He had suffered two extended bouts with cancer. Garth is survived by Margie, his sons Tuareg and Kyle, and his grandson Garth, who unfortunately could not be with him in Namibia due to current travel restrictions.

Garth’s contribution to conservation in Namibia is immense, and went beyond the preservation of wildlife. He has been instrumental in changing the way we think about conservation, emphasising the role of local communities and traditional leaders in managing our wildlife sustainably. Garth’s early work with local communities in the Kaokoveld in the mid-1980s demonstrated that involving local farmers in conserving wildlife was the key to maintaining wildlife on Namibia’s communal land.

Leading conservationists acknowledge that the community-game guard system introduced by Garth and local headmen led to a decline in widespread commercial poaching of rhino and elephant. This approach laid the foundation for the conservancies that have since been established in communal areas across Namibia.

8

In the late 1980s, Garth and Margie founded the non-governmental organisation Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), which today is Namibia’s leading community conservation NGO. Working in the Kunene and Zambezi regions, IRDNC now supports close to 50 of Namibia’s 86 registered communal conservancies. Some of the conservancies in north-western Namibia currently host the last freeroaming populations of black rhino in the world. Garth’s conservation contributions have been internationally recognised. Among the numerous distinguished awards bestowed upon Garth and Margie are the 1993 Goldman Grassroots Environmental Prize for Africa, the 1994 United Nations Global Environmental 500 Award, the 1997 Netherlands Knights of the Order of the Golden Ark Award, and the 2015 Prince William Lifetime Conservation Award from the Tusk Foundation.

Garth was an incredibly principled person who made great personal sacrifices for his lifelong drive to place communities at the forefront of conservation. As he noted in his autobiography, An Arid Eden, his sons Kyle and Tuareg “paid the price for their father’s obsession” with conservation in the Kaokoveld. His pioneering vision and legacy will continue to guide community conservation in Namibia and the world. It was an honour for us to work with Garth and to consider him a friend.

Garth’s approach to working with local communities was based on listening to what they had to say, and understanding their perspectives

on conservation. Brian Jones remembers working with Garth OwenSmith and Margie in the then Caprivi Game Reserve, now Bwabwata National Park, just after Namibia gained independence in 1990: “I was a young conservation official and we were conducting a survey to see what was happening after the withdrawal of the South African Defence Force (SADF). In one village the Khwe San residents told us we must take away all the animals and birds – they didn’t want them there. I thought that we had better move on to the next village where we might have more success, but Garth stayed seated, pulled out his pipe, tamped it down and tried to light it a few times – buying time to think about this problem. After gentle probing from Garth the villagers acknowledged they had always lived with wild animals and that they had been part of their way of living. They wanted to keep wildlife but were against the way the SADF had been imposing conservation on them, such as shooting donkeys and horses and firing over the heads of women collecting veld food near an army base. After that we had a great discussion about how we could work together to conserve wildlife. This was to be a recurring theme in all my work with local communities in Namibia – they want wildlife for its intrinsic value for cultural and spiritual reasons, but had been ignored or branded as the enemy in the way conservation was being implemented by the ‘white outsiders’ in those days”.

of the Salambala Conservancy. This decision turned out to be a stroke of genius. In 1999, one year after registration of the Salambala Conservancy, zebras were seen migrating from Botswana to Namibia for the first time since the 1970s. Today, more than 6,000 zebra spend six months a year on the Salambala floodplains as part of what is now recognised as the longest terrestrial mammal migration in Africa. Chief Moraliswani’s vision of returning wildlife to Salambala was a critical part of this amazing success story.”

Our recollections of Garth’s work illustrate his approach to conservation, which proved successful in two extremely different parts of Namibia, both environmentally and culturally. Garth firmly believed that the people who lived with the wildlife would be its best custodians, which was a truly revolutionary idea at the time. A measure of the extent to which Garth was honoured and respected in the Kaokoveld is the insistence by local people that he should be buried there with a traditional ceremony which took place at Wereldsend on 6th May 2020. The Namibian conservation community suffered a great loss, but we are determined to keep Garth’s legacy alive by working together to keep our communal conservancies strong and effective, in the wake of the current global economic crisis and into the future.

Chris Weaver was new to Namibia in 1993 when he travelled to the eastern floodplains of Caprivi (now the Zambezi Region) with Garth to assess the area’s remnant wildlife. He recalls, “We spent evenings camping with the community game guards in what was once a wildlife hotspot, yet we saw very little wildlife during our trip. Shortly afterwards, Garth and I were summoned to the Bukalo Khuta (council) to meet with the Honourable Chief Moraliswani of the Basubia tribe, who shared his vision of wildlife returning to the sacred Salambala Forest. Once the royal hunting grounds of the Basubia people, the wildlife in this area had been decimated during Namibia’s freedom struggle and the Chief was concerned that the youth among his people would grow up not seeing or valuing wildlife.

In the early 1980s the Chief had asked the Nature Conservation officials to create a national park around Salambala, but the request was turned down. Shortly after independence the Chief applied to the new Directorate of Forestry to proclaim Salambala as a State Forest, but the request was similarly declined.

“Chief Moraliswani had thus called us to explain the conservancy concept and how the Basubia people might go about establishing a conservancy. After we explained the process, the Honourable Chief assigned one of his senior Khuta members to appoint a provisional conservancy committee. Two weeks later we received a list of nominated committee members. The local community game guards warned us that the senior Khuta member had appointed a weak and self-serving committee.

“Garth then set up another meeting with Chief Moraliswani to discuss how we might strengthen the committee. However, before we could even air our concerns, Chief Moraliswani informed us that he found the nominated committee to be unacceptable and that he would personally appoint the committee. Ten days later we received the new list, which was greeted with enthusiasm by the game guards.

Little did we know that the Chief had summoned the area’s most notorious poachers to the Khuta and informed them they were now the guardians of Salambala’s wildlife and responsible for the creation

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

9

LEAVING MORE THAN JUST DUST How tour operators are contributing to conservation in the Kunene Region

By Tourism Supporting Conservation (TOSCO) Many visitors to Namibia will be well satisfied with the landscapes and diverse wildlife they encounter in national parks like Etosha, Bwabwata, Mudumu or the Namib-Naukluft, among others.

Yet some prefer to go off the beaten track and explore the vast north-western Kunene Region which hosts free-roaming rhinos, lions and elephants in dramatic desert landscapes. For many intrepid explorers this is Namibia at its best.

U

Images by TOSCO

nlike the national parks, the Kunene Region is not a fenced game reserve that excludes people, but an area where people manage to live with the wildlife that moves through their land. Because there is no fence, there is no entrance gate to the Kunene Region as a whole or to any of the smaller management areas, known as communal conservancies, within it. While visitors pay to enter national parks like Etosha at one of the gates, visitors to Kunene’s communal conservancies do not pay to enter. This provides a sense of freedom and wilderness that is an important attraction for people who like the road less travelled, yet it creates a challenge for financing conservation efforts in the region.

10

The people living in the Kunene Region bear costs associated with the wildlife that visitors come to see, particularly lions which cause livestock losses and elephants which damage critical water installations. They also play a vital role in protecting the important black rhino population in the region by informing the anti-poaching teams and the police of suspicious activities, which stops poachers in their tracks. If more visitors to the region understood these local efforts to coexist with and protect valuable desert-adapted animals, they would no doubt be happy to contribute to supporting these grassroots conservationists.

Some conservancies benefit from the visitors they attract by offering accommodation in partnership with private safari companies or setting

up their own lodges and campsites. Not all of the visitors, however, stay in the conservancies where they see the most wildlife, as the unfenced conservancy boundaries are not obvious and tour groups may move through several conservancies in a short period of time.

While the private companies which build lodges in conservancies pay for the use of the land and associated wildlife viewing opportunities, mobile tour operators who take their guests on extended camping trips do not have to pay for traversing the conservancies’ land.

Furthermore, not all of the villages in each conservancy are equally affected by human-wildlife conflict; those that are closest to wildlife hotspots like the dry riverbeds usually suffer the most.

The newly opened De Riet Information and Craft centre is a place where visitors to the Kunene Region can meet people from the Riemvasmaak community and purchase local crafts.

Tourism Supporting Conservation (TOSCO) wants to change this situation by bringing conservation-minded mobile safari operators together to contribute meaningfully to the people who conserve the wildlife their guests come to see. TOSCO is on a mission to ensure that visitors to these remote, spectacular places leave more than just their dust behind for those who call the Kunene Region home. We recognise that living with dangerous animals like lions and elephants is difficult, and many local farmers see them as a threat to their lives and livelihoods. Yet we also know that people come from far and wide to see these same animals. TOSCO’s vision is to connect international tourism with local livelihoods, thus creating a win-win situation for tour operators and people in the region.

We seek to achieve this lofty goal through our voluntary Conservation Contribution programme that collects money from mobile tour operators for use in sustainable development projects on the ground.

The programme focuses on the wildlife-rich dry riverbeds that attract most of these operators who know that these locations provide the best opportunities for the elephant and lion sightings that their guests are most eager to experience. The TOSCO payment system, established in 2016, is simple and affordable: tour operators that sign up to the programme pay N$100 per day for every guest they bring into these wildlife areas, just as they would in a National Park. The money collected is then invested in various projects that support the people who are most severely affected by human-wildlife conflict.

TOSCO keeps their members up to date on these projects to ensure complete transparency about how their funds are used.

The Huab River valley is a key wildlife hotspot that attracts hundreds of guests each year, especially because of its close proximity to Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Visitors who want to view the rock engravings at Twyfelfontein and get a chance to see desert-adapted elephants can join a guided tour into the Huab River valley. Those who use guides who support TOSCO’s Conservation Contribution programme will leave with more than just photographs and memories – they leave knowing that they have contributed to improving local livelihoods.

The TOSCO project in this area focuses on De Riet, a village on the bank of the Huab River that is visited by elephants almost daily. We used the Conservation Contribution funds to renovate a disused bungalow in the village to create an Information and Craft Centre for tourists. This is an opportunity for cross-cultural learning, as international guests can meet the Riemvasmaak people who experience elephants and other wildlife in a totally different way to safari-goers. Visitors can buy locally made crafts as a memento of their encounter with the people of De Riet and the elephants of the Huab River in the Torra Conservancy. TOSCO plans to renovate more bungalows in the near future as infrastructure for a community campsite that will provide much-needed jobs to people living in De Riet.

Community game guards received new uniforms and boots from the TOSCO Conservation Contribution programme

The Hoanib and Hoarusib rivers also attract wildlife and tourism that provides an opportunity for investing in conservation. These rivers are located within the Sesfontein and Puros conservancies respectively, which employ community game guards to monitor wildlife numbers and assist with human-wildlife conflict. TOSCO used the Conservation Contributions from tour operators visiting these riverbeds to sponsor equipment for the game guards to boost their morale and help them carry out their work in their respective conservancies.

The stunning landscapes and unique desert-adapted species in the Kunene Region are a major drawcard for tourism and an opportunity for growing the local economy. Our efforts are part of the bigger picture of communal conservation in Namibia, which is supported by numerous stakeholders working together for the benefit of wildlife and people in rural areas throughout the country. For our part, TOSCO recognises the role that mobile safari operators can play in creating more benefits from wildlife for local people – the ultimate custodians of this unique tourism destination.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

11

Paving the way for

carbon-neutral travel with trees

By Tourism Supporting Conservation (TOSCO)

Tourism based on wildlife is a key industry for Namibia and other African countries, as it contributes both to the economy and nature conservation. However, travel for tourism purposes is responsible for around 8% of global emissions, which contribute to global warming and climate change. So while we need tourism to create jobs and sustain wildlife areas, we must also try to reduce the impact of travel on the environment.

T

ourism in Namibia in particular, requires driving long distances to take in all of the varied landscapes and natural attractions. Many tourism companies and self-drive tourists use fuel-heavy 4x4 vehicles to access remote parts of the country. The long road trips through desert landscapes and 4x4 driving challenges encountered on rocky mountain passes or in the deep sand of the Kalahari are key attractions for adventurous visitors to Namibia. Electric 4x4 vehicles may be a possibility in future, but what can we do right now to reduce carbon emissions from the tourism industry?

The good news is that trees naturally use carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow.

Planting trees is thus a simple way to offset our carbon emissions and help lessen the impact of the tourism industry on global warming. Besides producing oxygen, trees provide shade, food and shelter for a host of different animals and also humans. Fruit trees are especially valuable where people cannot afford a high quality diet, while

12

indigenous trees can help restore the environment around urban areas without using too much water.

Tourism Supporting Conservation (TOSCO) realised that tourism could reduce its carbon emissions simply by planting trees. We therefore partnered with the Eloolo Permaculture Initiative to develop the Clean Travel programme. Clean Travel is Namibia’s first carbon offset programme that aims to reduce the environmental impacts of travel while simultaneously providing poor urban communities and schools with gardens and trees that can improve their lives.

Using money generated through TOSCO’s Clean Travel programme, Eloolo plants indigenous and fruit trees in communities and at schools that will look after them and have the long-term benefit. All of the fruit trees are planted as part of a permaculture food production system that uses minimal water and maximises fruit production, which can be used for own consumption or can be sold in future. The school children involved with the Clean Travel planting and nursery sites also learn about the importance of growing trees and reducing their own environmental impacts.

planted. Eloolo uses income from their trees to empower community members, many of whom are women, from the communities to care for the trees and maintain the community nurseries and gardens.

Eloolo invites all of their supporters to participate in tree-planting events, which is a great way to meet the partner communities who will look after the trees in future. Clean Travel members receive a certificate that states how many trees were planted on their behalf each year. This is especially attractive for tour operators who can show their current or prospective guests that they care for the environment and Namibian communities.

With this and other projects, TOSCO aims to develop a strong community of environmentally responsible tour operators who want to contribute meaningfully to sustainable development and nature conservation in Namibia. All responsible tour operators or individual travellers can join the Clean Travel project by contacting the TOSCO team to find out more. We especially wish to thank EcoSafaris and Matiti Safaris who have been the top contributors to the Clean Travel programme thus far. Our Clean Travel team agrees with the African proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the secondbest time is now.”

In 2019, Eloolo planted 135 trees with the income generated from the Clean Travel programme during 2018. Based on our current and expected membership growth, we aim to plant 1,000 trees per year on existing and new sites over the next three years. Each new site is carefully chosen to ensure that the trees will be cared for properly and the host communities will receive the maximum benefit from the programme.

TOSCO and Eloolo welcome participating tourism operators and individual contributors to visit us at the nurseries and community gardens to see the results of their contributions first-hand. For tour operators, adding such a visit to their safari schedule will enrich their clients’ experience of Namibia by introducing them to community members and school children who are making a difference. The guests will learn more about the project, Namibian trees, and ways to reduce their carbon footprint while on holiday and once they return home.

Members of the Clean Travel programme pay N$ 300 per tree

Current tree planting sites: • • • • • •

Môreson Special School: planting and educational site, future nursery site.

Dagbreek School: nursery and educational site.

