Opening Speech of MET Deputy Minister at NAPHA AGM

Uaheko Herunga, deputy minister of MET, delivered the opening speech at the annual general meeting for the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA), held in Windhoek on 22 November 2011.

"Namibia is committed to the sustainable use of wildlife resources, as is indeed provided for in our national constitution. Sport or trophy hunting is the result of good conservation and good wildlife management, and it is our collective interest to ensure that we use this resource sustainable. Trophy hunting lends itself to being a sustainable way of using wildlife, since this form of hunting is aimed at a small portion of a population, typically the surplus adult animals, usually males.

Trophy hunting in Namibia is regulated by law. Regulations relating to Nature Conservation provides for different categories of trophy hunting guides, namely Hunting Guides, Master Hunting Guides, Professional Hunters, and Professional Hunters for Big Game. While Hunting Guides and Master Hunting Guides are restricted to hunting farms, the higher categories of Professional Hunter and Professional Hunter for Big Game are allowed to hunt anywhere in Namibia through concessions or in conservancies. All those who want to register in the different categories follow the procedure and approval as described by the regulations. We will continue to put measures in place to avoid any violation of our trophy hunting regulations and curb illegal hunting. For that the Ministry has a new staff structure, which will be fully implemented in April 2012. The new structure will enhance regional decision-making and coordination. It is designed to help build stronger teams at our regional and park offices in order to efficiently and effectively enforce our legislation, execute planning and engage with other stakeholders.

Namibia has a proud conservation record, which is recognised internationally. This reputation rests on the commitment to the conservation of biological diversity through the establishment and management of protected areas, but also partly on conservation outside parks.

To some persons, especially in the urban areas of developed countries, it may not be obvious that there could be any positive link between biodiversity conservation, hunting, tourism and rural development. For millennia, people have relied on ecosystems to meet their basic needs for food, water and other natural resources. Preserving these natural systems is thus so vital for our national development, our livelihoods, and indeed our very survival, that our rural poor and the entire nation benefit from these resources.

Much of Africa, including Namibia, had lost large components of its wildlife over the last century, for a variety of reasons. Post-independence instability in some countries and problems with governance in general, are well known to have exacerbated this further. Within the last decades, the continent lost most of its elephants; almost all of its rhinos; and many other species became confined to protected areas such as national parks.

However, it is also true that some countries and some Governments in Africa have reversed this trend very successfully, and that wildlife is recovering or has recovered. In Namibia, for example, there are currently greater numbers of wildlife than any time in the past hundred years. There is more than twice as much wildlife outside our protected areas than inside them. Our elephant population has virtually quadrupled over the last twenty years to about twenty thousand and we now have more than one thousand black rhinoceros, to mention just a few.

Livelihoods of conservancy members are receiving boosts through a number of means. The meat from trophy hunted game and animals harvested for own use is substantial. Similarly, each job created provides valuable livelihood benefits to direct family members and indirect benefits to extended family members.

I am aware that hunting on concessions on State land comes to an end this year. We will soon announce the concessions where hunting will continue or can still be awarded for the next few years and the number of animals thereof. We are currently reviewing the progress and challenges we had in these concessions over the past three years, to enable the Ministry to make good decisions.

By now it has become common knowledge that tourism in general, and trophy hunting in particular, has grown to be one of the most important assets to Namibia in terms of its strong contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, employment creation and the well-being and social upliftment of our rural people."

Good to hear!

Originally Posted by AfricaHunting.com

....

I am aware that hunting on concessions on State land comes to an end this year. We will soon announce the concessions where hunting will continue or can still be awarded for the next few years and the number of animals thereof. We are currently reviewing the progress and challenges we had in these concessions over the past three years, to enable the Ministry to make good decisions.

What is the process for obtaining these concessions in NA?

Namibia trophy hunting concessions were established in 1992. Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) auctioned off last time around (December 2008 for the 2009 hunting season) nine trophy hunting concessions located on State land. Only Namibian companies employing registered Namibian Professional Hunter can bid on these concessions and black empowerment trophy hunting companies will be given preference. For concessions where Big Game, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Buffaloes and Lion, is on auction, a Big Game registered Professional Hunter must be employed. Companies must be registered with the Namibian Tourism Board. Also not more than 2 concessions will be sold to the same company. Concession holders are required to recruit and train the local community as camp staff. Meat from hunted animals may be utilized in camps and the excess distributed to the local communities, schools and old age homes.

These auctions held by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) are an important source of revenue and the ministry sees trophy hunting as an effective way of harvesting wildlife populations in a sustainable manner and removing animals that are too old to reproduce from wildlife populations, whilst providing the maximum revenue from the wildlife resource. Trophy hunting plays a beneficial role in Namibia's rural areas as a means of creating employment, empowering formerly disadvantaged Namibians, contributing to the management and control of human/wildlife conflicts and providing meat for distribution to traditional authorities and rural communities. Income generated from the auctions go towards the Game Product Trust Fund and will be re-invested in the conservation and management of the country's protected areas, as well as funding rural areas' wildlife projects.

A lot more on the topic:
- Namibia Communal Area Conservancies

Here is a news post:
- Namibia Hunting Concessions Awarded for Bwabwata

Well, the world is sure a different place than the one I grew up in. American astronauts get to outer space on Russian rockets. The hottest player in the NBA is Chinese. Now we can look the Africa for an example of responsible, wise governance.

Originally Posted by Bert the Turtle

Well, the world is sure a different place than the one I grew up in. American astronauts get to outer space on Russian rockets. The hottest player in the NBA is Chinese. Now we can look the Africa for an example of responsible, wise governance.

Yeah Namibia.