Farm Okukuna / Goreangab: community nursery and planting site.

Project Hope / Havana, Katutura: planting and sponsored site.

Augustineum Secondary School / Katutura: planting and educational site.

Waldorf School / Avis: Planting site and educational site

Contact Eloolo at info@eloolopermaculture.org or TOSCO at cleantravel@tosco.org

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

13

Conservationtourism.com.na Inspiring responsible travel to Namibia’s communal conservancies

By Siphiwe Lutibezi and Ginger Mauney Tourism, conservation and community development are inextricably linked and mutually supportive in Namibia’s rural areas. They provide training, employment and motivation to continue to protect wildlife and wild places, and they generate a win-win situation for people, wildlife and Namibia’s economy.

C

ommunity conservation areas, known as conservancies, establish solid foundations for natural resource management in combination with sustainable development and livelihood diversification. By proactively managing natural resources, conservancies have created an attractive investment environment for private tourism operations to enter joint ventures with these communities to introduce tourists to their wildlife and natural landscapes. Tourism has thus significantly added to the conservation success and longterm sustainability of Namibia’s Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme.

The first conservancy joint venture lodge was established in 1996.

Today there are 62 joint venture lodges in 33 conservancies. At the end of 2018 a total of 1,174 people were employed in conservancy joint venture lodges and the conservancy programme has generated an income of N$93,771,228 directly from joint venture lodges, of which N$29.9 million were invested in conservation and rural development.

The economic impact of joint venture tourism and the value it adds to keeping wildlife on the land cannot be underestimated, particularly in rural areas where there is little opportunity for economic growth.

However, joint venture tourism cannot be successful without tourists,

14

who need to know what type of experiences conservancy tourism offers and how choosing to stay at one of these lodges has a positive impact on conservation and sustainable development. To get this message across to potential visitors, the conservancy tourism sector must become more active in the global marketplace – the Internet.

Over half of the world’s population were Internet users in 2018, and 73% of travellers used online sources when deciding on their destination. To reach these travellers, the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) updated the content, design and interactivity of an award-winning website – see www.conservationtourism.com.na.

Following the site’s redesign it is now easily accessible via cell phones and tablets, which is an important change given that travellers are increasingly using mobile devices to search for their accommodation.

Travel-related searches using mobile devices in 2018/19 accounted for 47% of all searches in Europe, 40% in Asia, 34% in Latin America, and 38% in the Middle East and Africa.

Another important travel statistic for Namibia is that 55% of travellers think that the best thing about travel is getting out of their comfort zone. The communal conservancy tourism website showcases the adventurous aspect of this kind of tourism, where visitors can take the road less travelled, support conservation while on the holiday of a lifetime and find space to contemplate our place on this spectacular, fragile planet. In particular, people visiting conservancies will be introduced to different cultures and gain fresh insight into the natural world, which will give them a deeper experience than the average safari.

The new website includes several new sections. Where to Go explores regional options in the northwest, west, central, south, east, north and northeast of Namibia. The What to Do section provides information on everything from fishing to hiking, photography to celebrations and much more. While the Plan Your Trip section encourages visitors to explore the “hidden gems” in conservancies and to consider new themes for their trips, whether it be searching for elephants roaming freely in the conservancies or connecting with rural people by exploring various cultures and rich traditions expressed through arts and handmade crafts, stories about rock paintings, and traditional dances.

The site also presents the history of the conservancy movement, tips for responsible travel and a series of short videos called “voices in conservation” where conservancy members explain the importance of conservation in their lives and to their communities. These videos are featured alongside other destinations and conservation videos, while the new blog section is for continual updates and adding new stories over time.

While the conservancy tourism website is not a booking site, it adds value for the online visitor by describing the conservancies’ relationships with their joint venture partners. The site is a “one-stop” information hub that provides information on all of the conservancybased lodge offerings with links to their respective websites where visitors can book their holidays.

The conservation tourism website was launched at the Namibia Tourism Expo in May 2019 by the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, who applauded this fresh approach that’s designed to inspire more people to visit Namibia.

To encourage traffic to the new website, a social media campaign is underway. Related Facebook and Instagram pages are updated twice a week with posts highlighting a specific area, activity or adventure to be found in Namibia’s communal conservancies. These posts contain links to the website for more information, all with the goal of inspiring our online audience to visit Namibia’s communal conservancies.

The conservation tourism website and social media posts stress the importance of community conservation and tourism initiatives in rural communities. These not only contribute to the local and national economy, but also continue to enhance Namibia’s global reputation as a leader in community-based conservation tourism.

Conservationtourism.com.na will encourage you to explore Namibia’s communal conservancies and experience the best kind of tourism – sustainable, inspiring and authentic – that brings out the very best in all of us.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

15

WILDLIFE CREDITS – INNOVATION IN CONSERVATION BY AND FOR NAMIBIANS

By Ingelore Katjingisiua and Ginger Mauney Innovation is a hallmark of conservation in Namibia, from the establishment of communal conservancies that devolve rights to communities to manage and benefit from natural resources, to rhino custodianship in communal lands, to scientific firsts in the fields of primatology, elephant communication and desert ecology. Another innovative first originating in Namibia is Wildlife Credits, which creates a direct incentive to keep wildlife on communal land by making performance payments to communities who actively protect and conserve wildlife and its habitat.

16

Huab Ultimate Safaris

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

17

Luscious Kukuwe

W

ildlife Credits is a type of payment for ecosystem services for wildlife conservation performance.

The concept’s premise is that as ecosystems come under increasing pressure from industry and development, there is tangible, global value in conserving their integrity by maintaining healthy land, water and wildlife populations. Furthermore, this value should be transferred to the people who are at the frontline of protecting these ecosystems. In Namibia this applies directly to rural communities who carry a disproportionately large burden of the costs that come with living with wildlife.

Unlike the traditional method of supporting conservation, which relies on donations for inputs such as boots, vehicles, training, etc. that may or may not result in tangible outcomes, Wildlife Credits payments are made based on measurable performance. This funding is thus not aimed at potential conservation accomplishments, but real conservation results. To finance these payments, a national Wildlife Credits fund has been established with seed funding from WWF. Wildlife Credits is temporarily housed with the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) with the intention to move the fund to the Community Conservation Fund of Namibia (CCF-N).

Not only does Wildlife Credits reward communities for verifiable conservation results, it is also a great example of how innovative thinking expands the pool of resources to help pay for conservation.

Right now, as tourism- and hunting-related incomes are under threat from the global coronavirus pandemic, this diversification of conservation funding is critical. Below are examples of how Wildlife Credits work in three different communal conservancies.

Wuparo Conservancy and lions

The Wildlife Credits idea started in the Wuparo Conservancy after a drought that resulted in heightened conflict between lions and communal farmers. Wuparo is one of three conservancies that make up the Mudumu South Complex between the Mudumu and Nkasa Rupara National parks in north-eastern Namibia. In 2013, lions killed 135 cattle and 17 lions were shot in retaliation. The situation was a stark reminder that without clear conservation engagement, problematic species such as lions do not have much of a future in areas where they threaten livelihoods, particularly in times of hardship. While this applies to elephants and other potentially destructive species, it is even more of an issue with lions, because there is also a strong cultural fear of them roaming around village areas.

These predator-proof kraals built by Kwando Carnivore Project are critical for reducing human-lion conflict. The Wildlife Credits scheme goes even further by paying Wuparo Conservancy for lions sighted by guests at the Wild Waters Group of Lodges.

Sobbe Conservancy and elephants

As a result of the 2013 carnage among cattle, Lise Hanssen of the Kwando Carnivore Project worked closely with the conservancies in the area to identify the conflict hotspots and upgrade livestock enclosures (known as kraals) to ensure that the communities’ cattle were properly protected. This has drastically reduced the conflict, with lion losses in kraals down by about 90%.

In the Sobbe Conservancy in the Zambezi Region there is an elephant path that is etched not only in the elephants’ memories, but also in the communities’ collective memory. For generations, members of the Sobbe Conservancy have protected this corridor by not planting fields, erecting kraals or building homes that would block the path.

The corridor has been respected and protected as a place reserved for wildlife, which is a critical part of the broader landscape because it links the burgeoning elephant populations in Botswana with open spaces in Zambia and Angola.

Concurrently, WWF also worked closely with the Conservancy Committee and their lodge operator, Simone Micheletti from the Wild Waters Group of Lodges, with the aim of developing a lion conservation performance payment mechanism. In 2016 a Wildlife Credit contract was signed with the Wuparo Conservancy that outlined the conditions of payments. Under this contract, Nkasa Lupala Lodge made a payment to the Wuparo Conservancy based upon lion sightings they recorded during game drives with their guests. This money was paid to the local Wildlife Credit account and was matched by the national Wildlife Credits fund for a combined total of N$51,425. The conservancy used these funds to construct six more lion-proof kraals for their farmers.

In 2018, Distell Namibia and Amarula, the liqueur that is synonymous with the African elephant, formed a partnership with Wildlife Credits and the Sobbe Conservancy, whereby Distell invested N$130,000 into the national Wildlife Credits fund to pay the Sobbe Conservancy for successfully protecting the elephant corridor. Payments will be spread out over a three-year period. The conservancy has already been paid N$40,000 for the first year and will receive another N$40,000 for 2019. Members of the Sobbe Conservancy decided that these payments should be used for a village electrification project, which will further encourage the local communities to keep this important wildlife corridor open.

18

Huab Ultimate Safaris Huab Ultimate Safaris

A highlight for tourists with Ultimate Safaris in the //Huab Conservancy is the chance to see black rhino. The conservancy is paid for each sighting they record in recognition of their conservation efforts.

Local protection of the corridor is now backed by scientific facts: comparisons between previous and current satellite images confirm that the communities have continued their long-standing tradition of not allowing development to occur in the corridor, while camera traps reveal that the corridor is being used by more than two dozen animal species including elephants, roan and sable antelopes, lions, leopards and spotted hyaenas.

//Huab Conservancy and black rhinos

In the Kunene region NACSO partnered with the //Huab Conservancy and their lodge operator – Ultimate Safaris – to develop a rhino conservation performance payment mechanism based on sightings of black rhino.

Since 2018, the national Wildlife Credits Fund has paid N$181,240 to the //Huab Conservancy based on the number of confirmed sightings by the lodge operator. The lodge operator contributed N$14,525 in recognition of the conservancy’s efforts to protect and conserve their rhino and its habitat. The funds have been invested in rhino protection measures that include the deployment of rangers and the installation of an expanded radar network. The results of improved and sustained rhino monitoring and protection remain important to the conservancy as well as the lodge operator. Interventions like these are critical to the survival of this iconic species.

These innovative partnerships underline the importance of various stakeholders working together to create a greater impact for conservation, communities and private sector partners than any of them could achieve alone. As these three examples show, local communities are at the frontline of conservation. When their performance is backed up with finances and expertise they will continue to deliver positive conservation results. This innovative Namibian approach has great potential for further conservation collaboration and even more positive conservation performance results in future. The Wildlife Credits project is a win-win for every partner, and is needed now more than ever. https://wildlifecredits.com

Members of Sobbe Conservancy have protected an elephant corridor on their land for generations. They are now being rewarded for their efforts through the Wildlife Credits scheme in partnership with Distell Namibia and Amarula.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

19

COUNTING CATS

– An updated national leopard survey for Namibia

Elzanne McCulloch

By Gail C. Thomson

20

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

21

Elzanne McCulloch

L

eopards are among the most enchanting big cats in the world. Their beauty, raw power and elusiveness have fascinated humans through the ages. Our fascination with leopards is a double-edged sword for the big cat, however.

The value we place on seeing this beautiful big cat draws tourists and provides funding for conservation. On the downside, the leopard’s beauty and power drives the illegal market for their skins and other body parts, which contributes to their decline in some parts of Africa.

Being elusive also has upsides: leopards can live near and even in towns and cities without people realising it. The downside: it is difficult to determine how many there really are. This lack of information hinders effective conservation plans for the species. Besides counting them, we need to know if their numbers are increasing or decreasing, which parts of the country are most important for the species, and what are the worst threats to their survival.

Without this information it is quite easy to believe there are so many leopards that we need not worry about them – until it is too late. While average farm sizes in Namibia range between 10-60 km2 depending on the region, male leopard territories cover 18-451 km2 (females occupy smaller areas of 9-224 km2 within male territories).

This means that while farmers may think that they have “many” leopards on their individual properties, it is likely that they share these leopards with several neighbouring farms. When a leopard is killed on one farm its absence is likely to affect the leopard population in a much larger area, as leopards from neighbouring territories will probably move into the vacated territory.

22

Studies covering several farms in one continuous landscape are therefore critical for obtaining detailed information about the health and growth of these local leopard populations over time. They don’t tell us how many leopards there are throughout Namibia, however.

If we had endless human and financial resources we could conduct detailed studies that cover the whole country, but this is simply not possible. Recognising these limitations, scientists have developed increasingly accurate ways to estimate large carnivore populations using information collected from a variety of different sources including, but not limited to, detailed studies.

The 2019 National Leopard Project by Dr Louisa Richmond-Coggan (initiated by the Namibia Professional Hunting Association) relied on detailed scientific studies, sightings reported by people throughout the country, and information from farmers, hunters, conservancies and the government. Data from all of these sources were then combined using statistical modelling techniques to provide a population estimate for leopards in Namibia. The final result is a “best guess” of 11,733 leopards.

Due to the size of Namibia and the relatively small area covered by detailed studies, this estimate has a relatively large average error margin of around 5,494. One of the significant improvements of this study over previous ones is that predicted estimates were calculated for blocks of 2x2 km covering the whole country. Predictions for particular locations can be tested in future with detailed studies that will improve the accuracy of the next national leopard population estimate. The National Leopard Project provided a lot more information than just a number of leopards, however, and this is where the results get interesting.

2019

EIS

Dr Andrew Stein

2011

The map on the left was produced by Dr Andrew Stein’s 2011 national leopard census; at the time the data showed no records of the species throughout most of south-eastern Namibia. The map on the right was produced based on records entered in the Environmental Information System using sightings by “citizen scientists” and the results of the 2019 Leopard Project survey among farmers, showing that leopards occur throughout the southeast.

The 2019 project included results of camera trap studies covering several farms each in two locations – the Auas Mountains near Windhoek and farms near Omaruru. These locations were chosen specifically because Dr Andrew Stein used the same sites during the 2011 National Leopard Project.

Farms near the Namib-Naukluft National Park were also part of a camera trap study in 2009-2011 that was repeated in 2013.

These detailed studies could therefore give us a glimpse of population trends over time.

The results revealed that leopard numbers had increased by 16% near Omaruru and by 40% near Windhoek, while they declined by 38% near the Namib-Naukluft. This last area, however, naturally supports lower densities of wildlife and game than the other two sites due to low and erratic rainfall. Leopard populations probably fluctuate more in these dry areas as their prey populations respond to each rainy season.

Besides trends, these multi-farm studies show which parts of the landscape support more leopards than others. The findings confirmed that they very much prefer mountainous terrain or dry riverbeds to open, flat areas. When this knowledge is applied to other parts of the country, one can predict where leopards are more likely to occur just by looking at topographical maps and including factors like rainfall and land use that have known effects on leopards.

The model used in the Leopard Project thus relies on information from the smaller-scale studies to predict where leopards are likely to occur throughout Namibia. But three small-scale studies are not enough to create an accurate model for the whole country – a lot more data is needed for that.

Fortunately, Dr Richmond-Coggan was not alone.

Dr Louisa Richmond-Coggan

2019

This map shows the results of Dr Richmond-Coggan’s 2019 leopard project that predicts leopard densities for different parts of the country.

It provides more accurate density estimates at a finer resolution than the map produced in 2011. It also takes into account the EIS data from 2019, thus expanding the known leopard distribution.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

23

F. Jacobs Gerhard Thirion

Several carnivore researchers who used camera traps and other methods to study leopards and other large carnivores in different parts of Namibia supplied their data to the national project. Some farmers and hunting operators also use camera traps to monitor game on freehold properties and many of them will remember when they last saw leopards or their tracks. To tap into this information source, the project included a questionnaire that was completed by 392 freehold farmers from all over the country. In communal conservancies, game guards record all carnivore sightings and livestock losses in their Event Books, which provided valuable data on which conservancies reported the most leopard problems. Finally, leopard sightings by tourists or other interested “citizen scientists” are entered into the Environmental Information Service of Namibia (EIS) via the Atlasing in Namibia App, complete with photographs and GPS coordinates.

The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) also provided a wealth of information to the Leopard Project. Their records show where leopards have been hunted or shot due to conflict with

24

farmers. These permits include the location and various details about the leopard, all of which are entered into the MEFT database.

The data from all of these sources are then fed into the model based on more detailed studies to show us where leopards occur in higher or lower densities across the country. This 2019 study built on the 2011 study that used similar methods to estimate leopard numbers.

Comparing the two studies reveals that leopards occur over larger parts of Namibia than previously thought. Most of south-eastern Namibia was considered devoid of leopards in 2011, yet they were found there in 2019.

Although the known distribution of leopards across Namibia expanded to the southeast in 2019, new data from north-eastern Namibia revealed a lower leopard density in 2019 than was predicted by the 2011 study. As a result of these changes in density estimates and increased accuracy of the model, the model’s “best guess” of 11,733 leopards in 2019 is lower than the 2011 “best

freehold farms, was the most severe threat to leopards in Namibia.

This is particularly important because freehold properties sustain more leopards than the national parks and communal areas.

It is difficult to keep track of how many leopards farmers kill to protect their livestock or game, because only 45% of them (according to the survey of 392 farmers) apply for a permit and/or report these incidents to MEFT. Livestock loss to leopards is related to availability of their natural prey (e.g. small antelope): farmers in regions with low leopard prey densities were more likely to lose livestock to leopards and less likely to tolerate them than farmers in areas with more leopard prey. The results also showed that game farmers or mixed livestock-game farmers were more tolerant of leopards than farmers with livestock only.

Private game reserves that rely on photographic tourism (e.g. Erindi) are key areas for leopard conservation, supporting higher densities than our national parks. Game farms that rely on hunting or a mix of photographic and hunting tourism also support high leopard numbers. Their antelope species are the leopard’s natural prey, however, making it almost impossible for them to protect their livelihoods from these predators. Game farmers are nonetheless most likely to benefit from occasional leopard trophy hunts, which are far more valuable than most antelope hunts. If the benefit of tolerating leopards outweighs the cost of the losses they cause, then game and livestock farmers will continue to host important parts of the Namibian leopard population. Freehold and communal farmers are custodians of the national leopard population in Namibia.

Promoting coexistence between farmers and leopards is therefore vitally important for leopard conservation.

Trophy hunting must nonetheless be well managed to prevent negative impacts on the leopard population. Amendments to the laws on leopard hunting, made after the last national survey, have increased the weight and age of hunted leopards. The most significant reforms were a ban on hunting with dogs in 2010, introducing a new permit system in 2011 and prohibiting female leopard hunts. The hunting success rate has subsequently declined to 27% and only larger male leopards have been hunted since the reforms.

guess� of 14,154 leopards. These changes are more likely due to increased accuracy and better density estimates than actual population declines.

Although Namibia has an annual hunting quota of 250 leopards, the number has not been reached in any year since 2011. The final report therefore recommended that the national quota remain the same, but suggested that regions with more leopards be allocated a larger proportion of the quota than those with fewer leopards.

The level of human-leopard conflict reported by farmers in an area should also be taken into account, to ensure that farmers experiencing more conflict have a greater chance of benefiting from leopard hunting.

In her final report Dr Richmond-Coggan recommended more detailed studies in areas where we currently have predictions for leopard numbers, but not enough good data to confirm or refute those predictions. The sites of past detailed studies should also remain a priority for regular repeat studies to keep track of changes over time.

Each national leopard survey should thus build on the previous ones to create an increasingly accurate understanding of the Namibian leopard population.

Despite the advent of camera traps and sophisticated statistical models these elusive cats are still extremely difficult to count. The latest survey reveals that Namibia’s leopard population remains reasonably healthy, thanks in large part to farmers who tolerate their presence and maintain their natural prey species. MEFT and conservation scientists must therefore work closely with farmers to further promote coexistence with this beautiful big cat.

Leopard distribution and estimated numbers are just one part of the broader conservation picture, however. We also need to know what threatens their survival and whether or not our management systems are harming or helping them. The farmer survey for the Leopard Project revealed that human-wildlife conflict, particularly on

Reference: Richmond-Coggan, L. (2019). The Namibian leopard: National census and sustainable hunting practices.

Namibia Professional Hunting Association and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

25

Nina van Zyl

Working with farmers to conserve Namibian carnivores:

THE N/A’AN KU SÊ RAPID RESPONSE UNIT 26

By Juliane Piloth, N/a’an ku sê The N/a’an ku sê Rapid Response Unit (RRU) Project was launched in 2008 with the aim to reduce the conflict between humans and large carnivore species on Namibian farmland. In Namibia, more African wild dogs, cheetahs and leopards occur outside of protected areas than within them.

There are around 4,000 freehold farms in Namibia, accounting for more than 40% of the country and thus providing vital habitat and prey for large carnivores. Namibia is one of the few countries in the world where livestock numbers exceed the human population. Consequently, while there is ample space for carnivores to roam without coming into direct contact with people, they will inevitably come into conflict with farmers when they kill livestock or valuable game species.

T

he RRU is a team of biologists, researchers and wildlife veterinarians. The team responds quickly and reliably to farmers reporting different types of conflict with various carnivore species. The RRU is equipped to deal with situations where carnivores have been caught in traps, or just to provide advice about livestock protection based on the team’s knowledge of carnivore biology.

Our work with local farmers and landowners aims to not only conserve free-roaming carnivore populations in their current ranges, but also to help farmers with practical, cost-effective and non-lethal tools to reduce their losses to carnivores. This strategy promotes tolerance and co-existence, which is critical to reducing human-carnivore conflict in the long term. Through this project we strive to fill the existing gap between species-based conservation research and the vast knowledge obtained by farmers over decades. We do so by working directly with these landowners, who will ultimately determine whether carnivore populations will continue to exist on their properties.

The RRU team’s methods vary according to the type of conflict incident and the results of discussions with each farmer on the way forward in each specific case. The team holds consultations to help resolve carnivore problems and provides monitoring data from satellite collars fitted on carnivores released on farmland as well as technical assistance for implementing innovative livestock management techniques. We are committed to secure the future of wild large carnivores in Namibia outside state-protected areas through applied research, community engagement and adaptive management practices. This involves reducing lethal control methods, securing more safe space where farmers tolerate carnivore presence, collecting crucial data to guide management actions, and ultimately keeping as many large carnivores as possible in their native home ranges.

We have worked with over 820 farmers since 2008. Nearly two-thirds of them experienced livestock, game, or domestic animal losses prior

to calling us. Out of that percentage, 31% were reaching out to the RRU to seek advice for reducing their losses, while 68% had captured the suspected predator and wanted the RRU to assist by collaring or translocating it.

Many farmers are open to the idea of fitting a GPS-collar on the captured predator and releasing it back on the farm. This is an ideal outcome because it gives us the chance to monitor its movement and establish if it is in fact a problem animal or not. We then relay this information to the farmer on a daily basis to maintain clear lines of communication and maximum transparency about what the predator is doing on the property. This system provides the farmer with a chance to develop effective livestock protection strategies based on a better understanding of how predators use their land. From a total of 202 carnivores captured, the farmers allowed us to release 58 on their land with a collar and 27 without a collar, while 102 were translocated to suitable release sites elsewhere.

We keep records of every incident we respond to, which allows us to look at interesting trends in human-carnivore conflict over time. When the RRU first began its work in 2008, most incoming conflict calls were about cheetahs. From 2014 onwards, conflict calls relating to leopards spiked and now greatly exceed the number of calls for any other species. In 119 of the 183 leopard conflict calls, farmers had captured the leopard and reached out to the RRU for assistance.

The downward trend in cheetah-related conflict is worrisome, since the cheetah population across southern Africa is continuously declining. A decrease in conflict calls is of grave concern, as it could mean that there are fewer cheetahs on Namibian farmlands. A working theory of why leopard conflict calls have been on the rise relative to other carnivore conflict, relates to the method applied by farmers to catch carnivores on their property. Capture cages fitted with bait will attract large carnivores such as leopard and hyaena, but not cheetah, since these cats will only feed on fresh kills and in addition they do not rely on the sense of smell

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

27

Heatmap showing Otuini’s movement over two study periods. To the left of the map is the Park she was translocated to; the core area (indicated in red, where she spends most of her time) is the farm she was initially caught on.

Heatmap showing conflict cases reported to N/a’an ku sê between 21st of May 2008 and 31st of December 2019. Core areas (indicated in red) are those areas we get the most conflict calls from.

28

Nina van Zyl

One of the key lessons we have learned since the RRU began is that not every carnivore actually causes livestock losses.

We therefore recommend to the farmer that we gather more evidence before deciding to remove the animal from its natural habitat. Especially in the case of territorial animals like leopards there is a risk that if an ‘innocent’ animal is removed from its territory, it could be replaced by another leopard which does in fact prey on livestock. In other cases, if an animal is not translocated far enough from the farm of origin, it could simply return to the farm where it was captured – nothing is really achieved. It is therefore in the farmer’s own interest to find out if the animal that was caught is actually killing livestock before deciding what to do about it.

Nina van Zyl

for hunting. That makes bait impractical for capturing cheetah.

Furthermore, a subjective observation is that landowners tend to shoot cheetah on sight, whereas other large carnivores are more likely to be caught and reported.

One case that illustrated this was the capture, collaring and release of a female leopard in the Khomas Region towards the end of December 2016. The leopard in the cage trap was pregnant and the farmer suspected her of killing cattle calves. He nonetheless agreed to allow the RRU team to collar and release

The RRU team is happy to assist anyone in Namibia with any problems or queries regarding human-carnivore conflict. For more information, or to get in touch with the RRU team, please contact us via email at research@naankuse.com or call our RRU phone at +264817561636.

her (we nick-named her Otuini) on his farm that same day.

The initial monitoring period lasted nine months until September 2017, but this ended prematurely when the GPS-collar malfunctioned. Otuini was caught once more in a cage trap on the same property in April 2018 which allowed us to re-collar her and commence with a second monitoring period that lasted until August 2019. Before releasing her the second time, the farmer had requested for her to be translocated off his property, thus she was taken to a National Park about 50 km away, as stipulated by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism’s permit requirements. Interestingly, it took her only 14 days to walk back to the farm where she was first caught. This supports the findings of former N/a’an ku sê researcher, Dr. Florian Weise, who concluded that a translocation threshold distance of at least 200 km was needed to stop large carnivores from returning to their capture locations.

These studies also revealed, however, that this particular leopard is not a problem animal – she did not kill a single livestock animal during the

25 months that we tracked her movements. Otuini occupies a territory of over 8,000 hectares that covers multiple farms. Because she does not kill livestock and will naturally prevent other females from occupying her territory, Otuini may actually be limiting the livestock losses experienced on these farms. Due to our close working relationship and informationsharing with the farmers in the area Otuini was allowed to stay in her territory and has successfully raised a cub.

Otuini’s success story inspires us to continue working with farmers and providing the information they need to inform their carnivore management decisions. We are especially encouraged when farmers allow us to release leopards back onto their properties in order to learn more about them. Developing strong working relationships with farmers based on transparent informationsharing and mutual understanding is key to reducing humancarnivore conflict and thus securing the future of these animals on farmlands throughout Namibia.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

29

Easing the Enmity:

helping livestock farmers coexist with spotted hyaenas

By Karl Sebastian Fester, Researcher at N/a’an ku sê Kanaan Desert Retreat Images by N/a’an ku sê Spotted hyaenas are among the most misunderstood and unloved carnivores in the world. These extremely intelligent, opportunistic and curious animals are often killed on farms in response to livestock losses or supposed conflict, but also because they are perceived as ‘vermin’. As a result, the species is declining throughout Africa. Namibia experienced a dramatic population drop of nearly 65% in 20 years, particularly on farmlands outside protected areas (2,000-3,000 animals in 1998 to about 615-715 in 2019). Unless effective and properly implemented conflict mitigation methods are used, hyaena populations outside protected areas will continue to decline in Namibia due to conflict with farmers. If nation-wide policies and perceptions are not changed soon, we could see the Namibian spotted hyaena population decline to near unrecoverable numbers. Our research over the past four years in southern Namibia along the Namib-Naukluft National Park border has therefore focused on understanding spotted hyaena behaviour and ecology to develop ways to reduce livestock losses and thus promote coexistence between farmers and hyaenas.

30

M

any freehold and communal farmers in Namibia use fences and/ or holding pens (kraals) for livestock protection and overnight containment, respectively. But many of these fences and barriers are inadequate for keeping carnivores out and thus do not reduce the likelihood of losing livestock. To address this problem we redesigned the standard fences used on farms to create more effective barriers between livestock and spotted hyaenas by preventing hyaenas from digging under the fences to gain access to livestock.

Because investing in a long-term solution is more cost-effective than continually fixing the same problem, we aimed to develop a lower-cost and therefore attractive means of keeping hyaenas away from livestock on both freehold and communal farms. We repurposed old fencing materials removed from a de-stocked sheep farm, which significantly reduced the cost of our new fence design by simply using what is already available on most farms. We first modified a basic kraal by adding mesh wire fencing (also known as ‘jackal-proof’ fencing) to increase the fence height to 1.5 metres above ground (a standard fence is 1.2 m) and extended it half a metre below ground (standard fencing extends only a few centimetres below ground). The below-ground fencing was reinforced with rocks to prevent hyaenas from digging under the fence to access the kraal. To prevent access through the gate, we tied camel thorn branches to the base of the gate. No covering was placed over the kraal to keep the design as basic and original as possible.

Our “droppable” hyaena-proof fence designed for camps on freehold farms.

We placed a gemsbok carcass in the kraal as bait and monitored it with motion-sensitive cameras and by direct observations during the night for three and a half months. A wild clan of four spotted hyaenas visited the kraal frequently during this test period and attempted to gain access. Their best attempts (one lasting nearly 8.5 hours!) failed, proving that our design has few or no weaknesses.

The next step was to design a fence suitable for the big sheep grazing camps commonly used on freehold farms in southern Namibia. These sheep are not kept in kraals at night, so the camps are usually fenced to keep jackals out, but this is not sufficient for spotted hyaenas.

Because high fences can prevent wild antelope (e.g. gemsbok) from moving through farms, we designed a semi-permanent hyaena-proof fence that could be removed when the grazing camp was not being used. Our ‘droppable’ hyaena-proof fence can be easily lowered and erected within a few minutes. As with the kraal fence design, we buried 0.5 m of the mesh wire and fortified it with rocks, making it almost impossible for hyaenas, black-backed jackals and other digging animals to get through the fence.

Hyaenas are excellent diggers, so rocks must be buried with the fence to make it hyaena-proof.

Past studies revealed that farm gates are the weakest point of an enclosure, which hyaenas and other carnivores exploit to enter the grazing camps and kraals. Using thorn branches to fortify all of the camp gates could result in the over-exploitation of thorn trees in desert environments, therefore we had to design a different kraal gate. Our new camp gate is similar to the fence that is buried and fortified, but is easily lowered and erected (rather than swinging open like a customary gate) when entering or leaving the camp.

These modifications to both fences and gates can easily be made to any standard livestock fence or kraal already in use on a farm. Our semi-permanent fencing can also be erected in areas of known hyaena activity such as around hills and mountains to keep livestock out of high-risk areas, and then lowered once livestock are moved to graze elsewhere, thus reestablishing free movement of wildlife and reducing the likelihood of wild animals damaging the fence.

Our simple designs provide an attractive option for protecting livestock in almost all farming systems, and we have offered free fencing materials to the farming communities in the south who would like to try our system. For communal farmers who herd their livestock into kraals at night, an effective kraal fence can keep their livestock safe whilst they sleep and carnivores are most active. For freehold sheep and cattle farmers who allow their livestock to graze freely day and night in large camps, our semi-permanent fencing system would fortify their grazing camps, particularly in areas of known hyaena activity. This fencing system can greatly reduce livestock predation and thus help farmers coexist with, rather than eliminate, spotted hyaenas on their land.

Our hyaena-proof gate is lowered and raised like a drawbridge, which eliminates this weak-point around livestock camps.

Hyaenas tried and failed to get into our test kraal that was baited with a gemsbok carcass.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

31

Hyaena research and conservation efforts at the Ongava Research Centre

By Florian Weise, Stéphanie Périquet & Ken Stratford, Ongava Research Centre (ORC)

W

hen it comes to spotted hyaenas, opinions are strongly divided. While some consider them to be lowly scavengers only good enough to steal food from the mighty lions, a growing number of us recognize these hyaenas for what they really are: one of the most interesting and exciting top predator species to study.

Affectionately known as “spotties”, these powerful carnivores are more than capable of hunting for themselves and sometimes lions will actually steal or scavenge from the kills they make. Like lions, spotties are highly social animals, yet their society operates entirely differently to that of the big cats, making them an especially interesting subject of research.

One intriguing feature of the spotties’ society is that although they live in large social groups, all clan members are rarely, if ever, seen together. Spotties forage alone or in sub-groups that frequently change composition, as clan members seem to change their minds about who they like to hang out with from one hour to the next.

This makes estimating population density and clan size quite tricky, yet we set out to tackle this task in the Ongava Reserve on the border of Etosha National Park.

We deployed motion and heat-sensitive camera traps for an extended period of time at waterholes on the reserve that would photograph hyaenas as they came to drink. Luckily for us, it is possible to identify individual hyaenas based on their unique coat markings, so we could use the photos to count every individual and determine association patterns between clan members.

We found that a single clan composed of about 30 adults was living on Ongava at a density of 8.1 hyaenas per 100 km2, which is much higher than in neighbouring Etosha (2.7 hyaenas per 100 km2). This is likely due to the fact that prey densities are higher on this private reserve than in the neighbouring park. In addition, the Ongava hyaenas’ social network was quite dense, meaning that any given individual was seen with almost every other clan member over the course of the study. Scientists call this continuous grouping and splitting among clan members a “fission-fusion” society, even though the composition of the clan as a whole may remain stable.

But not all hyaenas are spotted. In June 2019 the newly expanded Ongava Research Centre (ORC) hosted an international group of hyaena researchers for a three-day meeting as part of the Hyaena

32

Workshop participants (from top left to bottom right) – Arjun Dheer, Ingrid Wiesel, Courtney McCorstin, Allison Killea, Stéphanie Périquet, Andrew Jacobson, John Mendelsohn, Richard Yarnell, Stephanie Dloniak, Miquel Torrents-Ticó, Bettina Wachter, Florian Weise. Einat bar Ziv from Israel is not shown in the picture because she took it.

Distribution Mapping Project. This effort, spearheaded by Dr Andrew Jacobson, supports the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Hyaena Specialist Group with updating the distribution range maps of all four species in the hyaena family – the spotted, brown and striped hyaenas, and the aardwolf. Namibia is home to three of the four; the striped hyaena occurs in northern and eastern Africa and into Asia.

The top priority for the meeting was to create new, up-to-date range maps for hyaenas that inform IUCN Red List assessments of the conservation status and threats for plants and animals worldwide.

Maps that show where these species currently occur can be compared with historical maps to find out whether their range is expanding or contracting over time, thus forming an important part of the global conservation assessment.

At ORC, we have studied hyaena ecology extensively in the past and as part of our on-going studies. The centre strongly supports the range mapping efforts using our own data and by networking with

researchers internationally. We were therefore especially excited to host this event and thus further support hyaena conservation. The workshop brought together hyaena researchers from all over Africa and the Middle East who outlined priorities and responsibilities for finalising the new range maps, something that is easier said than done. Obtaining and consolidating various types of information is a monumental task because the four hyaena species roam across over 70 countries in three continents. Collating data must therefore overcome multiple language barriers and take into account the highly variable levels of environmental monitoring undertaken in each of the target countries.

The workshop started by establishing what we already know by plotting and reviewing over 100,000 observations that had been received from hundreds of international contributors and reliable crowd sources (see draft maps). We then focussed on coordinating mapping efforts for those areas with little or no information to fill the gaps in our current knowledge about where hyaenas occur.

Under the guidance of Dr Stephanie Dloniak, the IUCN SSC Hyaena Specialist Group’s chairperson, the workshop team discussed

important future research projects and the need for a new Threats Working Group to focus on identifying the threats each hyaena species faces throughout their range.

While there is still much to learn about hyaenas at the individual and the clan level, we cannot lose sight of the bigger picture of this species’ global conservation needs. At ORC we want to advance our scientific understanding of hyaenas and other wildlife, while contributing substantially to global conservation efforts. We therefore hope that the new ORC research campus will host and facilitate many more collaborative projects such as this.

Further reading: Stratford, K., Stratford, S., & Périquet, S., 2019. Dyadic associations reveal clan size and social network structure in the fission–fusion society of spotted hyaenas.

African Journal of Ecology, 58(2), 182–192. http://doi. org/10.1111/aje.12641.

HYAENA DISTRIBUTION MAPPING PROJECT - JUNE 2019 Brown hyaena

Spotted hyaena

Aardwolf Striped hyaena

The first drafts of hyaena distribution maps reviewed during the 2019 workshop. These remain a work in progress as additional observations are being added and updated distributions are refined accordingly.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

33

Namibia at the forefront of

GIRAFFE CONSERVATION

Images by Giraffe Conservation Foundation

by Giraffe Conservation Foundation Most people love seeing giraffes in the wild, but many tend to think that these animals have no particularly interesting attributes. How wrong they are. There are many fascinating things to learn about giraffes – did you know that they can gallop at up to 50 kilometres per hour, that their tongues can be as long as 53 centimetres, that an adult’s heart can weigh up to 11 kilograms, and that their horns are called ossicones? These are just the basics – the more we know about giraffes the more we realise how much more we still have to discover.

34

G

ood conservation is based on detailed knowledge of the species we want to conserve. Yet startlingly little is known about the giraffe, despite its status as an iconic animal that tops the must-see list of many visitors to the African continent. Furthermore, conservationists only recently realised that many giraffe populations throughout Africa are in trouble: there are only about 111,000 giraffes remaining in the wild – only a quarter of the number of African elephants. Yet the plight of the giraffe has gone largely unnoticed by the general public. Until now.

It all began in 1999 while Julian Fennessy was doing his PhD research on the desert-dwelling Angolan giraffe in the remote catchment area of the Hoanib River in north-western Namibia. His research prompted further questions that had not been answered by other scientists, revealing just how under-studied giraffes are compared to other large mammal species. During this time, the plight of giraffes in other parts of Africa was slowly coming to light, prompting urgent conservation action. Dr Julian and Stephanie Fennessy therefore established the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) - the only organisation in the world that concentrates solely on the conservation and management of giraffes in the wild throughout Africa. Currently working in 15 countries with all four species of giraffe, their goal is simple: to secure a sustainable future for all giraffe populations in the wild.

GCF has expanded Dr Fennessy’s initial work in north-western Namibia which aims to better understand the giraffe populations

and their interaction with other wildlife, livestock and people. The geographical scope of these surveys spans 30,000 km², from the Hoanib River near Sesfontein in the Kunene Region to the border with Angola. This has become the longest-running ecological monitoring study of giraffes in Africa.

This particular part of Namibia is extraordinary. It is a hot desert environment that experiences an average rainfall of only 150 millimetres (rain may not fall at all during years of severe drought).

It is an area that does not seem hospitable for animals such as giraffes. But, like many other highly adaptable wild animals, giraffes have found a way to survive and even thrive in this harsh desert environment. The key to the giraffe’s existence in the area is the presence of wide, winding ephemeral rivers that provide abundant food and occasional water. Furthermore, giraffes in the desert start eating early in the morning so they can make use of the dew that regularly settles on trees and bushes. Throughout the first seven years of his study, Julian never observed a giraffe drinking – they quenched their thirst solely with dew.

When the GCF’s research began, the first task was to individually identify all the giraffes in the area by their spot patterns. Just like a human fingerprint, each giraffe’s spot pattern is unique. While Julian initially identified 101 giraffe, over the years the population has increased steadily to 430 known individuals today - a huge success for giraffe conservation. In 2019, GCF recorded 1,600 individual giraffe sightings during regular surveys, 36 of which were new calves –

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

35

a substantial increase from the five new calves recorded in 1999. Even more exciting is the fact that 30% of the original study’s giraffes are still sighted regularly today. As some of these giraffes were already adults at the time they were first recorded in the late 1990s, they are estimated to be over 25 years old now – making them some of the oldest giraffes ever recorded in the wild. Windy, a female giraffe that was first observed as a sub-adult in the Hoanib River in 1999, has just made history by giving birth at an estimated age of 22 years. That makes her the oldest wild giraffe recorded to give birth. Despite her age, she is still healthy and beautiful.

This female giraffe has been fitted with an ossi-unit - a GPS tracking device made specially for giraffe.

There is still much we do not understand about giraffes’ social lives.

36

Tracking giraffes with ossi-units will help answer some of our research questions; each colour in this map represents the movements of one giraffe over time.

Collecting and recording research data regularly is important for the conservation of giraffes. This includes sex, age, herd size and structure, GPS location, medical or reproductive notes, identification photographs and, when possible, an individual’s DNA sample.

Collecting and analysing these data over time can tell us a great deal about the ecology and conservation status of giraffe populations.

According to studies from elsewhere in Africa, fewer than 50% of giraffes survive their first year. However, GCF’s data from northwestern Namibia shows an impressive calf survival rate of 69%. Which prompts the question: Why are these giraffes thriving despite living in such an arid environment? Low predation rates might have something to do with it, or are the differences perhaps due to different survey techniques or Namibia’s unique conservation model? Questions like these drive the GCF research team.

Not much is known about the giraffe’s social life either. While the current understanding is that giraffe herds regularly divide and re-group (known as fission-fusion) with no particular individual preference for who they spend time with, it is not really known why they do this or if these herd patterns change in different environments.

Over the years, it has become clear that herd sizes vary considerably between different river systems in north-western Namibia. While the average herd in the lower Hoanib and Khumib Rivers comprises three giraffes, GCF regularly spots groups of over 20 individuals in the lower Hoarusib River with an average of six per herd. Food availability seems to be the most important factor influencing herd size.

Namibia is a giraffe conservation success story and giraffe numbers are increasing due to successful conservation partnerships between the government, private landowners and communal farmers.

Unfortunately, giraffes are in serious trouble in other parts of the continent. Research findings from north-western Namibia help inform GCF’s conservation strategies for other giraffe populations in Africa.

Among the things that are largely unknown about giraffes throughout Africa is their overall distribution, where they move and how they use their habitat. As this information is critical for their conservation, GCF has spearheaded an international partnership with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and San Diego Zoo Global in the USA, and the Senckenberg Museum in Germany as part of an Africa-wide initiative to answer this question for all different habitats and for all four species of giraffe. The programme, called Twiga Tracker, aims to track a minimum of 250 giraffes across their range with innovative solar-powered GPS satellite trackers, known as ossi-units, which are fitted to the ossicones. Over 125 ossi-units have been deployed so far in eight African countries (Namibia, Chad, DRC, Kenya, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe) and preliminary results are proving useful as well as fascinating.

DO GIRAFFES INHERIT THEIR SPOT PATTERNS? A recent scientific paper published by a research group in Tanzania suggests that giraffe spot patterns might be inherited from their parents. While it is difficult to show paternal lines, giraffe mothers tend to keep their calves with them for at least two years. Therefore one can compare the spot patterns of the calves with those of their mothers. Here is an example from north-western Namibia, where mother giraffe Zora and her daughter Zorba both share a similar-looking, arrowshaped spot on the right shoulder.

Namibians have a long history with giraffes, as seen in giraffe engravings and rock paintings throughout the country. GCF continues to tell this story by highlighting the importance of giraffes in the ecosystem and showcasing giraffe conservation success stories. Good governance, collaboration and partnerships with different stakeholders will ensure a secure future for giraffes in the country. Let’s all work together to keep Namibia at the centre of giraffe conservation in Africa. To ensure that Namibians, other Africans and the rest of the world can continue to enjoy the sight of graceful giraffe wandering through African savannahs, GCF will continue to collaborate with local and international governments, conservation organisations and people who share the common goal of safeguarding these iconic gentle giants of Africa.

GCF’s work in north-western Namibia would not be possible without the valuable support of our many donors. To find out more about our programme, visit our website www.giraffeconservation.org/programmes/nw-namibia

37

ON THE EDGE OF

NAMIBIAN ENQUIRY

By John Mendelsohn, Ongava Research Centre

Large parts of rural Africa are like this: woodlands and forests gone, and local residents in abject poverty.

38

A lucky chance recently came my way to join the expanded Ongava Research Centre (ORC), a privately funded institution dedicated to environmental studies, and fortuitously located along the boundary of Etosha National Park. My task is to help set a direction for the ORC’s studies and to establish mechanisms to support the research. This opportunity raised many interesting questions: What research should we do? What don’t we know? What is important for us to understand?

Seldom do we think about those questions… it is perhaps easier and more gratifying to expound on the things we know… or believe. This seems adequate for the purposes of most environmental management, and conservation in Namibia generally operates on that basis.

A

nd so here was an occasion to step back and think about what is not known and especially things that are important to understand. Before sharing some thoughts, I’d draw your attention to The Edge (https://www.edge.org/ about-edgeorg), an open forum for anyone who might be attracted to what is appropriately described as “open-minded, free-ranging, intellectually playful… an unadorned pleasure in curiosity, a collective expression of wonder at the living and inanimate world… an ongoing and thrilling colloquium.” Have a look, it’s the best thing since peanut butter.

What controls wide-ranging animal movements?

Most discussions on The Edge stem from questions, ideas and observations around things we puzzle over. That’s a useful springboard to help formulate the questions in this article which concern seven fundamental aspects of biology and conservation in Namibia. These are the sorts of things that need answers through scientific enquiry. I also hope that they will enjoy the focus of young, curious Namibian minds.

The effect of rain is often important, but only in a general way. For example, assuming flamingos at Walvis Bay (somehow) know that rain fell over the Etosha Pan a few days ago, they also need to know how much water now remains on the surface (bearing in mind that most rain immediately seeps into the ground) and whether or not there would be sufficient food in the pan to make their journey to Etosha worthwhile. We simply have no idea how flamingos or other animals make these kinds of tough choices.

How can rural poverty be eradicated, and land degradation be reversed?

The greatest form of environmental degradation in Africa is shifting dryland agriculture. After several years of use, small-holder farmers need to shift their crops from nutrient-depleted fields to virgin soils in newly cleared areas. The practice is not only accelerated, but also necessitated by poor soils and a growing population with little access to money, and thus no other way to feed themselves. Cash incomes are now a necessity everywhere and for everyone, and in their absence rural people are obliged to sell local resources: bush meat, fish, ivory and rhino horn, charcoal, timber, and pangolins, for example. More of the natural world gets lost.

The link between poverty and environmental destruction is all too familiar in Namibia, especially in the seven northern and north-eastern regions.

Substantial research is needed to find ways to break this cycle by addressing both the social and environmental costs. The enormous moral and economic dimensions of this challenge make it all the more urgent – and vital – as a topic for scientific study.

Few places are sufficiently rich and large to supply all the resources needed by animals to live and breed there throughout the year. Getting around is thus important for survival, particularly so in arid or semi-arid areas where rainfall (and plant production) varies greatly from time to time and from place to place. And so, many species of birds and other animals move around to make the best of opportunities presented by patchy and unpredictable rainfall. What we don’t know is how they assess where to move to, when to move, and how long to remain in a place.

There are many other open questions about bird movements. Where did the thousands of Bradfield’s, Palm and Little Swifts that normally breed in Windhoek go during the last few, dry summers? Why do many birds flock into an area where rain has recently fallen, but not into another with the same recent rain? How do hole-nesting birds monitor potential nest sites during the non-breeding season so they can quickly start nesting when breeding opportunities suddenly arrive after the first summer rains? Most wetland birds move around to breed in ephemeral wetlands (those that carry water in certain wet seasons, but not at other times) in southern Africa. But it is not known where all these wetlands are, or which are the most important and in need of conservation. I think we should know.

Getting the timing right

What factors control the timing of the long process of breeding and growth, which usually starts with the production of eggs or seeds and only ends when an animal or plant reaches maturity? The challenge is this:

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

39

the start of breeding should be triggered at the right time so that later, more demanding stages of breeding happen when there is adequate sustenance for the growing young. Eggs or seeds are relatively cheap to produce, and embryos need little sustenance to develop compared with larger offspring who require greater investment and nourishment.

That’s simple biology. Incidentally, the triggers that start breeding are called proximate factors, while ultimate factors are those that largely determine the success of later survival. Changing day length and rainfall are often proximate factors, while food supply is generally the most important ultimate factor.

Here is an example. What proximate factors stimulate springbok to rut, come into oestrus and conceive? Getting the start wrong may mean that foetuses fail to develop, or milk supplies are inadequate for young lambs, or young weaned springbok find themselves without adequate grazing or water to drink. Bear in mind that springbok lambs are born on average 25 weeks after conception, and then only stop suckling at an average age of 17 weeks. Ideally, a ram and ewe thus need to start matters when they can be reasonably confident that conditions over the next 42 weeks will be favourable for their foetus, their suckling and then the weaned lamb. Timing is important!

In a similar way, how do frogs, millipedes, terrapins, scorpions and termites judge when to waken and emerge from their underground retreats? When it first rains, or is it better to wait for more rain, more plant growth and more favourable opportunities for feeding and breeding? Which strategy wins: gambling on short-term options or waiting for potentially better returns later in the season? What mechanisms are used to make those choices?

The same questions hold for plants: when is it best to sprout new leaves, to flower, to disperse seed, and to germinate? Should all seeds germinate at once, or is it better to stagger them into different cohorts? How do these strategies differ between annual plants that have only one growing season and perennials that survive for years?

Determinants of growth, survival and reproductive performance among large herbivores

Conservation measures in Namibia are mostly directed at large herbivores: kudu, gemsbok, impala, rhino, lechwe, elephant and giraffe, for example. These animals have value in their own right, of course. But we also conserve them because the greater their number, the more we earn from tourism, live sales, meat and trophies.

Numbers are important.

Surely, then, we should know the details of what makes their numbers: what proportions of young herbivores survive to breed, at what age does breeding start and when does it stop, how often do they breed?

Which factors reduce the numbers of adults and at what rates?

Ecology 101.

And yet, while the major factors – nutrition and water supply, health and disease, predation – that affect herbivore populations are pretty clear, we know very little about how these limiting factors combine to determine herbivore populations. Why does one farm have 100 kudu, but its neighbour 300? How does drought decimate populations – what age groups are hardest hit, and by which specific processes: a lack of water or food, increased disease or predation, or combinations of any of these?

40

Impact of parasites and diseases on animals and plants

Rabies and anthrax are quite well known, as are their effects on certain large mammals and humans. But there are lots of other diseases and parasites. What and where are they, what species do they affect, how, when and why?

The methods of transmission of many diseases are not known, nor are the species that suffer most from specific diseases. Could it be that pangolins, martial eagles and aardvarks are uncommon because diseases limit their longevity or ability to breed? And why are the many rare plants, reptiles and frogs in Namibia so few in number, or limited in distribution? How is behaviour, habitat selection, water and energy intake influenced by risk and the measures animals might take to avoid infection?

Herbert Schneider in his 1994 book Animal health and veterinary medicine in Namibia lists dozens of different diseases and parasites then known to afflict large wild mammals: 22 parasite species found on kudu, 18 parasites on warthog. Hartebeest and gemsbok are each affected by 8 different diseases. These cover the relatively well-studied species. How many more diseases and parasites that affect other animals and plants in Namibia await discovery?

How do widely spaced animals communicate and maintain a social network?

Namibia has many naturally rare animals. Neighbours are widely spaced, many perhaps at distances of 10, 20, or even 30 kilometres. Examples are servals, pangolins, black-footed cats, Cape foxes, wild dogs, spotted hyaenas, African wildcats, aardvarks, hedgehogs and pythons. Doubtless there are many others. While some of these are quite abundant in some places, elsewhere their populations are sparse.

A major challenge faced by these animals is this: how to know their social landscapes. How do they find mates, and how do dispersing young animals find gaps where they can settle, or challenge aging residents for their territories? Are sounds or smells produced that can be detected 10 or 20 kilometres away? Do marking spots become traditional information hubs, post offices if you like, regularly visited and marked by everyone in the neighbourhood; where each individual leaves a distinct pheromone cocktail to reveal its gender, age, sexual condition… like Facebook posts stuck on a tree in the bush?

How can fear among wild animals be mitigated?

The earth is dominated by people and animals that fear them. Those animals living in the remaining patches of suitable habitat spend much of their time avoiding people, secretively limiting their feeding to ensure they won’t be seen, whether in hidden places or at silent times. But we also know that animals can become accustomed to our presence and live happily alongside us. How does that acclimatisation happen? The scientific literature is chock-full of studies describing how animals fear people. Now let’s encourage research on how figurative and literal fences can be taken down between us and those who journey with us on this planet.

Of course, not all animals are welcome bed-fellows – lions and mosquitoes should be kept at a distance, and some animals, such as pangolins and abalone, are best off looking after themselves in secluded places!

The movements of a young, non-breeding female Cape Vulture between 2005 and 2010.

How did she navigate, when did she decide to leave one area and go somewhere else, and how did she decide where that somewhere was to be?

A similar challenge concerns measures to encourage animals to diversify their food and habitat choices, to being more generalist and less specialist species. The greater the diversity of food they can eat or habitats they can occupy, the more options and possibilities they will have to breed and live. The extremely successful Mauritius Kestrel conservation programme employed this approach. The total world population in 1974 was down to just three males and one female kestrel, all living in one remaining patch of primary forest.

Dozens of kestrels were then bred in captivity, many of which were released and acclimated to living in secondary forests and other degraded habitats where a much wider range of prey was available to them than before. Nowadays there are about 800 Mauritius Kestrels. Go and see them.

How you can be a part of the quest for knowledge

in Namibia. For those who see merit in that crazy, but fun chase of knowledge, I suggest two mental exercises.

First, imagine what you would do if you were a camel-thorn tree that needed your seeds germinate in the best places and at the best times.

Or, if you were a rare bat that needed a mate? What would you do to solve that or any other logical problem.

Second, train yourself – at least for some of the time – to look for what you don’t know, and what you don’t see. When next taking a walk, list in your mind the plants or animals you would expect to see, but then don’t.

Ask yourself why. Curiosity is a pursuit of answers. But answers don’t come before questions. Set the quest and have fun.

These questions are intended to spark curious minds, to stimulate the pursuit of answers that will advance both science and conservation

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

41

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Gerhard Thirion

IN ACTION

42

By Giraffe Conservation Foundation If you see a group of primary school learners quietly walking in single-file through a dry riverbed, or gathered in a group closely inspecting something on the ground in the Daan Viljoen Game Reserve, then you have probably encountered a Khomas Environmental Education Programme (KEEP) excursion.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

43

O

perating from our home-base in Windhoek, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) is the only organisation in the world that concentrates solely on the conservation and management of giraffes in the wild throughout Africa. Although GCF currently operates in 15 African countries, we realised some years ago that many primary school learners in our own Khomas Region around Windhoek have never visited a national park or even seen a wild animal. This sparked our determination to make a difference by designing and implementing an environmental education programme in 2016. Based on participation numbers, KEEP is the largest interactive field-based environmental education programme in Namibia. Since inception, the GCF KEEP team has hosted over 9,000 Grade 3 and 4 primary school learners from the Khomas Region – 75% of them from often under-resourced government schools.

We developed KEEP as a means of reconnecting young Namibians with nature and inspiring them to care for their environment. Our programme complements the national school curriculum by taking relevant topics from the classroom out into nature. When they are out in the bush with our KEEP team, children can have fun while learning about the ways of the wild and the role they can play in caring for the environment. An increased awareness and greater understanding of the environment will open the minds of these young Namibians and encourage their curiosity about environmental issues in their own communities. It may also change their behaviour in relation to the environment around their own homes, which, in the long-term, will improve their living conditions.

KEEP operates in the Daan Viljoen Game Reserve, some 20 kilometres west of Windhoek. The learners spend a whole school day on a threekilometre educational hike in the reserve, guided and taught by the KEEP team which consists of three Nature Conservation graduates from the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST). Along the way they learn about important plant species, how to track and identify animals by their tracks and/or droppings. The activities also include a number of fun interactive games that keep the children engaged throughout the experience. During open discussions, often held under a shady tree, they explore relevant and important environmental topics such as the natural balance in ecosystems, climate change, water saving and waste management. All these topics are directly linked to their home environments and show the learners how their actions and lifestyles affect our fragile environment.

The most popular activity throughout the hike is looking for animal tracks and droppings. Oftentimes the learners are rewarded with seeing the animals whose tracks they are following: giraffe, wildebeest, gemsbok, jackal, baboon, ostrich, and occasionally even brown hyaena.

For many of the learners this is the first time they see these wild animals in their natural habitat.

While the members of our KEEP team have a large store of knowledge to impart to their young charges, they are trained to ask questions rather than give lectures. By asking pertinent and relevant questions, they encourage the learners to explore the process of figuring things out by themselves. In the same way, the KEEP team encourages the

44

learners to ask their own questions. This process could fundamentally change the way learners think and care about nature, their own environments and each other. After a busy morning in the bush, learning and questioning, we hope that these children will return home curious and eager to learn more about their environment, and to share what they have learned with their family and friends.

Each learner receives a KEEP Field Day Workbook at the start of the hike. This valuable resource combines interesting environmental facts with writing and observational activities for learners to complete both while they are on the hike and at home. This encourages the children to work through the activities at home, perhaps together with their families and friends.

Beyond introducing around 2,500 Namibian school children to nature each year, KEEP provides a future in conservation work for Namibian students. Besides our permanent staff of three passionate young graduates, other NUST students visit KEEP every year as part of their programme to learn about environmental education as a potential career path. The KEEP team loves sharing their passion for not only giraffes but nature in general with young learners during each field excursion and inspiring future NUST graduates to pursue opportunities in environmental education. According to KEEP Team Leader Naemi Antonius:

“Not many of our fellow graduates enjoy their jobs as much as we do! It is exhausting at times, especially on hot summer days, but still, we love what we are doing.”­ GCF would not be able to implement KEEP without our partners and their support: the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism provides access to Daan Viljoen Game Reserve and the Ministry of Education grants permission for learners to be out in the field during school hours.

Running an environmental education programme is not cheap – we would not be able to run KEEP without our many local and international donors who provide means to pay for our staff, transport, healthy snacks and printing costs. Our international donors include zoos (Auckland, Blank Park, Brevard, Woodland Park and The Living Desert Zoos) and foundations (The Waterloo Foundation and Galanthus Foundation), and we also receive amazing local support from Nedbank Go Green Fund, Pupkewitz Foundation, Rotary Club Windhoek, Tourism Supporting Conservation (TOSCO) and Natural Selection. With their generous support we hope to make a difference in the lives of young Namibians, who are the key to unlocking a sustainable future for our country.

For more information on KEEP, visit our website https:// giraffeconservation.org/programmes/keep/

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

45

Swakopmund gets a brand new

Dirk Heinrich

Education for Sustainable Development centre

46

Namibian Chamber of Environment (NCE) interview with Panduleni Haindongo Images by NaDEET

The Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) established a centre in the NamibRand Nature Reserve on the edge of the Namib Desert 17 years ago with the aim of educating school children and teachers on topics relating to sustainable development. NaDEET has reached over 14,000 Namibian children and their teachers through organised school trips to the Namib centre and educational work books translated into five Namibian languages. For the centre’s transformative approach to environmental education, NaDEET received the UNESCO Japan Prize for Education for Sustainable Development in 2018. This award greatly encouraged the NaDEET team to expand their work, particularly to reach people in urban areas. Therefore some of the prize money was used to open a new educational centre in Swakopmund.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

47

W

e interviewed Panduleni Haindongo, NaDEET’s environmental educator and communications officer, to find out more about the new centre in Swakopmund.

Q: When people think of environmental education, they think about conserving the wilderness far away from towns and cities. Why did NaDEET feel that a centre in an urban area like Swakopmund was needed?

This programme mainly focuses on understanding the environment they live in. As a coastal town in the desert, Swakopmund provides a very good learning environment. On educational explorations around the town, learners find out first-hand how nature sustains our lifestyle and they see for themselves the impacts on the environment such as pollution and land degradation caused by humans. Learners thus come to understand real world issues relating to urban living. The programme challenges them to build sustainable cities using their different talents and also encourages them to act at their schools and at home to protect the environment.

A: Namibia’s demographics are changing. We now have more people living in urban areas than in rural areas. We wanted to have a centre in an area where we could reach many more people as quickly as possible. The urban centre gives us an opportunity to teach about the impacts of our daily lives on the environment. We must also look at conserving the environment in our own backyards.

To ensure that we have sufficient time with the learners, our programmes take three days each and are therefore like a “class field trip”, without leaving town! Classes from schools outside of Swakopmund can stay at the Youth Hostel, which is within walking distance from our centre.

Q: We face so many global environmental challenges today, like climate change, drought and water shortages, and plastic waste in the ocean, to name a few. What would you like visitors to your new centre to learn about these issues and what they can do about them?

Q: Perhaps even more important than educating individual children is ensuring that teachers know how to integrate environmental issues into their curricula, as they influence so many children every day. Can you tell us more about your programmes aimed specifically at teachers?

A: First we expose visitors at the centre to the various environmental problems by letting them explore a section of the centre entirely dedicated to showcasing local and global environmental challenges.

Our visitors thus realise how their daily lifestyles and choices contribute to these environmental problems, especially in urban areas.

The centre further highlights how much cities and urban areas depend on the environment.

A: Our programmes are aimed at providing teachers with practical knowledge that they can use to implement Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in their daily lessons and activities. As one of the cross curricula topics in the Namibian school curriculum, ESD should be taught throughout all grades and teachers should be able to provide their learners with practical activities relating to sustainability.

Teachers who participate in our programmes learn the fundamental approaches to teaching sustainability and are empowered to implement ESD using a whole school approach.

The main feature of the centre is the EcoHouse. This is a 5 x 5 metre activity house with interactive displays that demonstrate how daily behavioural lifestyle choices have an impact. For example, in the “living room” there are energy activities such as comparing incandescent light bulbs with LED light bulbs. Using the different areas of the house, visitors can also calculate their own ecological footprints to determine how their lifestyles affect the environment. This experience gives most visitors quite an “aha” moment!

Q: Children are the key to a sustainable future. What will the groups of schoolchildren visiting your new centre learn? What does a typical school group programme look like?

A: Our programme for school children is designed to make sustainability an active learning experience, which means that learners are engaged in a lot of hands-on and exploration activities.

48

Q: Can anyone visit your new Swakopmund centre? What can they expect to learn there and how long does the average visit take?

A: The centre is open to everyone for a semi-guided tour, during which visitors can expect to learn how their lifestyles and behaviours towards biodiversity, energy, water and waste in urban areas affect the environment. Visitors can explore the changes that they can make in their lifestyles to minimize their impact on the environment. They also learn about the different energy, water and biodiversity resources that Namibia has and what happens to local waste in Swakopmund. An average tour takes about 45 minutes to one hour, depending on the visitors’ interest in the topics covered and the time they have to spend with us.

Q: Where exactly is your new centre and what are the opening hours?

A: It is in the Green Centre on 5 Libertina Amathila Avenue, a fiveminute walk from the Jetty. The entrance is right next to the Snake Park. We are open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Q: If groups of teachers want to come for a full day or multi-day workshop with NaDEET or if they want to bring their school classes on a field trip, how can they make a booking?

Erongo region teachers at NaDEET Urban Sustainability Centre during the sustainability workshop they had in February.

A: We work in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MEAC) who supports us with the coordination of teacher workshops. We send our requests for teachers to participate in our workshops via the Erongo Regional Director of Educations office or the other regional education offices. The MEAC then sends us teachers from relevant teaching phases to participate in our workshops in line with the content and target for each workshop.

Teachers who want to bring their learners to take part in our programmes can contact our office telephonically or via email and we will send them the booking forms. Bookings have to be done in advance and we encourage teachers who want to bring their learners to book as early as possible.

NCE: We hope your new centre is a great success and that you will reach many more Namibians and even international visitors with your message of urban sustainable living.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

49

Unlocking the

Elzanne McCulloch

treasure box Shifting sand slowly engulfs the historic mining village at Bogenfels.

Text and images by Antje Burke

Most of Namibia’s development was built on diamonds. Since 1908, when one of the richest diamond placers on earth was discovered, millions of carats of first-class gem and industrial diamonds have been mined from deposits in the far south-western corner of the country. To protect the diamond industry, the deposits have been locked away in a restricted area for more than 100 years. Except for the occasional determined researcher, only miners, mining support services and government officials have so far been allowed to visit the enigmatic Sperrgebiet – the restricted diamond area.

50

B

ut the diamond resource on land is dwindling, causing the mining activities to shift ever further towards the vast resources that still remain offshore. This means that the area can finally be put to other uses. In 2008, notably 100 years since the first diamond was discovered here, the restricted area was proclaimed as the Sperrgebiet National Park (later renamed the Tsau //Khaeb National Park) and added to Namibia’s protected area network. The new national park has nonetheless remained off-limits to the public due to diamond-related security concerns.

The long-term vision for the park is to open up parts of the area for controlled tourism. The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) are currently engaged in discussions to find a balance between limiting security risks to the diamond industry and developing tourism. With the help of donor funding, largely from Germany (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau), the administrative tasks, planning and building infrastructure for park management and tourism facilities are underway.

As one of the few researchers who have been privileged to visit the restricted diamond area, I am excited to introduce you to some of the treasures that have been locked away for so long. This is just a taste of what awaits the intrepid explorers who will visit the Sperrgebiet in the near future.

Diverse landscapes created by fascinating geological processes

The Sperrgebiet encompasses a stunning mosaic of scenery changing from wide open spaces to intricate rocky landscapes with isolated mountains (known as inselbergs), shifting dunes and formidable mountain ranges, connected by valleys and prehistoric dry rivers that deposited invaluable artefacts of geological times gone by. Unique features such as the Bogenfels rock arch or the Roter Kamm meteorite crater have become well-known despite the access restrictions. Yet, scattered throughout the area, there are many other eye-catching features chiselled into the rocks through eons of wind erosion, waiting to be admired and photographed by future visitors to this beautiful area.

Severe wind erosion sculpted the surface of the syenite exposed at Granitberg, a reminder of volcanic activity in the early Cretaceous.

Several phases of continental movements, ocean formation, mountain building, erosion and sedimentation processes shaped the aweinspiring landscapes of the Sperrgebiet. The results of these earthforming processes can be admired in some of the most ancient rock formations to be found in Namibia. The oldest rock found in the Sperrgebiet was formed 1500-1200 million years ago (mya). Examples of this rock include: the meta-sedimentary rock (largely gneiss) of the Namaqua Metamorphic Complex exposed around Lüderitz and the mountains in the northern part of the park known as Kowis Mountains, Haalenberg and Tsaukaib. The Gariep Group of deformed sedimentary and volcanic rock is only slightly younger – laid down during another phase of mountain building and sedimentation processes 900-500 mya. The famous Bogenfels rock arch in the Sperrgebiet is one of the most impressive remnants from this period.

Buntfeldschuh – capped by a weather-resistant sandstone, the ridge preserves one of the early Tertiary shorelines of some 55 million years ago.

The Nama Group of limestones was the next major sediment deposit that formed within a shallow marine basin some 550500 mya. The limestone is now exposed for all to see in the Tsaus and Swartkloof mountains in the eastern part of the park. This geological feature extends east towards the Huib Hoch-Plateau and the Fish River Canyon.

The break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana during the early Cretaceous (145-133 mya) left several witnesses of these geologically turbulent times, such as carbonatite plugs (formed from calcium-rich magma) and other intrusive rocks. Examples of these rocks can be found at Granitberg, Signalberg and Karingarab. Granitberg is an inselberg that rises high above the surrounding landscape, while Signalberg and Karingarab are much lower rocky outcrops. Subsequent erosion and the rising sea level deposited sediments that are today exposed as silcretes in only a few places, such as around Pomona. Silcretes are hard crusts composed largely of silica, which is more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock.

A wetter period during the early Tertiary (60-45 mya) created a network of rivers draining towards the sea, many of which are rich in fossils (e.g. Blaubock and Langental). The numerous volcanic eruptions during this period created the Klinghardt phonolites and the volcanic cone of Schwarzer Berg to the east of Pomona.

Phonolite is a type of volcanic rock that contains relatively large amounts of the mineral nepheline – it is commonly known as ‘clinkstone’ because of the clinking sound it makes when two pieces are struck together.

The early Tertiary also marks the beginning of the diamond history when the Orange River began transporting diamonds from Kimberlite pipes in Lesotho and the South African Highveld.

Since then diamonds have continuously been transported via the Orange River into the Atlantic Ocean. Along this ‘conveyor belt’ some diamonds were left behind on terraces along the river, while others were finally dropped into the Atlantic. Parts of these marine deposits were then washed ashore. Through this process the diamond-rich material was deposited in linear beaches, valleys and localised pockets all along the Namibian coast. The concentration and size of diamonds decreased the further they were deposited from the Orange River mouth.

These remnants of beach-crests in Namdeb’s Mining Area 1 are a typical example of the linear beach deposits containing diamonds.

The seal colony at Van Rheenen Bay attracts many brown hyaenas.

Unrivalled biodiversity

Almost a quarter of the plant species in Namibia occur in the diamond area that covers only 2.5% of Namibia’s land surface. About 30 of the plant species found in the Sperrgebiet are endemic to the area. To see these weird and wonderful plants that have adapted to life in the desert, you need to go at just the right time after the rains and look closely – mostly on your hand and knees!

The plants are not the only biological attraction in the Sperrgebiet. A population of brown hyaena thrives in the area, and they can often be seen near the second-largest seal colony in Namibia. Desert specialists like springbok, gemsbok and ostrich live in this trackless wilderness, and a suite of smaller predators (for example jackals and Cape foxes) follow their prey. Flocks of shorebirds migrate up and down the coastline and to and from the offshore islands. Some of the birds reside at the Orange River Mouth, which is a Ramsar site (wetland of global importance).

We still know very little about the smaller wildlife, including insects, reptiles and amphibians, but scientists expect that at least the insect diversity will be similar to the plant diversity. As more scientists head to the Sperrgebiet, we can expect more amazing discoveries of unique fauna and flora.

52

Churches at the historic sites, here at Affenrücken, in the high security Mining Area 1 served the spiritual needs of the miners.

Captivating history

The Sperrgebiet diamonds laid the foundation for Namibia’s development and the area is therefore host to some important historical sites. The mining ghost towns of Elizabeth Bay, Pomona and Bogenfels tell a story of the hardships, delights and daily toils of the early miners. Remains of living quarters, machinery, various means of transport, water supply infrastructure and many other items illustrate the working and living conditions of more than a century ago. History buffs will be well occupied by exploring these long abandoned settlements in the sand.

Let’s not forget one of the most significant historical finds of the area – the priceless 16th century Portuguese trading vessel Bom Jesus. Uncovered in 2008 during mining work on the ocean floor, this ship contained a treasure of gold, priceless nautical instruments, trading goods and other artefacts. This incredible find will keep archaeologists and historians busy for many years while they piece together its enthralling history.

Dr Antje Burke is an environmental scientist who has been advising the government and private sector on environmental matters in Namibia for over 30 years. Her current focus is on biodiversity, rehabilitation and mine closure planning. With a long list of research publications to her name, she is a widely respected biodiversity researcher in her field.

The Namib Desert flora has fascinated Antje for a lifetime. Her field guide series on wild flowers of the Namib Desert, which includes those found in the Sperrgebiet, is a testimony to this.

She has a great passion for the Sperrgebiet, particularly its flora.

Much still remains to be done to make visiting the Sperrgebiet a reality, but there is no doubt that it will attract many Namibians and international visitors to discover this natural treasure for themselves. The over 100-year wait has nearly ended! The current plan for tourism caters mainly for the highend market, but personally I hope that provision will be made for ordinary Namibians to visit the Sperrgebiet on affordable guided tours.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

53

Nowhere else on earth – the Sperrgebiet’s endemic flora

Text and images by Antje Burke

54

One of the many exceptional things about the new Tsau //Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park is its plant diversity. Many of the plants found there are endemic – they occur nowhere else on earth!

Once the new park is open to the public, more people will have a chance to see these plants while enjoying the scenic beauty of the Sperrgebiet. The influx of visitors and the development of tourism infrastructure may, however, threaten this botanical treasure chest if it is not planned with the plants in mind. Let me introduce you to some of these fascinating plants and tell you more about how we plan to protect them while developing the park for tourism.

T

he Sperrgebiet’s exceptional plant diversity and endemism is mainly due to its diverse mosaic of landscapes and unusual climate. This is the northernmost tip of the Succulent Karoo biome, so called because succulents (plants with waterstoring leaves or stems) are the most common plants in this biome. The coastal strip presents a different habitat to the inland Succulent Karoo and thus supports many Sperrgebiet endemics, such as some small shrubs of the daisy or parsley family. The greatest species diversity, however, is found in the mountains – such as the Aurus, Klinghardt and Obib ranges. Each mountain range supports many hundreds of plant species.

While the iconic quiver trees and other aloes will attract most of the attention from future park visitors, the most intriguing plants for botanists like me are the cryptic dwarf succulents and low-growing compact succulents. These are commonly known as vygies in Afrikaans or midday flowers in English – botanists call them mesembs. It is amongst these that most of the endemics in the Sperrgebiet evolved. One wonders why?

Research shows that a combination of old and new processes has created the unique conditions required for plant species to proliferate and diversify. While the Namib Desert has existed for at least 43 million years, the mesembs have evolved rapidly and quite recently. Two geographic factors also play a role. First, the Namib stretches over 1000 kilometres from the tropics in the north through the subtropics to the temperate regions in the south, providing a wide variety of different climates. Second, the Sperrgebiet part of the Namib receives both winter and summer rainfall. Some researchers also suggest that the relatively benign temperatures in the Sperrgebiet during the last glacial periods would have enabled tropical species to survive, which would have gone extinct elsewhere.

These factors combine to drive both plant diversity throughout the Namib and endemism particularly within the Sperrgebiet.

Two closely related shrubs, both members of the carrot family (Apiaceae), are endemic to the Sperrgebiet – Polemanniopsis namibensis (left) and Marlothiella gummifera (right).

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

55

Barely more than 10 cm high, these two dwarf Tylecodon species grow only in the Heioab-Aurus mountain range: T. aridimontanus (main image on previous page) and T. aurusbergensis (above).

Conservation is especially important for endemic species, but the term “endemic” covers a wide range of possibilities. The area covered by an endemic species could be an entire country (e.g. Namibia), a biome that straddles country borders (e.g. the Succulent Karoo), a particular part of a biome (e.g. Sperrgebiet), or only one special habitat where that species occurs (e.g. a specific soil type on only one mountain). As a general principle, the smaller the area in which a plant or animal species occurs, the more protection it requires. The most vulnerable species are those that occur in one locality only, such as on a mountain, or even a particular habitat on a mountain – these are known as local or point endemics. The Sperrgebiet has several of these locally endemic species that could be threatened by seemingly innocuous developments like viewpoints and hiking trails if these are placed within their highly specific habitats.

To complicate matters further, endemism and rarity are not necessarily linked. Although a country’s endemics are rare in a global sense, not all of the national endemics are equally rare or abundant.

Some grow in a wide range of habitats and climate zones and in great numbers; others may have a large geographic range, but within that range they occur at only a few localities and in low numbers. While both “rare” and “common” endemics are important to conserve, they clearly require different management strategies. Both types of endemics occur in the Sperrgebiet, so guiding tourism infrastructure development will require detailed knowledge of these species.

Besides the importance of endemic species for their own intrinsic value, they are also useful indicators for sensitive habitats.

Concentrations of endemics raise a red flag for planning developments in the area around these plants. Botanists must then compile a detailed review of the species in that location and anticipate the impacts of the proposed development. If a plant has only ever been recorded from that particular spot and it is likely that most of the individuals of this species will be eliminated by the development, then we must proceed with utmost caution. First, the area and other likely habitats should be scouted for more of these plants. If they are not found and the spot is indeed the only place where they occur,

56

Mesembs constitute the most diverse group of plants in the Sperrgebiet.

Antimima aurasensis (top) is endemic to the Sperrgebiet, but Stoeberia utilis (bottom) also occurs in northern Namaqualand in South Africa.

then the development should either be stopped or shifted to another place with less sensitive habitats.

Although this may all sound logical and straightforward, it is not as simple as it seems.

Very few people know about these endemics and are able to identify them. The Sperrgebiet endemics have been reasonably well protected for over 100 years due to its status as a highly restricted area, but change is on the horizon. It is therefore of utmost importance that those responsible for the protection of natural resources in the park, such as park managers and conservation scientists, can identify these endemic plants and recognise their relative rarity.

I have embarked on a project in collaboration with the National Botanical Research Institute and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to describe and catalogue the park’s endemics, map their distribution, and provide an illustrated guide.

The Namibian Chamber of Environment has committed to supporting this project with funding from B2Gold and Total Namibia. This information will not only help park managers and scientists, but it will also be available to students, tour guides and members of the public who are interested in the Sperrgebiet’s fascinating flora.

My goal for this project is to provide the tools to protect the area’s unique biodiversity while at the same time allowing tourism development and increased access to the public. Conservation and tourism must go hand-in-hand to ensure that our natural treasures are enjoyed and preserved both now and into the distant future.

The timing has to be right to catch one of the Sperrgebiet’s bulb endemics such as Drimia secunda.

Penny-sized leaves and beautiful, delicate flowers emerge from a Pelargonium sibthorpiifolium bulb after rain.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

57

58

Save the Rhino Trust

Signs of success An overview of the Combatting Wildlife Crime Project

By Ginger Mauney and Samson Mulonga The illegal trade in wildlife is estimated to be worth up to US$ 20 billion (N$ 300 billion) per year. Shocking, yes, but wildlife crime statistics are even more harrowing when they are measured in lives: • 20,000 African elephants are killed each year – an average of 55 a day.

• 9,000 rhinos poached across Africa over the last decade.

• 300 pangolins are poached every day, making it the most illegally trafficked mammal in the world.

• 269 rangers were killed across Africa between 2012 and 2018, the majority of them by poachers.

W

ildlife crime is driven by demand from markets primarily in Asia, and the perpetrators are poachers, middle-men, and criminal syndicates operating from countries around the world. This illegal trade has negative impacts on Namibia’s economy, on local, regional and international security, as well as the heritage and natural resources that we wish to pass on to our children for their future use and enjoyment. This is theft on a massive scale, and the criminals are stealing from each and every one of us.

Recognising the urgent need to stop the plundering of Africa’s natural resources, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) began funding the 5-year, 5-country Combatting Wildlife Crime Project (CWCP) in 2017. The five countries covered by the project are Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which together have established the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA). This project aims to increase rhino numbers in

Namibia and reduce poaching of elephants so that their range can expand in select regions of the KAZA conservation area.

The scale of the problem is so vast that everyone must work together, recognising that no single approach will end wildlife crime. Collaborative approaches include raising awareness, building capacity, benefitting communities, putting a stop to poaching, and strengthening investigations and prosecution.

By creating synergy between the many different partners working on these different aspects of wildlife crime, those involved in the CWCP project are giving wildlife and communities a fighting chance against the global crime syndicates that drive poaching.

The project, which is now two years old, involves thirteen partners including WWF Offices in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Legal Assistance Centre, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), the Namibia Association of CBNRM Support Organizations, the Namibia Development Trust, Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF), the

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

59

Save the Rhino Trust Namibia (SRT), and ACADIR in Angola and Ecoexist in Botswana. Together, the partners are driving concrete results, and this time the numbers favour communities and conservation, rather than poachers.

Put a stop to the poaching

29,139 - that’s the number of kilometres covered by SRT trackers and Rhino Rangers on foot patrols in a single year in north-western Namibia. This is one of the reasons why the next number – the number of rhino poaching incidents over the past two years in this remote, rugged landscape – is zero. The communities living in this area have become a critical part of our efforts to combat rhino poaching, as they are aware of the value of rhinos both to the tourism economy and as part of their natural heritage.

The groundwork for these results was laid nearly forty years ago when SRT and IRDNC began working in the area, and it has been strengthened by community involvement, increased patrols and cooperation between CWCP partners and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT).

register of most of the pending wildlife crime cases and sends weekly reminders of pending cases to MEFT and NAMPOL investigators.

Furthermore, the Legal Assistance Centre, TRAFFIC and the KAZA Secretariat organised national and regional workshops to increase awareness about the seriousness of wildlife crime and unlock highlevel support within the prosecutorial and judicial sectors in the five KAZA countries.

This is a small sample of key results achieved by the CWCP partners in the project’s second year of operation. Along with creating tangible wildlife-related benefits for communities, progress in conservation agriculture and the establishment of Transboundary Forums, combatting wildlife crime is an important part of protecting critically endangered black rhinos and allowing elephants across the region to thrive. Once the criminal syndicates can no longer steal our natural resources, our communities and countries can truly realise the benefits of living with wildlife now and for generations to come.

Close collaboration with the Namibian Police, intelligence-led investigations and additional security measures resulted in 11 instances where poachers were arrested before they killed a single rhino in the communal areas of north-western Namibia. These arrests helped to protect the last free-roaming population of black rhinos left in the world which is essential to the growing rhino-based tourism economy in Namibia’s north-western communal conservancies.

Strengthened investigations and prosecution

Even after poachers are arrested they can still pose a threat to our wildlife if they are not convicted and sentenced according to the severity of their crime. Stiff fines and meaningful guidelines for sentencing for wildlife crimes are mandated by Namibia’s legal codes, but to be effective, they must be enforced by the courts and backed by equally strong penalties in our neighbouring countries. Consequently, thorough investigations leading to convictions in the courts are critical to ensuring not only that justice is done, but also to reinforce the message that the risks of committing wildlife crimes are not worth the rewards.

To that end, MEFT and its partners developed a wildlife crime database accessible to the Namibian police (NAMPOL) which helped to achieve a tipping point in intelligence-led investigations during the last year.

Investigators from across the diverse law enforcement units who are fighting different aspects of wildlife crime no longer operate in “information silos”, but rather share information and act upon their collective intelligence. This has strengthened the collaborative investigation efforts to pre-empt poaching, and helped investigators identify and link criminal poaching and trafficking networks.

Since the programme’s inception more than 300 community game guards have received scene-of-crime training, 250 government rangers have been trained in matters related to law enforcement, and partner NGOs such as ACADIR, Ecoexist, IRDNC, NNF, SRT and WWF have used their reach in their respective areas to create awareness of wildlife crime among over 18,500 people in the five KAZA countries; 95% of those reached come from communities in areas which are affected by poaching.

In the courts the Prosecutor General established an Environmental Crimes Unit (ECU) consisting of 43 prosecutors. With support from MEFT and the Rooikat Trust, a court monitor maintains an up-to-date

60

References:

1. UNEP-INTERPOL Report: The Rise of Environmental Crime, June 2016 2. United Nations Environment Programme, 17 February 2020, press release, www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/ three-ways-united-nations-environment-programme-worksaddress-illegal-trade 3. State of the Rhino 2019, International Rhino Foundation 4. WildAid, February 2020, https://wildaid.org/programs/ pangolins/ 5. The price of protecting rhinos, Cathleen O’Grady, The Atlantic, January 13, 2020

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

61

Jo Tagg

What is being done to fight

WILDLIFE CRIME IN NAMIBIA?

By Helge Denker

Images by Namibian Partnerships against Environmental Crime

Namibia has experienced a severe surge in wildlife crime over the past decade. Although criminals will traffic anything that makes money, there are currently three main high-value targets: elephants for their ivory, rhinos for their horns and pangolins for their scales and flesh.

T

who bear the highest risk but nevertheless receive the lowest reward for their involvement in wildlife crime. Poachers risk getting attacked by wild animals, or caught in armed confrontations with law enforcement personnel. Poachers make up the biggest segment of arrested suspects of wildlife crime. Dealers and fixers (mostly influential urbanites), who enable contraband to be trafficked out of the country to international markets, are less often caught and thus carry less risk, yet make the most money.

Wildlife crime involves all sectors of society. Rural people living in poverty may see this as a way out, yet they are usually the ones

An average of 1.2 wildlife crime cases was registered per day in Namibia during 2019. Of these, 174 involved high-value species.

The pangolin has become the most targeted species – 123 were

he public is broadly aware of the ‘poaching problem’ and a sense of urgency to do something about it has led to tremendous support. Yet the complexity of wildlife crime is poorly understood, creating a sense of frustration that not enough is being done. Namibia’s conservation entities, law enforcement agencies and judiciary are doing a lot. Crime fighting requires a high degree of secrecy to be effective, and therefore not everything can be made public. But many initiatives and successes can be shared.

62

Most of the 49 live pangolins seized during 2019 could be rehabilitated and released.

seized during 2019 (49 of which were alive and most could be rehabilitated and released). Of 160 suspects arrested in 2019 on charges related to pangolin poaching, 21 (13%) were convicted the same year. The remainder are in custody awaiting trial (66%), are out on bail (12%) or currently have an indeterminate status.

During 2019, 116 elephant tusks were seized, representing at least 58 dead elephants. Yet, based on carcasses found, it appears that only 12 elephants were poached in Namibia. While some carcasses may not have been discovered, it is unlikely to be as many as 46.

This suggests prolific ivory trafficking through Namibia from other countries. The source can seldom be determined, but it is clear that a significant percentage comes from neighbouring countries.

An estimated 45 rhinos were poached in Namibia during 2019.

This figure is based on the estimated date of death of discovered carcasses. This means that old carcasses are added to the statistics of previous years. Annual poaching estimates for previous years may thus increase as carcasses are discovered. While the number for

2019 is lower than the estimate for 2018 (74 rhinos), it is possible that more carcasses will be found that were poached in 2019.

Namibia is employing a great range of initiatives to fight wildlife crime.

A strong conservation framework provides the foundation, enabling healthy wildlife populations resilient to drought and disease – and to some level of poaching. Namibia’s white rhino population was reestablished over the past three decades, after local extinction during the 1800s. There are now viable numbers in state protected areas and on freehold land. The more wary black rhino was only threatened with local extinction in the decades prior to independence. The population was successfully rebuilt and now occurs in larger numbers than it has for over a hundred years. Namibia’s elephants are also at their most numerous in well over a century, having tripled since independence. The state of the pangolin population is still poorly understood, yet the dual impacts of poaching and electric fencing are undoubtedly a big threat.

Government has established several new agencies to enable targeted responses to wildlife crime, including the Wildlife Protection Services

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

63

Division and the Investigation and Intelligence Unit (IIU) of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT), and the Wildlife Crime Unit under the Office of the Prosecutor-General.

MEFT has also developed a dedicated training facility for antipoaching units and an elite dog unit, specialised in tracking and detecting weapons and wildlife products.

Anti-poaching initiatives are very important. Increased patrol effort, including dedicated rhino rangers, has shown tremendous results in reducing rhino poaching in the Erongo–Kunene Community Conservation Area, where no rhino has been poached throughout 2018 and 2019. Community game guards and broad community support are generally vital components of effective conservation in this area and countrywide.

Top: Rhinos are being dehorned at regular intervals to reduce the risk of poaching; 310 rhinos were dehorned during 2019.

Bottom: The largest ivory seizure of 2019 took place in the Kavango East Region. Twelve large tusks were seized during a sting operation, which also resulted in the arrest of five suspects and the seizure of several firearms.

Law enforcement has recorded increasing successes over the past three years, facilitated by international funding support for field operations. Operation Blue Rhino is a joint initiative between the MEFT IIU and the Protected Resources Division of the Namibian Police Force (NAMPOL), initiated in mid-2018. This has enabled remarkable results, demonstrating the value of political will and a multi-agency approach. With the active support of regional MEFT, NAMPOL and Namibian Defence Force units, the Blue Rhino Task Team has registered well over 550 arrests related to wildlife crime involving high-value species from its inception to the end of February 2020.

Pre-emptive arrests coordinated by the Blue Rhino Task Team represent perhaps the most significant success. Between the start of August 2018 and the end of February 2020, 125 suspects were

64

© Namibian Wildlife Crime Database Five-year comparison of suspects arrested each month. Wildlife crime has undoubtedly increased over the past five years, but law enforcement has also recorded significant successes. Funding support for field operations since the end of 2016 and the inception of the Blue Rhino Task Team in mid-2018 have shown clear impacts.

arrested on charges of conspiring to poach rhino in 29 different cases. The targeted rhinos were thus saved and the knock-on effect is significant. Through the effective use of intelligence and surveillance technology, major syndicates are being disrupted, particularly through the arrests of an increasing number of high-level dealers and kingpins.

International collaboration is enabling the disruption of poaching syndicates that operate across borders.

The Namibian judiciary at times struggles to deal with the huge volume of cases being registered (including high rates of homicide, rape and domestic violence, fraud, theft etc.). Nonetheless, wildlife crime is being treated with seriousness and urgency. A range of legislation is used to charge suspects, including financial crimes and charges under the Prevention of Organised Crimes Act. The past year saw several significant sentences – four years in jail for a Botswana national charged with trafficking four elephant tusks; three years for a Namibian in possession of one pangolin skin; 20 years each for four Chinese nationals who were caught in 2014 attempting to smuggle 14 rhino horns out of Namibia.

Partnerships have long been a strength of the Namibian environmental sector and are proving formidable once again. Conservation and law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, non-governmental organisations, international funding organisations, the business community, the public, as well as diverse counterparts in neighbouring countries and further afield, are all pulling together to fight for Namibia’s wildlife.

Ratio of suspects’ nationalities for arrests involving high-value species recorded in 2019. Contrary to widespread prejudices, Namibians make up the majority of suspects in wildlife crime cases.

Ratio of targeted species for all cases recorded in 2019. Antelopes (targeted for meat) make up the highest percentage of species, while the pangolin is the most targeted high-value species.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

65

Horns and Tusks, Claws and Fangs – The Weapons and Tools of Wild Animals

By Namibia Professional Hunting Association Hunting is part of Namibia’s wildlife conservation strategy as it provides income from wildlife for landowners and people living in communal conservancies. By allocating tangible value to wildlife outside state protected areas, Namibia has managed to expand the habitat available for wild animals on both freehold and communal land. The Namibian government therefore refers to good hunting practices as “conservation hunting” in recognition of its clear benefits for wildlife conservation and the economy.

D

ifferent types of conservation hunting serve different purposes: meat or ‘biltong’ hunting contributes to food security and generates income from the meat sold; culling is practised on fenced farms as a management tool to prevent land degradation caused by too many herbivores; trophy or selective hunting involves selling small numbers of adult male animals at premium prices primarily to international hunting clients. In all three hunting types the meat and hides of the animals are used, with minimal wastage.

The last category of hunting has come under fire in the international media due to the impression that the only purpose of this type of hunting is to take a “trophy” – the horns, tusks and skulls of animals.

66

While some hunters are indeed obsessed with bagging large trophies with little regard for how their hunts contribute to wildlife conservation, many are concerned about their conservation impact. They want hunting experiences in large areas of intact natural habitats that support healthy, well-managed wildlife populations, and they want their trophy fees to support wildlife conservation.

The Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) recognises that an over-emphasis on large trophies can have negative consequences for wildlife conservation. Animals that develop large horns, tusks or manes (in the case of lions) during early adulthood should be kept in the population for as long as possible to ensure that they have the chance to pass their genes to the next generation. Those genes may be lost if

Felix Marnewecke

REWARDING SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION HUNTING IN NAMIBIA

trophy hunters target these animals in the prime of their lives. Although large horns, tusks and manes are not the only indicators of healthy gene pools, dramatic declines of these measurable characteristics over time can indicate over-hunting.

As with any industry that involves many different suppliers (hunting outfitters) and consumers (their clients), it is difficult to control what everyone does using legislation and fines alone. There is a more promising approach, however, to encourage hunters to minimise their impact on genetics by targeting truly old animals that have already bred many times in their lives and are now replaced by younger males. This is the new Age-Related Trophy Measuring System that NAPHA introduces as its standard way of scoring hunting trophies.

Hunters measure the horns, tusks or skulls of the animals they have bagged and the scores from these measurements are entered into international record books maintained by hunting associations. These records can have a positive influence on wildlife management, because any area that continues to produce animals that score highly in the record books over long periods of time must be practicing sustainable hunting methods. The problem with this record-keeping system is that hunting younger animals with exceptional trophy qualities may be inadvertently rewarded. NAPHA’s new trophy measuring system is thus designed to penalise hunters for taking immature animals (regardless of how large the trophy is) and reward them with bonus points for taking animals that are past their prime. This shifts the emphasis away from taking big trophies and towards taking old, big trophies that reflect good wildlife management practices.

In 2010 the Erongo Verzeichnis Group put together a working group of experienced NAPHA affiliated hunters to determine what visible features of a trophy could be used to determine the age of different species. For practical purposes, they do not try to age animals precisely (e.g. number of years), but rather categorise them according to their life stage. Animals in the immature stage of life cannot yet breed and should therefore not be hunted at all. Those in their prime, which are actively breeding, could be hunted but the trophy will not qualify for a bonus. Past-prime animals that have had many years of breeding and are approaching the end of their natural lives are ideal hunting targets. Hunters who bring these trophies for measurement will thus be rewarded with age-related bonus points.

Although determining the age of a trophy is quite technical, the system is based on knowledge of how the horns, tusks and skulls grow and change over time. Immature antelope, for example, have soft, velvety tissue around the base of their horns that is lost once the animal reaches its prime. During their prime, the horn growth slows down and the horns become hard and polished. Over time the horn will show signs of age, like secondary growth around the base and possibly some change in colour, indicating reduced levels of testosterone in old males.

The working group developed similar detailed criteria for animals with tusks (i.e. elephant and warthog) and carnivores. The latter are measured according to skull characteristics. The group avoided using traits that could reflect the local environment more than the age of the animal (e.g. tooth wear, horn breakage) as the basis of their age assessment, although these could be used as supporting evidence.

This new system of record-keeping is part of a much larger effort to define best practices for hunting in Namibia. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism and the Namibian Chamber of Environment are working with NAPHA to develop a comprehensive

Best Practice Guide for conservation hunting in Namibia. This guide will cover every aspect of the Namibian hunting industry – the national and international regulations governing it, animal welfare, the use of correct firearms and ammunition, relationships with landowners and communal conservancies, and game monitoring and management. The guide will be distributed to hunting outfitters and made publicly accessible for hunting clients coming to Namibia.

The Namibian government and its partners understand both the role that hunting plays to achieve sustainable development goals and its potential for negative impacts on wildlife populations in the country.

This new guide will set Namibia apart as a hunting destination that tackles the negative issues head-on through practical interventions like age-related trophy measurements, while maximising the benefits of this form of international tourism. Ultimately, these guidelines will help the hunting industry ensure its long-term sustainability and further increase its positive contribution to Namibian people and wildlife.

Secondary and inward growth in impala past the prime

Large nerve cavity in young warthog tusk (left); small nerve cavity, twisting and laminar growth at base in old warthog (right)

Laminar growth at tusk base in old warthog

The Erongo Verzeichnis Group and its Age-Related Trophy Measuring System are copyrighted to Kai-Uwe Denker.

CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN NAMIBIA 2020

67

The NCE Bursary and Internship programme provides support to carefully selected students in the broad fields of environment and sustainable development. In addition to the more conventional fields of conservation biology, biodiversity, wildlife, forestry, agriculture, water and fisheries, the programme also supports students in the fields of environmental engineering, environmental law, and social, financial, economic and business studies linked to natural resources, environment and sustainable development. Over the past three years 65 students have been awarded bursaries and 25 graduates have been employed on internships with high quality mentoring, to the total investment of N$2.868 million. For the 2020 allocation of bursaries, please see https://n-c-e.org/resource/bursary-and-internshipreport-2020-report-1.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

Reliable information underpins good education, science, policy development, adaptive management, and evidence-led decision-making.

Sadly, far too few decisions in Namibia, at all levels, are based on reliable information. In the environment sector there is absolutely no excuse for not making decisions based on good information. Namibia has one of the best Environmental Information Services (EIS) of any country. This can be accessed free of charge at www.the-eis.com, a recently upgraded and expanded website that includes a new home page, new search engine to simplify and speed up e-library searches, a new section on wildlife crime and environmental impact assessments out for public review, and a new citizen science archaeology section.

PROTECTING PANGOLINS

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE | ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR MINING IN NAMIBIA

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE | ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR MINING IN NAMIBIA

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE | ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR MINING IN NAMIBIA

CARE AND MAINTENANCE, CLOSURE AND COMPLETION

4

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE | ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR MINING IN NAMIBIA

5

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE | ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR MINING IN NAMIBIA

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN MINING How does one have maximum environmental impact in the corporate and business world? By working at the sector level with business leaders and relevant government agencies. The mining sector took the lead to develop the first sector-wide Best Practice Guide for good environmental management, adopting a “profit, people and planet” triple bottom line approach. This was a joint initiative between the NCE, the Chamber of Mines of Namibia, the mining companies, the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT). The five-part Guide, launched by the Minister of MME, Tom Alweendo, highlights leading practices in social, economic and environmental aspects at all stages of the mining life cycle, namely Exploration, Projects and Construction, Operations, and Mine Rehabilitation, Closure and Completion. Further, the Guide brings together all the regulatory requirements for the mining sector from all government agencies into one reference document, with links to download forms, submit reports, etc. The Guide is available in electronic format, and we would encourage all mining companies and regulators to ensure that it is available to their staff, management, boards of directors and investors.

Pangolins are the most illegally trafficked animals in the world. Most end up on Asian markets for their scales, which are used as an ingredient in traditional medicines. The scales are made of keratin (like our fingernails and hair) and have no medicinal properties. This Asian myth has led to all eight of the world’s pangolin species (four in Asia, four in Africa) being listed as Endangered and placed on the CITES Appendix 1 list which prohibits international trade. In Namibia, an increase in illegal pangolin trade was detected about four years ago. In response, the NCE, MEFT, Rooikat Trust and NACSO set up a reward scheme for information leading to the arrest of people trafficking pangolins. This initiative fed into the success of Operation Blue Rhino, a formal collaboration between the Protected Resources Division of the Namibian Police Force and the Intelligence and Investigation Unit of the MEFT, together with a wide range of other government, NGO, private sector, community and donor partners. Further steps have recently been taken to protect Namibia’s pangolins, including the establishment of a Namibia Pangolin Working Group comprising the MEFT, NCE, the Namibia University of Science and Technology, Rooikat Trust and NARREC, the development of a national pangolin management plan and a programme of research focussed on how to optimise the survival of rehabilitated pangolins confiscated from traffickers.

68

PHASE

3

MINING & PROCESSING OPERATIONS

PHASE

2

PROJECTS AND CONSTRUCTION

PHASE

1

EXPLORATION

Jo Tagg

Conservation Namibia is a brand-new website hosting an online version of the Conservation & Environment in Namibia magazine by the Namibian Chamber of Environment and Venture Media. The site also includes regular blog updates from the world of conservation, environmental videos filmed in Namibia, fact sheets and publications on critical environmental topics.

Visit the website at www. conservationnamibia.com to stay informed and up to date on Namibian conservation.

OVERVIEW

PHASE

ENVIRONMENTAL BURSARIES AND INTERNSHIPS

PHASE

NCE Supports

CAPITAL: Windhoek

INDEPENDENCE: 21 March 1990

CURRENT PRESIDENT: Hage Geingob

Secular state

Multiparty parliament Democratic Division of power between constitution freedom of religion executive,

90% Christian

legislature and judiciary Freedom of the press/media

MAIN SECTORS:

46%

BIGGEST EMPLOYER:

Agriculture

MINING:

FASTEST-GROWING SECTOR: Tourism Diamonds, uranium, copper, lead, zinc, magnesium, cadmium, arsenic, pyrites, silver, gold, lithium minerals, dimension stones (granite, marble, blue sodalite) and many semi-precious stones

MONEY MATTERS

NATURE RESERVES:

17% of surface area

HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: Brandberg OTHER PROMINENT MOUNTAINS: Spitzkoppe, Moltkeblick, Gamsberg PERENNIAL RIVERS: Orange, Kunene, Okavango, Zambezi and Kwando/Linyanti/Chobe

EPHEMERAL RIVERS:

Numerous, including Fish, Kuiseb, Swakop and Ugab

CURRENCY:

The Namibia Dollar (N$) is fixed to and on par with the SA Rand. The South African Rand is also legal tender.

Foreign currency, international Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club credit cards are accepted.

TAX AND CUSTOMS

All goods and services are priced to include value15% added tax of 15%. Visitors may reclaim VAT.

ENQUIRIES: Ministry of Finance

Tel (+264 61) 23 0773 in Windhoek

TRANSPORT

Public transport is NOT available to all tourist destinations in Namibia.

There are bus services from Windhoek to Swakopmund as well as Cape Town/Johannesburg/Vic Falls.

Namibia’s main railway line runs from the South African border, connecting Windhoek to Swakopmund in the west and Tsumeb in the north.

There is an extensive network of international and regional flights from Windhoek and domestic charters to all destinations.

LIVING FOSSIL PLANT:

Welwitschia mirabilis

BIG GAME:

Elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo, cheetah, leopard, giraffe

20 240 250 50 676

ROADS:

5,450 km tarred

antelope species mammal species (14 endemic)

reptile species frog species bird species

ENDEMIC BIRDS including Herero Chat, Rockrunner, Damara Tern, Monteiro’s Hornbill and Dune Lark

DRINKING WATER Most tap water is purified and safe to drink.

Visitors should exercise caution in rural areas.

37,000 km gravel

HARBOURS:

Walvis Bay, Lüderitz

46

MAIN AIRPORTS:

airstrips Hosea Kutako International

Airport, Eros Airport

RAIL NETWORK: 2,382 km

narrow gauge

TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Direct-dialling facilities to

lines per

200 ENDEMIC 14 vegetation zones plant species 120 100+ species species of lichen of trees

INFRASTRUCTURE

6.2 telephone

FLORA

ECONOMY Mining, fishing, tourism and agriculture

ENVIRONMENT

PHYSICAL

824,268 km²

FAUNA

GENERAL

SURFACE AREA:

ON NAMIBIA

100 inhabitants

MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM:

GSM agreements with

221 countries

117 countries / 255 networks

INFRASTRUCTURE

SOCIAL

FAST FACTS

13,650 people 4

medical doctor per

privately run hospitals in Windhoek with intensive-care units

Medical practitioners (world standard) 24-hour medical emergency services

POPULATION

2.4 million 420 000 inhabitants in Windhoek (15% of total)

ADULT LITERACY RATE:

85%

DENSITY: 2.2 per km²

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE:

English

14 regions 13 ethnic cultures 16 languages and dialects POPULATION GROWTH RATE:

2.6%

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: over 1,700 schools, various vocational and tertiary institutions

TIME ZONES GMT + 2 hours

ELECTRICITY 220 volts AC, 50hz, with outlets for round three-pin type plugs

FOREIGN REPRESENTATION More than 50 countries have Namibian consular or embassy representation in Windhoek.

Promoting and supporting conservation of the natural environment.

A membership-based organisation established as a voluntary association to support and promote the interests of environmental NGOs and their work to protect Namibia’s environment, biodiversity and landscapes. The NCE currently has 65 members and associate members, comprising environmental NGOs and individuals running nationally significant environmental projects and programmes.

www.n-c-e.org Anchor Sponsor:

Also proudly supported by: