Human Wildlife Conflict Study

Namibian Case Study

Brian T. B. Jones1 with economic analysis by Jonathan I. Barnes2
2006

1
Independent Environment and Development Consultant. E-mail: [email protected] Tel. and Fax:
+264 61 237101.
2
Design and Development Services. E-mail: < [email protected] >. Tel: +264(0)61 w 226231, h
234887. Fax: +264(0)61 w 227618.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A number of people have contributed information and ideas that have helped shaped this report.
In particular we would like to thank Bernadus “Bob” Guibeb, manager of the #Khoadi //hoas
Conservancy for spending time in the field with Brian Jones and sharing his experiences of
addressing human-elephant conflict in the conservancy. Further, Philip Stander of the Kunene
Lion Project, Anton Esterhuizen of Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation and
Richard Diggle of the WWF/LIFE Project provided invaluable insights on a number of HWC
issues. The WWF office in Windhoek assisted with the technical production of this report.

This concept design and strategic direction for the study were provided by Wendy Elliott and
Amanda Nickson of the WWF Global Species Programme, Dawn Montanye, WWF
Macroeconomics Programme Office, and Reimund Kube, WWF Macroeconomics Programme
Office.

Cover picture by Hertha Nakathingo of an elephant drinking at a water point close to a settlement
in Kunene Region, Namibia; photo on this page, elephant damaged water installation in the Nyae
Nyae Conservancy by Chris Weaver

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section Page

List of Acronyms 5
Executive Summary 6
1. Introduction 10
1.1 Human Wildlife Conflict – Why is it important? 10
1.2 Background 10
1.3 Methodology and Format 11
2. Namibian country context 11
2.1 Background on Namibia 11
2.2 General status of wildlife in Namibia 13
3. Description of the Problem 16
3.1 HWC status in Namibia 16
3.1.1 HWC incidents and species involved 16
3.1.2 Impact of HWC on wildlife population 19
3.1.3 Political management of HWC 20
3.1.4 Economic Analysis of HWC 21
An Economic Analysis of HWC Impacts in Caprivi
Household Level Costs and Benefits from Wildlife
Community Level Costs and Benefits from Wildlife
Regional and National Level Costs and Benefits from Wildlife
Measuring the Differential Impacts of HWC
Data from Other Regions
Value to Livelihoods of Maintaining Wildlife
General Conclusions
4. Dynamics and Drivers of HWC 33
4.1 Micro level 33
4.1.1 Key issues at the local level 33
4.1.2 Conservancies 34
4.1.3 Outside conservancies 35
4.2 Meso level 36
4.2.1 Regional development and land use planning and coordination between regional
and other levels 36
4.3 Macro level 37
4.3.1 International Trade Agreements 37
4.3.2 Transboundary issues 39
4.3.3 National policies and legislation 40
5. Potential solutions and their implications 43
5.1 Prevention measures 43
Local HWC management plans
Artificial barriers
Alternative water points for elephants
Guarding fields
Elephant trip alarms
Improved livestock husbandry
5.2 Reactive measures 51
Traditional
Lethal removal
Reaction Unit
5.3 Mitigation measures 52
5.3.1 CBNRM benefits as mitigation 52
5.3.2 Case study on the #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy, Kunene Region 52
5.3.3 Case study on the Kasika conservancy, Caprivi Region 55

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5.3.4 Challenges for CBNRM as a Human Wildlife Conflict mitigation strategy 56
5.3.5 Insurance/compensation 57
5.3.6 Government funding support from sale of ivory 59
5.4 Support systems
Monitoring and evaluation 59

5.5 Appropriate policies 60

5.6 Integrated approaches across different levels, sectors, institutions, etc. 62
5.7 Integration across frontiers 64
5.8 Appropriate institutions with the necessary decision-making authority 65
6. Conclusions 66
6.1 Main conclusions 66
6.2 Specific recommendations for addressing human wildlife conflict in Namibia 67
6.3 Possible lessons learned from the Namibian case study for the global
conservation community 68

Figures and tables

Figure 1 Communal area conservancies and Protected Areas in Namibia 15
Figure 2. Impact of wildlife damage on household crop production enterprise in terms 25
of gross income, net profit and contribution to gross national income
Figure 3. Impact of wildlife damage on Ngamiland/Botswana household livestock production
enterprise in terms of gross income, net profit and contribution
to gross national income 26
Figure 4. Impact of wildlife damage on community-based conservancy in Caprivi
in terms of gross income (turnover), conservancy net profit, and contribution
to gross national income 27
Figure 5. Changing trends in the number of crop damage incidents by wildlife in
two neighbouring conservancies in east Caprivi between 2001 and 2005 43
Figure 6. Successful protection wall against elephant at a water point in
#Khoadi //hoas Conservancy 47
Table 1. The number of incidents of human wildlife conflict caused by all species in
Namibian conservancies using the Event Book system over the past three years 17
Table 2. Costs of wildlife damage on household crop production activities in Caprivi
in terms of private returns per household and in terms of economic value 24
Table 3. Costs of wildlife damage on household livestock production activities in
Caprivi in terms of private returns per household and in terms of economic
value 25
Table 4. Costs of wildlife damage to crops and livestock in two community-based
conservancies in Caprivi in terms of conservancy income and community
returns and in terms of economic value 26
Table 5. Spending of a conservancy on community benefits in 2004 and 2005 54

References 70

Annex 1. Trends in wildlife numbers in Namibian Conservancies 75

Annex 2. Income derived by conservancies 78
Annex 3. Summary of the Event Book Monitoring System 80
Annex 4. Key features of Namibian policies and legislation relevant to HWC 83
Annex 5. Key features of the HWC prevention and mitigation measures
applied in Namibia 86
Annex 6. List of people consulted 89
Annex 7. Annotated bibliography 90
Annex 8. Statement of Work 99

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 LIST OF ACRONYMS

ACP Africa, Caribbean, Pacific countries

CBNRM Community-based Natural Resources Management
CDC Constituency Development Committee
CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
CLB Communal Land Board
ENP Etosha National Park
EU European Union
GEF Global Environment Facility
GFU Grootberg Farmers’ Union
GNI Gross National Income
GPTF Game Products Trust Fund
HACSIS Human Animal Conflict Self Insurance Scheme
HWC Human Wildlife Conflict
IRDNC Integrated Nature Conservation and Rural Development
IRR Internal Rate of Return
KAZA TFCA Kavango/Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area
MAWF Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry
MET Ministry of Environment and Tourism
MLR Ministry of Lands and Resettlement
NACSO Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations
NGO Non-governmental Organisation
RDCC Rural Development Coordinating Committee
TOR Terms of Reference
VDC Village Development Committee
WWF Worldwide Fund for Nature

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Successful sustainable development requires the harmonisation of both environmental

and human development goals, and resolving human wildlife conflict is central to this
aim. Human wildlife conflict is defined as any event in which animals injure, destroy or
damage human life or property (including the destruction of crops) and are killed, injured,
captured or otherwise harmed as a result – i.e. both humans and animals suffer from the
interaction with each other. Retaliatory killing and loss of habitat are threats to the
survival of many species around the world. This study focuses on Human Wildlife
Conflict (HWC) in Namibia in southern Africa.

Unlike many other countries, Namibia has increasing wildlife populations including such
species as elephant and black rhino. Namibia’s large predator population (including
lions) is stable if not increasing. Conservationists agree that Namibia’s Community-
based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Programme has played a major role in
these increases. Under the CBNRM programme rural communities that form local
natural resource management institutions called conservancies gain rights to manage
wildlife and tourism from government. As a result of the income from sustainable use of
wildlife and from ecotourism in conservancies, rural communities have generally positive
attitudes towards wildlife. However, partly as a result of this conservation success,
increasing wildlife is leading to increased HWC. There is thus a need to ensure that the
successes to date are maintained and that local communities receive sufficient benefit
from wildlife relative to the losses associated with wildlife to maintain their commitment
to its conservation.

This study considers the economics of HWC and the contribution of wildlife to local
livelihoods. HWC has a high impact on rural households especially those in hotspots
such as close to protected areas or in Caprivi (a region of Namibia in the North East of
the country) where elephant numbers continue to increase annually. The government
does not pay compensation for HWC losses but uses CBNRM as an approach to try to
internalise the costs and benefits of living with wildlife at the community level. The
economic analysis concludes that CBNRM can be an important mitigation strategy for
HWC because at the conservancy level and with regard to regional and national
economies, CBNRM generates more income than there are losses to HWC. However, it
is clear that the level of damage from HWC differs considerably between individual
households and more needs to be done to ensure that those households that suffer the
most receive appropriate benefits to offset these losses.

This study considers a number of drivers and key issues regarding CBNRM at the micro
(local), meso (regional/district) and macro (national and international) levels. At micro
level communities face a number of constraints to dealing with HWC due to gaps in
policy and legislation. Conservancies may design excellent management planning and
zoning that is designed to reduce HWC, but then struggle to enforce this planning on the
ground. Government departments implement development schemes at local level that
do not take HWC into account and thus lead to increased HWC. However,
conservancies provide important institutional mechanisms through which to channel
benefits, implement prevention measures and for communities to articulate with other
levels of society and across sectors.

At meso and macro level, government departments, regional councils and land boards
are driving development projects and land allocation without giving consideration to

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HWC issues. The land boards sometimes ignore the management plans of
conservancies that they are legally bound to take into account. Extensive small-scale
commercial farming schemes are being developed by the Ministry of Lands and
Resettlement adjacent to protected areas and within conservancies, which will lead to
increased HWC, increase costs to the economy as a result, and have negative impacts
on some species. There is little recognition of HWC in most government sectors and a
lack of appropriate assessments of development schemes. A lack of planning to mitigate
HWC leads to increased conflict and ultimately increased costs to the economy.

International trade agreements potentially have important consequences for driving land
use preferences in Namibia towards livestock rather than wildlife leading to the
disappearance of some large predators from cattle ranches. International conservation
agreements such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) impact the international trade in specimens of species
such as elephant. The “elephant problem” in southern Africa is one of over-population,
not a decline in numbers with elephants now migrating into the north eastern parts of
Namibia from Botswana. Transboundary management efforts are required that involve
local communities and aim to reduce conflict while also enabling elephants to expand
their range.

A wide range of measures to prevent or reduce HWC have been tried in Namibia. These
are analysed in terms of their effectiveness and reasons for success. Often these
measures, such as protection of water installations, or provision of alternative drinking
places for elephants away from settlements are technically sound, but are not successful
due to institutional failures resulting in inadequate maintenance and/or upkeep. There
are however several innovative approaches to mitigation being developed, one example
of which is a self-insurance scheme run by conservancies, initially with donor support.
Conservancies make payments to individuals who have lost livestock to predators in
order to offset the losses, but under conditions aimed at improving livestock
management and preventing further incidents. Eventually conservancies will take over
the funding of these schemes themselves.

The overall conclusions of this report are as follows:

I. The effective mitigation of HWC requires integrated coordination between macro,

meso and micro levels. Such coordination can reduce the costs of HWC by
increasing the efficiency of planning and implementation of development projects
and ensuring that HWC prevention and mitigation measures are integrated as
part of a coordinated and systematic programme.

This report has shown that HWC at the local level is impacted by processes and
events at the meso and macro levels. Attention needs to be given to the
provision of supportive international and national policies, efficient national and
regional decision-making frameworks and local institutions that have the capacity
to address HWC.

II. The costs of HWC to communities and governments can be outweighed by the
economic benefits generated by CBNRM that devolve rights over wildlife and the
right to benefit from its sustainable use to local communities. This provides a
sustainable long-term solution to the problem and reduces the need for continual
government interventions.

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 This report has shown how in Namibia CBNRM brings a number of livelihood
benefits to rural communities. While the financial benefits to households are
currently low, these can be increased in various ways providing a direct means to
off-set the losses caused by HWC. At the same time, CBNRM provides a number
of other intangible benefits that help to increase tolerance of wildlife that causes
problems such as elephants and predators.

III. For HWC to be effectively mitigated, it is essential to implement cross-sectoral

coordination that ensures all relevant ministries take existing and potential HWC
into account in land-use and development planning. This will prevent financial
losses to farmers and other land-users, and reduce losses to regional and
national economies.

This report has shown how national and regional planning by ministries in non-
conservation sectors can lead to increased HWC and increased costs to the
government and the economy. Planning of agricultural developments,
resettlement schemes and other rural development projects, including provision
of water, need to assess potential HWC and incorporate methods to prevent
damage and losses.

Clearly all countries have different contexts but it is possible to draw conclusions about
the principles and approaches from the Namibian experiences that are likely to be of use
for other countries. Some of these key findings are as follows:

¾ All levels: HWC differs spatially and temporally. There are considerable
environmental differences between parts of Namibia, and such spatial and
temporal variations are likely to occur in other countries. This indicates the need
for HWC management policy and approaches to be flexible so that local
solutions can be found to local problems.

¾ Micro level: A variety of linked approaches is often required in order to deal with
HWC. Technical solutions may appear ideal, but might not be implemented
because of institutional failure. Attention needs to be given to who will implement
the technical solution, who will maintain the infrastructure if necessary, and
whether there are sufficient incentives for implementation and maintenance to
be carried out.

¾ Micro and meso levels: The CBNRM programme in Namibia has demonstrated
the effectiveness of devolving management authority over wildlife to land holders
as a conservation mechanism. Results from the programme indicate the need to
ensure that devolving rights over wildlife to local communities should also
include the authority to deal with problem causing animals. Where communities
perceive that they derive sufficient benefit from wildlife, providing them with
decision-making authority over problem causing animals is unlikely to lead to the
disappearance of those animals.

¾ Micro level: The role of conservancies points to the need for effective local level
institutions that can be used to internalise costs and benefits of living with

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 wildlife, channel benefits to villagers, carry out local level HWC management,
and interact with other sectors and levels of decision-making.

The report also makes some specific recommendations for addressing HWC in Namibia.
The key findings are as follows:

¾ Micro level: Due to the considerable variation in socio-ecological conditions in

Namibia, HWC policies and strategies need to be sufficiently flexible to allow
different approaches to be applied in different areas, at different times of the
year and for different species.

¾ Micro level: Much more focused attention is required on monitoring the

effectiveness of various measures to prevent or reduce conflict and on
disseminating the results. Some indications of possible successful models for
protecting water points are emerging in the Kunene Region and these need
further monitoring to assess their effectiveness.

¾ Micro level: More attention needs to be given to the monitoring and

assessment of the costs of HWC particularly with regard to crop damage.
Various methods have been used which differ in their approach. There is a
need for ongoing research that also aims to assess the impact and hardship
caused to households so that conservancies can support those hit the hardest.

¾ Meso and micro levels: The HACSIS self-insurance scheme is one means of
ensuring that conservancies provide targeted support to households. However,
more attention needs to be given to expanding the benefits reaching
households if CBNRM is to be a successful mitigation mechanism. This
requires further policy changes at national level such as further devolution of
authority to local communities and increased security of land tenure.

¾ Meso level: Key Ministries such as Lands and Resettlement need more
exposure to and training in the means of avoiding increased HWC through
appropriate planning processes. The use of Environmental Assessments for
key ministerial and development projects would assist in identifying potential
problems and the establishment of appropriate prevention, reduction or
mitigation measures.

¾ Macro level: Removal of the domestic and international disincentives to

investment in and use of wildlife could be expected to considerably enhance
the economic benefits of wildlife relative to the HWC costs. There is a need for
a detailed study on the effects of trade barriers, restrictions, taxes, subsidies,
property rights, and similar factors on the value of wildlife in Namibia. This
could be combined with a study on incentives and disincentives in the livestock
industry.

¾ Macro level: Change is required in international trade agreements that

potentially negatively affect wildlife as a land use, and within the CITES system
where means need to be found to enable Namibia to increase economic
benefits to local communities from regulated trade in elephant products that will
not pose a threat to other more threatened elephant populations.

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Human Wildlife Conflict – why is it important?

For the purposes of this study, human wildlife conflict is defined as any event in which
animals injure, destroy or damage human life or property (including destruction of crops),
and are killed, injured, captured or otherwise harmed as a result – i.e. both humans and
animals suffer from the interaction with each other. The damage and destruction caused
by a variety of animals to human property – and sometimes human life – is a real and
significant danger to many human communities. Likewise, retaliatory killing is a major
threat to the survival of many species around the world for which there is global
community interest and commitment to their conservation (such as elephants, big cats,
bears and wolves.) As human populations increase and encroach further into wildlife
habitat, conflicts between humans and wildlife are set to increase in both frequency and
geographic spread.

Successful sustainable development requires the harmonisation of both environmental

and human development goals, and resolving human wildlife conflict is central to this
aim, bringing together the two perspectives in order to create a sustainable future for
both wildlife and rural communities.

1.2 Background

This study on Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) in Namibia has been commissioned by the
WWF Macroeconomics Programme Office and the WWF Global Species Programme. It
is part of a wider study of HWC issues that spans three countries covering both Africa
and Asia. The study aims to assist WWF in better understanding HWC issues so that it
can generate political will and funding for HWC prevention and mitigation measures. It
also aims to provide useful background information to assist the Namibian Government
and other relevant stakeholders in their current efforts to develop a national HWC policy
and strategy.

The study examines the dynamics of HWC, examines the root causes of the conflict and
identifies opportunities and positive models for preventing and/or mitigating HWC. The
study focuses on three levels: a) the macro level of international and national policies
including international conventions, trade agreements, national Poverty Reduction
Strategies and sectoral policies; b) the meso level of regional (i.e. within Namibia)
institutions, development activities, and land use planning; and c) the local level of
communities, farmers and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Attention is given
mainly to conflicts between elephants and people, but some consideration is also given
to conflicts between predators and people. The full Statement of Work is attached as
Annex 8.

The study aims to answer the following key questions and examine the following
hypotheses:

1) Question: What are the links between the macro, meso and micro drivers and
solutions of HWC and what does this mean for truly strategic and effective
mitigation of HWC in the long term?

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 Hypothesis: A strategically coordinated programme that tackles HWC at all of
these levels and promotes the devolution of decision-making to the lowest
appropriate levels of government and civil society will be the most efficient and
cost effective way to address the impacts of HWC.

2) Question: What is the rationale for taking current and potential HWC into account
in all land use and development planning?

Hypothesis: By considering how all planned developments will impact on current

and potential HWC, appropriate land use planning can be ensured that minimises
HWC and ensures more successful development.

1.3 Methodology and Format

There has been a considerable amount of research into HWC issues in Namibia and a
considerable amount of experimentation with prevention and mitigation methods (see
the annotated bibliography provided as Annex 7). This report therefore draws heavily on
existing material and data in the form of a desk study. A number of interviews were
carried out with key informants to fill gaps and a short field trip was undertaken to
develop a case study on local level problems and solutions and community institutions
as appropriate mechanisms for dealing with HWC. A list of persons consulted is
provided in Annex 6.

The report is divided into an introductory section setting out the aims of the study and
the methodology, an overview of the Namibian HWC context, analysis of the main issues
and drivers of HWC at different levels, discussion of the potential solutions and
implications and a set of conclusions. Some detailed information such as data on wildlife
trends and conservancy income are contained in Annexes.

2. NAMIBIAN COUNTRY CONTEXT

2.1 Background on Namibia

Namibia has a total land area of approximately 825 000 sq km and a population
estimated at 1,8 million, with an annual growth rate of 3%. Namibia is the driest country
south of the Sahara with about 92% of the country classified arid or semi-arid. Rainfall is
extremely variable temporally and spatially. Drought is a regular occurrence. Only 1% of
the land area has soils with a medium to high potential for rain-fed or irrigated arable
production (Kruger 2002). As a result, the main agricultural activity over most of the
country is livestock production, although in the higher rainfall areas of the north and
north-east, communal farmers practice agro-pastoralism.

Land distribution in Namibia has been skewed by the country's colonial history. At
independence from South Africa in 1990, 40.8% of the land had been allocated to the
black homelands as communal land, which supported a population of about 1.2 million,
while 43% had been allocated under freehold title to white commercial farmers. 13.6%
was allocated to conservation and a small percentage was unallocated land. This
situation has been modified only slightly since independence through the government’s
land reform policies with a small number of wealthy black farmers purchasing freehold

11
farms, and a small number of freehold farms being purchased by government for
resettlement purposes. Another important part of the land reform policy is the drive to
open up “unutilised” communal land to small-scale individual commercial farmers. The
State owns communal land and residents have usufruct rights over the land and its
resources such as pasture. In general much of the communal land is only marginal for
livestock and dryland crop farming.

The majority of Namibians, particularly those in rural areas, are poor. Per capita income
in 1996 was N$ 14 519 (US$ 2 080) and 85% of consumption-poor households are
found in the rural areas, making their living primarily from subsistence farming which
contributes 51% of rural incomes (GRN 2004). The dependence of rural people on
subsistence farming makes them particularly vulnerable to Human Wildlife Conflict
where this takes place as they have little else to fall back on if crops are destroyed or
livestock killed by wild animals. Generally, rural livelihoods are mainly based on a
combination of livestock production, crop-based agriculture and gardens, natural
resource use and various forms of income generation including employment. However,
the opportunities to enhance livelihood security and for off-farm diversification of
livelihood activities are limited due to a lack of economic opportunities in the remote rural
areas (Long 2004). Vulnerability is caused by frequent drought, lack of secure land
tenure, poor access to markets, limited alternative sources of income and health risks
associated with HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Two of the regions most affected by HWC in Namibia are the Kunene Region in the arid
north-west and the Caprivi Region in the higher rainfall north-east. A study on
conservancies in these two regions provides considerable background on livelihood
issues (Long 2004). It found that in the large and sparsely populated Kunene Region
more than a third of respondents in a household survey had no formal education and
only 43% lived within 5 km of a school. This is a reflection of people living long distances
from schools and a lack of schools in the region. The household survey showed that
12% of households had children out of school because of an inability to afford school
hostel fees or other school-related costs. Life expectancy in the region is one of the
highest in the country largely due to low HIV/AIDS infection rates, and low incidences of
malaria and TB. However, access to health care is generally poor with only 46% of the
population enjoying access to a clinic within a 10 km radius of their homes. There are
few tarred roads in the communal areas of the region, but there is a well-maintained
network of graveled roads, and all major villages and some small settlements are
connected to the national telephone system. The main household assets are access to
communal grazing land, livestock, draught animals and donkey carts (with a few
wealthier people owning cars). The main skills are in livestock farming, keeping small
gardens, craft making, hunting and tracking and increasingly in providing tourism
services.

Caprivi has a relatively high population density compared to other parts of Namibia with
around 80 000 people living in an area of about 20 000 km². About 30% of
correspondents over 20 years of age in a household survey had no formal education, but
access to schools is good (Long 2004). The survey showed that 22% of households had
children of school age not at school because of an inability to afford hostel fees or other
school-related costs. While infant and child mortality rates have declined across Namibia
since Independence in 1990, in the North-East, these rates have not declined as much.
This is ascribed to greater poverty, poorer access to medical care, the presence of
malaria and one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the country. Long 2004

12
concludes that poverty is more widespread in Caprivi than for the country as whole. Main
household assets tend to be access to communal grazing land, land allocated to the
household for crop growing, access to wild fruit trees, livestock, draught animals,
wooden canoes and sledges. Some wealthier people own cars. Main skills include
livestock and crop farming, wood carving, fishing, thatching, hunting and tracking and as
in Kunene, increasing provision of tourism services.

Namibia is divided into 13 administrative regions each with a regional government of

elected councilors. All major line ministries have regional offices which are responsible
for government service delivery with varying levels of decentralized decision-making.

2.2 General status of wildlife in Namibia

The general trend in wildlife on freehold land in Namibia and in large areas of communal
land is an increase in numbers. Since the late 1960s wildlife numbers on freehold land
have increased by some 70% and species diversity (large mammals) increased by 44%
(Barnes and de Jager 1996, cited in Krug 2001). Approximately 80% of the numbers of
larger game mammal species are found on privately owned commercial farms
(Richardson, 1998 cited in Krug 2001) and freehold farmland in Namibia hosts the
largest cheetah population left in Africa (Krug 2001).

Namibia’s elephant population doubled between 1984 and 2003 when there were an
estimated 11,262 animals, most of which were in the north-east of the country3 (MET
2004). A 2004 survey estimated a further increase to an estimated 16,397 animals
(Martin 2005). Increases in the north eastern populations have been mainly due to
immigration. These populations are linked to the large northern Botswana population of
more than 100,000 animals (see sub-section 2.3 below for more details about the
regional context regarding elephant numbers). The combined Etosha National
Park/North West population has been growing without signs of immigration into the
overall area, although there is movement between Etosha and the surrounding
communal areas. The lion population is estimated at between 562 and 894 with lions
found on communal land as well as in protected areas (Stander 2005). The overall
population is stable with increases in numbers and range in specific areas, such as the
communal lands of Kunene Region where people farm mostly with livestock. Data from
Stander (2006) shows that in 1999 there were 15 lions on the Palmwag tourism
concession with a range of around 4,000 km², but by 2006, there were 85 lions covering
a range of 24,000 km².

There are a number of reasons for the general upwards trend in wildlife numbers. As
indicated above, elephant numbers in the North-East are increasing mainly due to
immigration. In the North-West better rainfall over most years since the major drought of
the early 1980s has contributed to well-documented increases of large mammals such
as springbok, oryx, kudu, mountain zebra and giraffe (See Annex 1). Better monitoring
and increased patrols by government and NGOs have also assisted the recovery of
rhino and elephant populations in the North-West.

3
The population trend and current estimate of numbers are based on aerial surveys and estimates derived
from partial aerial and ground surveys. Although survey methods have changed over time, estimates since
1990 are all based on similar sample aerial surveys.

13
However, these factors have been underpinned by major policy and legal changes that
have been the main driving force for conservation in Namibia. In 1967 white freehold
farmers were given use rights over wildlife on their land by the South African colonial
government. Prior to this the wildlife was controlled entirely by the state and many
farmers viewed wildlife as competing with livestock for grazing and as a cost rather than
a benefit. Wildlife was shot illegally by farmers and numbers were declining. Due to the
provision of use rights and the right to benefit from use many commercial farmers began
to view wildlife in a new light (Barnard 1998, Van der Walt 1987, de Jager 1996). They
now had the opportunity to develop wildlife as a sustainable income-generating
resource. Gradually a wildlife industry developed on commercial farmland based on
consumptive uses such as sport hunting, culling for meat, trophy hunting, live sale, and
on non-consumptive uses such as photographic tourism (Van der Walt 1987). By 1996
the estimated net value added to national income from commercial wildlife use on
freehold land was N$129.1 million (US$18.5 million) (Barnes and Ashley 1996 cited in
Krug 2001). The new policy approach applied in the late 1960s reversed the declines in
wildlife and led to a situation where many freehold conservancies4 are over stocked with
wildlife (Jones 2005).

Similar trends are being experienced on Namibia’s communal land. In the North-West,
drought and heavy poaching decimated wildlife including elephant and black rhino prior
to the mid-1980s. In Caprivi some species such as giraffe became locally extinct and
red lechwe numbers declined from 12,000 to 1,200 in a decade. Following pioneering
community-based conservation work by NGOs and individual conservation officials in
the North-West and in Caprivi game numbers began to recover gradually (Long and
Jones 2004). Partly based on these early successes, the government developed policy
and legislation that gave communal area residents the same rights over wildlife as white
freehold farmers, provided they formed collective common property resource
management units also called conservancies5. A national Community-based Natural
Resource Management (CBNRM) programme supported by government, donors and
local and international NGOs assists the formation and operation of communal area
conservancies.

The legislation was passed in 1996 and in 1998 the first four communal area
conservancies were registered. There are now 44 registered Communal Area
Conservancies covering more than 10,500,000 ha. across a range of habitats from
desert in the North-West to floodplains in the North-East. Within conservancies
communities carry out their normal livelihood activities such as livestock and crop
farming, but with wildlife and tourism as additional forms of land use. Many
conservancies have set land aside exclusively for wildlife and tourism, but wildlife also
often ranges across the whole conservancy area. Conservancies employ their own
game guards who carry out regular wildlife monitoring and the conservancies collaborate
with government officials and NGOs to carry out annual game counts.

4
Conservation units where freehold farmers combine their land and resources to manage wildlife
collectively across larger landscapes
5
In order to be registered as a communal area conservancy and gain rights over wildlife, communal area
residents need to have a representative committee, have defined boundaries, have a legal constitution,
defined membership and a plan for the equitable distribution of benefits.

14
Figure1. Communal area conservancies and protected areas in Namibia

15
The general trend for wildlife in conservancies in the North-West over the past 15 years
or more has been upwards (see Annex 1.) with major increases in species such as black
rhino, elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah, giraffe, oryx, kudu, springbok and Hartmann’s
mountain zebra (NACSO 2004). Conservationists agree that community commitment to
conservation has played an important role in these increases (Stander 2006), and that
species such as black rhino would not survive in the area if not protected by local people
(Durbin et al 1997). Wildlife has also been increasing in key conservancies in Caprivi
(NACSO 2004, C. Weaver Pers. Comm. 2006). At the same time wildlife as a land-use
has brought increased incomes to local communities through the conservancies. Total
income to these conservancies in 2005 was N$20.1 million or around US$2.9 million (C.
Weaver Pers. Comm.). Annex 2 provides data on the income to conservancies from
wildlife and tourism and sub-section 3.1.4 considers the value to livelihoods of
maintaining wildlife.

The past 40 years of experience on freehold land in Namibia and the past 20 years of
experience on communal land in Namibia have demonstrated that providing land holders
with the appropriate levels of decision-making authority over wildlife and the appropriate
economic incentives has been a successful conservation strategy by the state. Wildlife
numbers have increased, including those of key species such as elephant and black
rhino, wild habitat is being maintained, and wildlife and tourism have become productive
forms of land use contributing to the local and national economies.

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM

3.1 HWC status in Namibia

3.1.1 HWC incidents and species involved

HWC occurs throughout Namibia on communal as well as freehold land and involves a
variety of species. The main problems occur on the communal land where the most
elephants and large predators are found outside protected areas and where people are
least able economically to bear the costs of damage and losses. For these reasons this
report focuses mostly on HWC in the communal lands, and in particular the Kunene and
Caprivi Regions where HWC is caused by both elephants and predators. The majority of
the HWC prevention and mitigation measures in Namibia are being developed and
applied in these regions and both regions have a number of existing and emerging
conservancies.

There is a general perception by communities and other stakeholders that particularly in

certain parts of the country, there has been an increase in the number of HWC incidents
over the past few years. This increase is generally ascribed to the increase in wildlife
brought about by the conservation policies and strategies described above. NACSO
(2004:24) suggests for example, that “Living with wildlife often carries a cost, and
increased populations and expanded ranges have resulted in more frequent conflicts
between people and animals in many areas”. According to Murphy et al (2004:116) in
Kunene and Caprivi regions “Rural people and MET report an increase in wildlife
numbers, resulting in increased HWC, due to conservancy activities”. Data from the
Kwandu conservancy regarding the number of problem animal incidents annually
involving elephants shows a stable level of incidents from 1993 to 2000 at around 50
(with an exception in 1998) and then a sharp increase in 2001, 2002 and 2003 to more

16
than 100 incidents annually. Data from the two main monitoring systems in Namibia, the
conservancy Event Book System6 and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET)
data base (see sub-section 5.4 below), indicate a considerable increase in human
wildlife conflict incidents overall (Stander 2005).

There is a possibility that the increases reflected by the available data are partly due to
improved monitoring. When Stander corrected the data for the Event Book system
(which operates in communal area conservancies) for sampling effort, the results
showed that the frequency of HWC was stable between 2001 and 2004 (Stander 2005).
Regarding data indicating an increase in elephant incidents in Caprivi he also cautions
that due to the difficulty of reporting HWC incidents in remote areas, the interpretation of
the number of incidents is problematic. However, he suggests that there has perhaps
been a sudden increase in HWC over the past two years (P. Stander, Pers. Comm.).
Further the reports and data regarding increased problems with elephants in Caprivi
appear to be logical when considered against the increase in elephant numbers in the
region (from an estimated 3 000 in 1980 to an estimated 8 726 in 2004), the fact that
these elephants are not confined to protected areas by fences and that there is a
relatively high human population close to protected areas in Namibia and bordering
wildlife management areas and protected areas in neighbouring Botswana. Stander’s
analysis shows an expected significant linear increase in HWC in areas of higher human
population density.

A number of individuals and organisations have collected data on HWC in Namibia

particularly since independence in 1990. Stander (2005) analysed the existing data from
these different sources. He found that elephants and large carnivores are responsible for
most HWC incidents in Namibia and these species live permanently on communal and
freehold land where they regularly come into contact with local communities. In most of
the northern regions of Namibia, with the highest densities of wildlife, carnivores
collectively are responsible for most incidents, mainly followed by elephants. According
to NACSO (2006), a total of 3 194 problem incidents were reported country-wide in
conservancies during 2005. The species involved were as follows: elephants (23%),
hyena (17%), jackal (10%), leopard (10%), cheetah (9%), bushpig (6%), hippopotamus
(5%), crocodile (5%), various antelope (5%), lion (4%), baboon (2%), porcupine (2%)
and caracal (1%).

The data presented in Table 1 below reflect incidents in only those conservancies using
the ‘Event Book’ monitoring system and thus do not reflect all such incidents in the
country. The use of the Event Book system was expanded and the quality of monitoring
improved over this period, thus the increase in the number of incidents is at least partly
due to a larger area being covered and better monitoring (NACSO 2006).

2003 2004 2005

17 14 15
Human Attacks
Livestock Attacks 1733 1684 2658
Crop Damage 1098 1084 1470
Other Damage 171 154 139

6
The Event Book system is a simple colour-coded, image-based monitoring system for use by conservancy
game guards – see Annexe 3

17
Table 1. The number of incidents of human-wildlife conflict caused by all species in Namibian
conservancies using the Event Book system over the past three years. (Source: NACSO 2006). “Other
Damage” mostly refers to damage to water points caused by elephants.

Stander’s analysis of data reveals considerable regional differences in HWC incidents.

For example spotted hyenas, lions and leopards are important throughout the northern
regions, while problems with cheetah occur mainly in the west, and with wild dogs in the
North-East. From the event book data and reports from local residents, there are
increased cheetah sightings in the North-West and there seems to be an increase in
problems caused by cheetah. Analysis of the event book data for 2005 for the 12
conservancies in northern Kunene Region (Peters 2006) indicates that cheetah were the
third highest cause of problems (22%) after hyena (23%), and leopard (23%). Elephant
in northern Kunene were responsible for 9% of all incidents.

There are also considerable regional differences in the frequency of HWC incidents. The
frequency of HWC incidents in Kunene Region (expressed as a ratio of the number of
incidents per 100 km²) is 2.8 compared to 41.3 in Caprivi (Stander 2005). Caprivi has the
highest frequency in the country mainly due to human elephant conflict and to higher
human population densities than areas such as Kunene. Proximity to protected areas
also appears to be important. For example, according to NACSO (2004) in 2003 the
greatest number of problem animal incident reports from conservancies came from three
conservancies adjacent to protected areas, the Kwandu Conservancy (488 reports),
Mayuni Conservancy (269) and Ehirovipuka Conservancy (204). Kwandu and Mayuni
Conservancies in Caprivi suffer mainly from elephant problems and both are adjacent to
the Bwabwata National Park which is known for large concentrations of elephants.
Ehirovipuka Conservancy in Kunene Region suffers from lions leaving the neighbouring
Etosha National Park.

Cumming and Jones (2005) noted the different types of problems caused by elephants
in different parts of the country. In north-eastern Namibia where there are the highest
numbers of elephants and relatively high human densities, elephants provide a physical
threat to people and destroy crops. In conservancies such as Kwandu and Mayuni in
Caprivi, conflict is exacerbated when settlements are placed across well-used elephant
paths to and from the Kwando River (Beytell Pers. Comm., cited in Cumming and Jones
2005). This is dangerous for people, particularly when walking at night, and leads to a
higher likelihood of crop damage by elephants. In the more arid North-West elephants
also pose a physical threat to people traveling at night on donkey carts or walking and
when elephants come close to settlements to visit water points. There is some damage
to crops where these are grown under local irrigation from boreholes, and elephants
damage small gardens at settlements. However, the main form of damage caused by
elephants in the North-West is to infrastructure for water provision and to fences (on
both communal and freehold land). Elephants damage wind pumps and rip up pipes in
search of clean water. Larger groups might consume most of the contents of a small
reservoir resulting in additional expenditure by people who have to pump more water for
themselves and their livestock. Elephants sometimes kill livestock at water points.

Stander’s analysis indicated that for most wildlife species the incidence of conflict is not
seasonal (Stander 2005), with elephants being the exception. In Caprivi elephant conflict
occurs mostly in the late wet season when crops are maturing. Although there was no
seasonal pattern for the whole of Kunene Region, two areas reported increased levels of

18
conflict in the dry season. In one of these areas the problem is crop destruction, while in
the other elephants mainly damaged infrastructure.

3.1.2 Impact of HWC on wildlife populations

In many other countries, particularly in Asia, retaliatory killing and removal of problem
causing animals as a result of HWC is a major threat to the species concerned. In
Namibia HWC does not appear to have a negative impact on the main species involved,
largely due to the commitment to conservation of Namibian land holders including local
communities (and much lower human population densities). Stander’s analysis showed
that for the leopard, the combined annual removal of problem causing animals and
trophy hunted animals will remain within acceptable off-take limits at 6,1% a year.
Further, at an estimated 8,039 animals, the leopard population has remained stable
since 1988. The Namibian cheetah population (the largest in the world) is stable, if not
increasing, despite removal of problem causing animals. The lion population is stable
despite the removal of around 30 problem causing animals a year. Elephants continue to
increase and expand their range and the levels of illegal killing are low. The total number
of animals killed illegally between 1990 and 2003 is 83, giving an average of almost six
per year (MET undated a).

Although HWC is currently not a threat to most problem-causing species (with the
exception of the wild dog7), the increased level of HWC perceived in regions such as
Kunene and Caprivi remains a potential future threat to these species by jeopardising
the currently positive attitudes of local communities towards wildlife. Ironically, although
the conservancy approach was partly developed to provide local communities with
income from the use of wildlife that could offset HWC losses, conservation success has
led to increased and unforeseen HWC problems. This perceived increase in problems
and costs, as well as the lack of devolution of decision-making over HWC to community
levels, have resulted in growing frustration in some parts of the communal areas. The
problem is to ensure that the current gains that have been made in generating positive
perceptions of conservation within communities are not lost. MET recognises that “The
involvement and empowerment of rural people in natural resource management, in
combination with economic and financial incentives through sustainable use, and linked
to skills development and capacity building, have been the driving forces behind
changes in attitudes towards wildlife on communally-owned land in Namibia” (MET 2004:
1). However, this could change if HWC is not adequately dealt with and frustration over
HWC leads to increasingly negative attitudes towards wildlife.

The key to the populations of these species remaining stable or continuing to increase
lies in continued community commitment to conservation. This will only be achieved if
communities continue to see the benefits of maintaining wildlife on their land. Sub-
section 3.1.4 considers the economics of HWC and of wildlife as a land use in
conservancies.

7
Stander (2005) suggests that wild dog population density and range are declining due to changes in land
use and human population density, possible competition with lions and hyenas and disease. There are few
data on wild dog HWC incidents and the impact of mortalities due to HWC on the overall population.

19
 3.1.3 Political management of HWC

A number of different ministries are involved in land-use planning and land management
including the MET, the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement (MLR), the Ministry of
Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF), and the Ministry of Regional and Local
Government and Housing and Rural Development (MRLGHRD). However, only MET
deals directly with HWC issues, while planning by other ministries mostly does not take
HWC into account and often leads to increased conflict. As a result, the MET is coming
under increasing pressure to deal with HWC, yet without the cooperation of the other
Ministries whose decisions and policies may be causing the conflicts, the MET is unable
to fully resolve the situation in a sustainable way. This is a situation that needs to be
rectified urgently, and is dealt with in sections 4.2.1 and 5.6. The MET is under
particular pressure in certain parts of the country where residents believe they are being
hit harder than others. In his opening remarks at the National Workshop on Human
Wildlife Conflict Management held in Windhoek in May 2005, the MET Permanent
Secretary observed that “MET offices across Namibia have reported intensifying
problems and incident reports relating to human wildlife conflict. Measures are urgently
required to mitigate the conflict and increase the benefits of living alongside wildlife”
(MET 2005a:9). Particular pressure has come due to loss of life or injury to local people.

3.1.4 Economic Analysis of HWC

This section considers the costs and benefits of living with wildlife in Namibia, drawing
on some specific research findings. In terms of costs, the State does not pay
compensation to mitigate damage and losses caused by HWC. The direct costs to
government of HWC are therefore not high, and consist of the person-hours, travel costs
and subsistence costs involved in investigation of problem animal complaints, and
removing identified problem animals. It is not possible to extract this information from the
budget of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism as no budget lines exist specifically
for addressing HWC. Namibia does not have large-scale government-run agricultural
schemes affected by elephant damage.

The main costs as a result of HWC occur at the household level. As a result there are
clear livelihood losses at the household level from HWC, and there are clear economic
losses to the country. The following subsections provide an indication of losses at the
household level, and the negative impact of HWC on the national economy, while also
showing that Namibia’s CBNRM approach is a means of addressing these negative
impacts. The main thrust of government policy has been to promote a system where
wildlife pays for itself, and to enable local communities to internalise the costs and
benefits from wildlife. We show how a conservancy, considered as an economic
enterprise, remains profitable despite the impacts of HWC, and how the contribution of
CBNRM to GDP outweighs the losses caused by HWC. The data show however, that at
the household level CBNRM in Namibia still needs to do more to ensure that losses
suffered by individuals are adequately offset by different forms of benefit.

We also consider the broader livelihood impacts of HWC and some of the problems in
accurately measuring impacts, due to the existence of many variables for which data is
not readily available and for which assumptions need to be made.

An Economic Analysis of HWC impacts in Caprivi

20
Research to establish the economic value of HWC impacts in Namibia has been limited
to that of Barnes and Nhuleipo (2005), who conducted a specific study in Caprivi Region,
analysing the impacts of HWC on household livelihoods, communities and the national
economy. Caprivi contains several state-controlled protected areas, and, itself, borders
on designated wildlife land in neighbouring Botswana. It also contains some of Namibia’s
more important CBNRM initiatives, most of these adjacent to protected areas. HWC is
common, mostly within CBNRM conservancies, but also in communities outside these.

Barnes and Nhuleipo attempted to synthesise the available data on wildlife damage to
crops and livestock in Caprivi to develop average household values for these costs in
2004 prices. The physical crop and livestock losses, and the value of these losses,
represent the amount by which HWC reduces the gross income of crop and livestock
producing households. They represent the first step to understanding HWC costs. The
next step is to see how much HWC damage reduces the net income or profits of these
producers. Further, it can be seen what the effect of HWC damage is on the returns to
investment that households make in crop and livestock production. A further step might
be to examine how HWC damage affects the net contribution that the household crop or
livestock enterprise makes to the national economy. All these are different measures but
all provide an understanding of the nature and impact of HWC. Lastly, one can examine
the extent to which the costs of wildlife damage for households and communities
outweigh the benefits that households and communities derive from wildlife.

To estimate some of these values, Barnes and Nhuleipo applied estimates of the
average household crop and livestock losses to household crop and livestock production
models which have been developed from empirical data for Caprivi and adjacent
northern Botswana. The aim was to measure the impact that wildlife damage has on the
private net benefits, or profits, associated with household crop production and livestock
keeping. The study also simulated the effect of aggregate wildlife damage costs on the
financial and economic returns to community investment in CBNRM conservancies. The
aim here was to compare the average costs of wildlife damage being experienced in
conservancies with the net benefits accruing to conservancies from wildlife use.

It is important to note at the outset that the estimates below are aimed at providing an
indication of the private and economic impacts of HWC damage. Care should be taken
not to read too much into the values arrived at. As described elsewhere in this report, the
physical and monetary extent of HWC damage, is extremely difficult to measure, and
use had to be made of a wide range of estimates, made with varying rigour by various
workers. While the enterprise models used are considered to be fairly robust, they are in
a continual process of refinement as new empirical data becomes available. The Barnes
and Nhuleipo (2005) study is thus a preliminary one.

The household production and conservancy models used to measure the impact of
HWC are standard tools, which have been in use in the environmental economics unit of
the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism since 1994. These are budget and
cost-benefit enterprise models for natural resource use activities set out in detailed
spreadsheets. The models are aimed at measuring the returns for private investors and
society as a whole generated by activities in wildlife use, natural plant resources use,
fisheries, livestock production and crop production. Turpie et al (2000), LaFranchi
(1996), and Barnes et al (2001) described examples of these enterprise models. Similar,
more complex models have been developed for community level investments in

21
conservancies (Barnes et al, 2002). The models are based on empirical physical and
financial information, derived mainly from surveys of households and enterprises, and
they include the initial capital costs8, variable and fixed recurrent costs and the gross
income or turnover. They measure the annual net profit/loss for the enterprise, as well as
(in some cases only) the internal rates of return (IRR)9 and net present values10 for the
investment after five and ten years. Not all models are exactly the same and not all
provide the full range of values.

In addition to the profits and returns to the private or community investor, some of the
models also measure the returns that these activities generate for society as a whole, or
the contribution they make to the national income. They measure the economic benefits,
less the economic costs, to society as a whole, associated with the activity. Getting to
these economic measures involves some revaluation where the true values of costs and
benefits to society differ from the actual financial transaction values encountered by
investors. Specifically, changes are made in determining the costs of labour, the value of
tradable goods, and the effects of taxes and subsidies. In this way, some models
measure the annual net contribution, in terms of gross national income, made by the
enterprise or conservancy. Some of these models also measure the economic internal
rate of return and net present value for the activity after ten years of operation.

Average crop and livestock HWC damage values for Caprivi were calculated from
several data sources. One was a series of estimates of crop and livestock losses along
the Kwando River for the years 1991 to 1995, based on MET data (O’Connell, 1995;
O’Connell-Rodwell et al. 2000). Another was a series of estimates of losses in crops
and livestock from Caprivi as a whole, between 1996 and 2001, derived from MET data
by Mulonga, et al. (2003). More estimates on crop losses were obtained from Suich
(2003), who had survey-derived estimates for 2002, from Kwandu and Mayuni
Conservancies in the Kwando River area. Evans (2004), had crop loss estimates from
Kwandu and Mayuni for 2003, based on both survey and government (MAWF) data.
These data are highly variable temporally, spatially, and depending on the sources and
methods used. They required some manipulation to derive average values with some
validity.

An important HWC study was conducted by Sutton et al (2004) who surveyed

households across Caprivi gathering a series of data on household characteristics and
human-wildlife interaction. Sutton’s work involved econometric analysis (the
measurement of relationships between economic and other factors using statistical
analysis) and allowed for estimation of crop loss values at the ‘farm gate’, rather than at
the central market town of Katima Mulilo (ie. the dollar value of crop loss directly incurred
by the household.) Barnes and Nhuleipo used this to adjust the values of crop losses for
all the other studies from Katima Mulilo market prices to ‘farm gate’ prices. Mulonga et al
(2003) and Suich (2003), showed that the MET data on wildlife damage were likely to be
incomplete, and suggested adjustment of these values. Thus, after various adjustments,
crop damage values, for the period 1991 to 2003, and livestock loss values, for most

8
Capital costs are costs incurred on the purchase of land, buildings, construction and equipment to be used
in the production of goods or the rendering of services.
9
The IRR is the return rate which can be earned on the invested capital, i.e. the yield on the investment.
10
The net present value is the value of the investment after a period of time, another measure of yield on
the investment

22
years in the period 1991 to 2000, were inflated and used to calculate average annual
values at 2004 ‘farm gate’ prices.

The average annual value for crop damage per crop-producing household across
Caprivi was estimated to be N$269 (US$37). This is a blended average, including both
dryland and floodplain crop producers. The average value for livestock loss per livestock
producing household was N$274 (US$38). The values represent the average amounts
by which rural household gross incomes are reduced by HEC. For rural Caprivi, there
are no current estimates of total household income, which take both home-consumed
income, as well as cash income into account. Based on a survey of 1,115 households in
conservancies in rural Caprivi, Long (2004) provided an estimate of average total annual
household cash income, which when inflated to 2004 prices is N$7,540 (US$1,080).
Thus the average household crop and livestock loss due to wildlife (N$543, US$78)
amounts to some 7% of total household cash income.

Although there are no detailed data on spatial variation in impact, the values in the
extremely exposed parts of Caprivi appear from rough calculations to be commonly
between 2 and 4 times the regional average. These most exposed parts of the region
are mainly in CBNRM conservancies, and adjacent to protected areas, along parts of the
Kwando and Chobe river frontages.

Aggregate estimates of the cost of human-wildlife conflict in Caprivi on the national

economy were made. Here the average HWC-induced loss in the contribution that each
household makes to the gross national income (GNI) was multiplied by aggregate
household numbers for Caprivi. The estimate of Mulonga et al (2003) was used for the
number of crop and livestock producing households that exist in Caprivi (13,200
households).

The average household crop loss value for Caprivi was included as a cost in floodplain
and dryland household crop production models derived from LaFranchi (1996) and
Turpie et al (2000), respectively, to determine the effect on private net incomes, private
rates of return, and the impact of HWC on the contribution of the enterprise to the
National economy (gross national income). These represent typical examples of small-
scale rainfed production of maize, sorghum and millet, as it occurs in Caprivi. Similarly,
average household livestock loss value for Caprivi was included as a cost in two
household livestock production models, one for Caprivi derived from LaFranchi (1996),
and the other from adjacent land in Ngamiland, Botswana, derived from Barnes et al
(2001). These represent typical examples of small-scale livestock production for meat,
transport, milk and as a means of investment, as it occurs in communal rangeland
conditions in Caprivi. Once again the impact of this on private net incomes, private rates
of return, and the impact of HWC on the contribution of the enterprise to the economy
(gross national income) were measured.

It is noteworthy that the crop and livestock enterprise models used are empirically
based, and thus implicitly already include the impacts of wildlife induced loss. The
average losses derived as explained earlier were included as additional costs to
determine the impacts on profits and welfare. Thus, the resulting change in
profits/welfare effectively measures the impact a doubling of the base level of HWC
damage would have. Similarly, including two times the average damage costs to the
models measures the impact that a tripling of the base level damage costs would have.

23
Using this approach, sensitivities were performed to see the impact that different levels
of damage have on profits and welfare.

Given that Namibia’s approach to managing HWC has been to promote a system where
wildlife pays for itself, and local communities can internalise the costs and benefits from
wildlife, it is important to compare the costs of HWC with the benefits obtained by
communities through the CBNRM programme. To measure this, average costs of HWC,
as they would apply in aggregate to conservancy membership, were included in the
models for two CBNRM conservancies in Caprivi. These models already implicitly
include base level HWC damage costs, so the impact of a doubling of the base level
HWC costs on conservancy profits and welfare was measured. Similarly the impacts of
higher levels of damage (four and eight times base levels) were measured. Models for
the Mayuni and Salambala conservancies (Barnes et al, 2002), representing resource
rich and resource poor sites, respectively, were used.

Table 2 shows the results of the analysis as it applies to floodplain and dryland crop
production in Caprivi. Figure 2 depicts some of these basic impacts graphically for
floodplain crop production. Table 3 shows the results of the analysis as it applies to
livestock production in Caprivi and Ngamiland (Botswana). Figure 3 depicts some of
these basic impacts graphically for Ngamiland. Table 4 shows the effects of the average
impacts of wildlife damage to crops and livestock as measured per household, on
community income and economic returns associated with two conservancies (Mayuni
and Salambala). Figure 4 shows some of these results graphically. In all cases the base
column depicts the enterprise or conservancy values as they are with base levels of
HWC damage. The sensitivity analysis columns show the impact of increases in these
damage costs on the enterprise or conservancy values.

Base Sensitivity analysis

Losses x 1 Losses x 2 Losses x 3 Losses x 5
Floodplain crops enterprise
Gross income 2,220 1,950 1,410 340
Net income (profit) 930 670 130 -950
Net income drop (%) 28% 86% 202%
Profit/investment (%)* 24% 17% 3% Negative
390 75
(a drop of (a drop of
29% from 83% from -560
Value added to GNI ** 550 base value) base value)

Dryland crops enterprise

Gross income 4,270 3,600 2,240 -460
Net income (profit) 2,250 1,570 900 -460
Net income drop (%) 30% 60% 120%
Profit/investment (%)* 43% 30% 17% Negative

Loss in gross national income/household*** 160

Aggregate loss in GNI for Caprivi**** 2,112,000
* Annual private profit as a proportion of initial capital costs – a crude measure of return on investment

24
** The annual net contribution of the activity to the gross national income (GNI), measured in economic
prices – a different measure from private profit (see text)
*** Loss in annual GNI due to HWC damage per household for floodplain crops only, as no measure of GNI
loss for dryland crops was available.
**** Aggregate calculated, using GNI loss for floodplain crops only, and rural household population for
Caprivi

Table 2: Costs of various levels of wildlife damage on household crop production activities in Caprivi, in
terms of private returns per household, and in terms of economic value (value added to the gross national
income) (N$, rounded to nearest 10, 2004)

Figure 2: Impact of wildlife damage on Caprivi household floodplain crop production enterprise, in terms
of gross income (GI), net profit (NP) and rounded contribution to gross national income (GNI) (N$, 2004)

Base Sensitivity analysis

Losses x 1 Losses x 2 Losses x 3 Losses x 5
Ngamiland livestock enterprise
Gross income 17,260 16,990 15,890 13,710
Net income (profit) 5,170 4,900 4,080 2,990
Net income drop (%) 5% 21% 42%
Private IRR (%)* 12% 11% 9% 7%
750
(a drop of
26% from -60 -1,130
Value added to GNI** 1,010 base value)

Caprivi livestock enterprise

Gross income 20,920 20,290 17,780 12,760
Net income (profit) 18,080 17,460 15,580 13,060
Net income drop (%) 3% 14% 28%
Profit/investment (%)*** 31% 30% 27% 22%

Loss in gross national income/household **** 260

25
 Aggregate loss in GNI for Caprivi ***** 3,432,000
* Internal rate of return (IRR) to the household’s investment in the enterprise over ten years – a relatively
sophisticated measure of return on investment
** The annual net contribution of the activity to the gross national income (GNI), measured in economic
prices – a different measure from private profit (see text)
*** Annual private profit as a proportion of initial capital costs – a crude measure of return on investment
**** Loss in annual GNI due to HWC damage per household for Ngamiland enterprise only, as no measure
of GNI loss for Caprivi enterprise was available.
***** Aggregate, calculated before rounding of table figures, using GNI loss for Ngamiland enterprise only,
and rural household population for Caprivi

Table 3: Costs of various levels of wildlife damage on household livestock production activities in Caprivi
and Ngamiland,, Botswana, in terms of private returns per household, and in terms of economic value
(value added to the gross national income) (N$, rounded to the nearest 10, 2004)

18,000
16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000 Base
8,000 Cost x 2
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
GI NP GNI

Figure 3: Impact of wildlife damage on Ngamiland, Botswana household livestock production enterprise,
in terms of gross income (turnover), net profit and contribution to gross national income (N$, 2004)

Base Sensitivity analysis

Losses x 1 Losses x 2 Losses x 4 Losses x 8
Mayuni conservancy
Gross income 1,605,620 1,349,290 676,050 -830,980
Net income (profit) 521,420 265,080 -151,820 -985,610
Community income* 1,146,880 729,990 313,090 -520,710
Comm. Income drop - 36% 73% 145%
Community IRR** 220% 123% 38% Negative
Value added to GNI*** 1,346,430 975,880 605,320 -135,800

Salambala conservancy
Gross income 1,197,640 873,390 383,440
Net income (profit) 209,440 -114,810 -280,500
Community income* 666,900 342,640 18,390
Comm. Income drop 49% 97%
Community IRR** 40% 0.6% Negative
Value added to GNI*** 823,080 534,870 246,660

26
* Community income is a measure of total annual net benefits to community members in conservancy,
including conservancy net income (profit), salaries and wages, conservancy dividends
** Internal rate of return (IRR) to the community’s investment in the conservancy over ten years – a relatively
sophisticated measure of return on investment
*** The annual net contribution of the conservancy to the gross national income (GNI), measured in
economic prices – a different measure from net income or profit (see text)

Table 4: Costs of various levels of wildlife damage to crops and livestock in two community-based
conservancies in Caprivi, in terms of impact on conservancy net income and community returns, and in
terms of economic value (value added to the gross national income) (N$, rounded to the nearest 10, 2004)

1,800,000
1,600,000
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000 Base
800,000 Cost x 2
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
GI NP GNI

Figure 4: Impact of wildlife damage on Mayuni community-based conservancy in Caprivi, in terms of gross
income (GI), conservancy net income or profit (NP), and contribution to gross national income (GNI) (N$,
2004)

Household Level Costs and Benefits from Wildlife

The analysis of the impact of levels of HWC damage on average household crop
production enterprises, provides an indication of the costs of HWC at household level. It
is clear, from Table 2, that if current wildlife damage costs are doubled, then the private
net income or profit enjoyed by a household crop enterprise drops by some 30%. If the
wildlife damage costs are multiplied five times, as might well be the case in those areas
of Caprivi which suffer extreme damage (see above), then household crop enterprises
become entirely non-viable in terms of private net returns.

Table 3 and Figure 3 show the impact of average HWC damage on the average
household livestock enterprise. Here, the impact on household welfare of a doubling of
livestock losses caused by wildlife is smaller than it is with the crop enterprises. The
private net income enjoyed by a livestock-keeping household in Caprivi drops by some
3% to 5% and damage can multiply some 5 times before private returns to livestock
keeping become marginal.

It is difficult to measure the impact of HWC losses on total household income, since, as
has been mentioned above, the data on household income in Caprivi are poor. It was
estimated, above, that crop and livestock losses reduce household gross income by an

27
average amount of N$543 (US$78). This amounts to some 7% of the estimated average
cash income of households. Another approach, albeit incomplete, is to determine the
degree to which average net income (profit) losses due to HWC reduce the average total
net income (profits) that households derive from natural resources use. This is possible
for the eastern floodplain area of Caprivi, where Turpie et al (2000) measured the
average net incomes that households derive from use of natural resources. Households
in the floodplain area produce net income from natural resources including livestock
(40%), crops (21%), fish (22%) and wild plants (17%). Average HWC losses to net
incomes for livestock (5%) and for floodplain crops (28%) would reduce the households’
average total natural resource-based net income by some 8%. These values include all
consumed and sold natural resources production, but exclude household income from
pensions and employment, which although not measured accurately, can make up some
25% to 40% of total household income.

There are no data to estimate accurately the benefits currently accruing to households
(as opposed to communities) from CBNRM. This appears to be highly variable spatially,
and depends partly on whether conservancies disburse income directly to households or
not. Direct comparison of household costs and benefits from wildlife is not possible at
present. The value to livelihoods of maintaining wildlife is considered in more detail
below.

Community Level Costs and Benefits from Wildlife

The analysis above provides an indication of the relative values of wildlife costs and
benefits for Caprivi communities. The community project (conservancy) models used in
the analysis above (Table 4 and Figure 4) measure the net contribution that a typical
conservancy investment makes to community income. ‘Community income’ in Table 4 is
the total net income received annually by conservancy members, and it includes net
income (conservancy profit), salaries and wages, as well as dividends paid to
conservancy members. If communities suffer double the average base level of HWC
damage, then their net incomes could drop by between 35 to 50%. If they suffer more
than four times average HWC damage levels, their conservancy incomes are likely to
become negative. This also applies to the internal rate of return (IRR) enjoyed by the
Mayuni community as a result of its investment in the conservancy. However, the IRR
enjoyed by the Salambala community drops below an acceptable level with only a
doubling of HWC costs.

Community income in Table 4 measures the net benefits that communities derive from
wildlife through CBNRM. Thus the impact of a doubling of the average levels thus
amounts to some 35 to 50% of the private benefits that wildlife brings to communities.
The impact that average HWC costs have on the community’s return on investment in
wildlife use is particularly useful in showing whether Namibia’s policy of internalising
HWC costs is viable. While both community wildlife use conservancies earn positive
returns on investment with base levels of HWC, a doubling of these costs has a different
effect, depending on how resource rich the conservancy is. Mayuni, with a rich stock of
wildlife resources, can withstand up to four times the average levels of HWC, while
Salambala, with poor wildlife resources cannot withstand even a doubling of HWC costs.
Generally the results of this analysis suggest that, at the community level, wildlife
income through conservancies outweighs the costs of HWC. The policy of internalising
HWC appears to have economic merit.

28
Regional and National Level Costs and Benefits from Wildlife

The analysis above provides measures of the impact of HWC damage on crop and
livestock incomes in terms of gross national income (GNI). From Table 2 it can be
calculated that the average impact of crop damage per household for floodplain crops
results in a loss of some N$160 (US$ 22) in terms of gross national income. If the wildlife
damage costs are multiplied five times, as might well be the case in those areas of
Caprivi which suffer extreme damage (see above), then the household crop enterprise
becomes entirely non-viable economically. The aggregate economic impact of crop
damage by wildlife in Caprivi is some N$2.1 million (US$ 294,000).

From Table 3 it can be deduced that, in terms of contribution to gross national income,
average loss per livestock-keeping household amounts to some N$260 (US$ 36) per
annum. The aggregate impact of HWC damage to livestock enterprises in Caprivi,
amounts to some N$3.4 million (US$ 476,000).

The conservancy models applied in Table 4 and Figure 4 provide measures of the
contribution that CBNRM conservancy initiatives make to the gross national income, as
well as the impact of HWC damage on this contribution. Thus it is possible to directly
compare the costs of wildlife (HWC) with the benefits of wildlife (CBNRM) in terms of
national income (GNI). Although a doubling of HWC costs reduces the contribution of
conservancies to the gross national income by some 35 to 50%, conservancy economic
viability is retained even under conditions of up to four times base HWC cost levels.

Measuring the Differential impacts of HWC

The economic analysis above provides useful data on the general impact of HWC on
households in Caprivi and the local economy. However, there will be differential impacts
according to the status of individual households that are not captured by such analysis.
Elephant damage to the crops of poor small producers will have a higher impact than
similar damage to the crops of a more wealthy family with larger crop lands. Crop
damage will also have a higher impact on all families affected during drought years.
Murphy et al (2004) point out that not all crops would necessarily be sold, and many
people in Caprivi depend upon crops for consumption. This means that crop losses to
elephants therefore have important implications for household food security. Despite
ambiguities and problems with the data, it is clear that elephants do cause significant
economic losses to many households in Caprivi every year and this causes hardship.
However, the extent of this hardship is also not well documented and is difficult to
measure. For example, a family might claim to a researcher that it will starve because
elephants have destroyed their crops for the year, but in reality social networks are likely
to ensure that the family does not starve. Clearly though, the family will become more
vulnerable to events such as drought, will need to find more cash from other sources to
pay for things such as school hostel fees and will suffer other hardships. There is a need
for more detailed, systematic and nuanced research on these issues.

It is difficult to place a value on injury or loss of life and in Caprivi the number of injuries
and deaths has risen from one in 2001 to seven in 2005.

Data from other regions

29
Data is available from different sources on economic losses to farmers from HWC in
communal areas north of the Etosha National Park (ENP) and in Kunene Region. Mfune
et al 2005 estimated the economic loss to farmers of livestock killed by predators north
of the ENP in a 270 km long and more or less 30 km wide stretch from January to July
2005. Values for stock losses were based on local livestock prices. Farmers lost 169
cattle, 249 goats, 17 sheep, 59 horses/donkeys, and the total cost of the losses was
N$275 050 (around US$ 39 404).

In 12 conservancies in northern Kunene Region in 2005 the number of livestock killed by

predators as recorded by the event book system was 1 437, most of which were
probably small stock. The value of the animals killed is estimated at between N$1.5
million (US$ 214 890) and N$2 million (US$ 286 520) (Peters 2006). The type of
damage to water points and the extent of damage to crops were not recorded so it is not
possible to assign a value to this.

Value to livelihoods of maintaining wildlife

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that despite the problems caused by elephants
and predators, rural people in conservancies value wildlife. The reasons are varied and
for most people the decision to tolerate wildlife is based not only in terms of financial
costs and benefits but also includes aesthetic values, and sense of ownership and
empowerment (Jones 2001, Jacobsohn 2003). Clearly financial considerations play an
important role, particularly where households and individuals are benefiting in this way.
In the Nyae Nyae Conservancy in the North-East for example, people (amongst the
poorest in the country) said elephants damaged infrastructure, compete with people for
bush foods and are dangerous. However, “despite widespread fear, people said they
wanted to live with elephants because they represented income and employment
through tourism and trophy hunting. Most people said that, given the choice, they would
prefer to live with elephants than without them” (Matson 2005).

The following data from NACSO (2006) shows the overall level of direct benefit to
households in 2005 excluding employment: In 2005 cash disbursements to conservancy
members totalled N$450,217 (US$ 64,498) and were made in five conservancies. The
payments were made directly to members or to villages in areas where the number of
members was too large to make individual payments viable. Nyae Nyae Conservancy
paid out N$300 (US$ 43) to each of its 750 members, while Salambala made cash
payments to 19 villages totalling N$28,500 (US$ 4,083) in 2005 from funds generated by
its trophy-hunting contract. Twyfelfontein Uibasen made its first cash payment to
members, disbursing N$157,377 (US$ 22,546) to the households of its approximately 60
members. Mayuni distributed a total of N$24,000 (US$ 3,438) to the three main villages
in the conservancy while the King Nehale Conservancy paid out a total of N$15,340
(US$ 2,198) to members involved in the production of crafts and Kalahari Melon seed.

In addition, 17 conservancies that are covering between 85% and 100% of their own
costs employ and pay 141 full-time and 26 part-time positions, while donor support
covers the salaries of another 68 full time staff. Conservancy funded jobs have
increased more than threefold from N$480,906 (US$ 68,895) in 2003 to N$1,660,758
(US$ 237,920)in 2005. There are 355 full-time and 1,029 part-time people employed by
joint ventures and community-based campsites, other tourism enterprises, and trophy-
hunters in conservancies.

30
It is difficult to provide a complete analysis of the value of wildlife to livelihoods at the
household level because not all conservancies make direct payments to households,
many of the benefits are provided through social projects and many are intangible (such
as empowerment and capacity building). Existing research on the impacts of HWC on
livelihoods (e.g. Murphy et al 2004) indicates that while some households suffer
considerably, the income generated by wildlife through conservancies does not always
reach the affected households (see also sub-section 5.3.4 below). This is partly because
the full potential for generating income from wildlife is not being realised and partly
because the conservancies themselves do not necessarily target the people most
affected by HWC.

This situation also poses a potential threat to existing conservation gains. Attitudes could
change if some of the constraints to generating more income from wildlife are not
adequately addressed. In Caprivi for example, the benefits that rural people receive from
elephants are small and the number hunted as trophies and problem animals is low.
Although, as stated above, HWC costs are not more than between 35% and 50% of the
benefits that wildlife brings to these communities, the benefits reaching certain individual
households subject to severe HWC are insufficient to off-set losses caused by
elephants. But given the elephant numbers there is potential for much greater income to
be derived from elephants through increased off-take on a fully sustainable basis. Martin
(2005:38) suggests that this situation is a potential ‘time bomb’ with conservancy
members adopting a wait and see attitude: “The recent rapid increase in the number of
elephant in the Caprivi is probably due to a temporary tolerance of elephants while the
conservancies are in their formative stage. But these communities will be evaluating
whether a commitment to wildlife as a land use is worthwhile and, unless elephants
contribute a great deal more to livelihoods, the present forbearance is likely to
disappear.”

Although the direct financial benefits to households from CBNRM in Namibia are
relatively low and hard to determine, at a conservancy level financial benefits are
substantial and easy to calculate. In 2005, the total income generated in Namibia’s
conservancies was N$20.1 million (~US$2.9 million) (C. Weaver Pers.Comm.) This
income, as well as the governance and other structures developed as part of the
CBNRM approach have generated the following positive impacts in poverty reduction in
Southern Africa (Jones, 2004):

• generating discretionary income at community level for social welfare or other

purposes such as infrastructure development
• providing jobs and additional income for some residents
• increasing household and community assets
• providing land use diversification options in semi-arid and arid areas
• providing livelihood diversification options for some residents
• building skills and capacity
• empowering marginalised rural people through devolved decision making, fiscal
devolution, improved advocacy, institutional development
• supporting local safety nets
• promoting sustainable natural resource management (i.e. building up the
resource base as natural capital)
• strengthening or building local institutions for common property resource
management and driving local development.

31
The WWF report Species and People: Linked Futures (WWF 2006) indicates how
CBNRM in Caprivi is contributing to increasing community assets, and delivering on four
of the eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the framework by which the
international community intends to halve global poverty by 2015. The MDGs that
CBNRM is demonstrably delivering on in Namibia are:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Gender equity
• Environmental sustainability
• Partnership for development

The conservancy committee members are learning to adhere to general accounting

procedures, to develop budgets, and are learning a variety of different skills. Developing
resource management and utilisation skills is helping the communities to maintain
effective governance of natural resources and to build social cohesion and networking.
Local people are learning a variety of enterprise skills and how to negotiate with the
private sector over forming joint venture tourism operations.

General Conclusions

The analysis above leads to several important conclusions. While it is not possible to
measure the financial cost of HWC to the government, it is possible to estimate the costs
to the economy, to conservancies and to households. We do not have data that can give
an indication of the value of total crop and livestock losses to HWC annually. It is also
dangerous to make extrapolations nationally as the problems are different in different
parts of the country. However, the data presented above suggests that the costs of HWC
to communal area farmers in Namibia (Kunene, North of Etosha and Caprivi) could be
around N$7 million (US$1million) annually. The economic analysis above indicates a
number of important points regarding human wildlife conflict in Caprivi.
• The impacts of such conflict on household welfare and livelihoods can be severe in
the extreme situations where people are most exposed. This points to the need for
continued research and development of local mitigation mechanisms, including
physical deterrents, as well as insurance. It also points to the need to ensure that
benefits reach the households that are affected.
• There are real costs to conservancies as enterprises, but the overall income to
conservancies is greater than the losses due to HWC.
• It is generally apparent that the private and economic benefits associated with wildlife
in Caprivi (as measured in the returns to CBNRM) tend to outweigh the private and
economic costs in terms of crop and livestock losses. Thus the Namibian
government policy of promoting a system of CBNRM where wildlife can pay for itself,
and communities can internalise both the costs and benefits from wildlife appears to
be economically sound.

While CBNRM makes economic sense at conservancy level or the level of the regional
and national economies, more needs to be done to ensure that it makes financial sense
at the household level. The ways in which this can be done are considered in sub-
sections 5.3.4 and 5.3.5.

32
 4. DYNAMICS AND DRIVERS OF HWC

This section considers Human Wildlife Conflict at three different levels, the micro (local),
the meso (regional) and the macro (national and international levels). Although HWC
occurs at the local level, it is influenced by a number of factors at the meso and macro
levels. These factors include regional land use planning that does not take into account
the potential for HWC, national economic policies, and international conventions and
trade policies. These and other factors are analysed in terms of their effect on the local
level.

4.1 Micro level

At the local level, rural people have to live with wildlife and their ability to deal with
problems caused by wildlife is shaped by national laws as well as local circumstances.
This sub-section considers some general issues regarding HWC at the local level, the
constraints facing conservancies in addressing HWC and issues affecting people living
outside conservancies.

4.1.1 Key issues at the local level

Although legally farmers are able to kill predators, including lions, that threaten people or
livestock, in practice, many rural people cannot afford firearms or cannot meet the legal
security requirements for the safe storage of firearms (Jones 2002, Mfune et al 2005).
Furthermore, whilst wildlife that is posing a threat to crops may be killed if the crops were
fenced, specially protected species such as elephants are exempt. In some
conservancies community game guards have been appointed and issued with firearms
and they try to deal with problem causing predators on behalf of the community.
However, there is usually a time delay before the game guards can reach the scene and
the problem causing animal might have gone.

The legislation does make provision for the Minister of Environment and Tourism to
declare a particular elephant or lion as a ‘problem animal’ that may be destroyed either
by MET or by a professional hunter11. However, the process takes too long to be
effective. A villager in Caprivi might have to travel long distances to report the problem
animal at a MET office. The information has to be relayed from the local MET office to
the Regional Head office and from there to a director in Windhoek who then has to make
a submission to the Minister. By the time permission is given and the message relayed
back to Caprivi the problem causing animal is long gone, and in the case of elephants,
could even be in a different country (Jones 2002). Mfune et al 2005 suggest it may take
from a few weeks to six months for such a problem animal to be declared by the Minster.

Another important feature of HWC at the local level is the significance of perceptions.
Although Stander (2005) suggests that the increase in HWC incidents could be due to
better monitoring and reporting systems, there is a clear perception among key
stakeholders (communities, NGOs, MET, and politicians) that HWC is increasing and
that “something needs to be done”. At local level, perceptions may reflect the
‘catastrophic’ nature of incidents rather than a true perception of the overall levels of

11
The idea of using a professional hunter is so that in the case of a conservancy, the shot animal can bring
some income and help offset losses caused by wildlife.

33
damage. Most of the sometimes bitter complaints about HWC from the Ehirovipuka
Conservancy to MET HQ in Windhoek concern lions, yet according to Stander (2005)
lions only account for about 11% of incidents whereas hyenas account for around 50%.
Stander explains this by suggesting that even occasional conflict with species such as
lions and elephants can be devastating and that “the psychological and emotional impact
on the local communities during conflict involving these two species may be extensive
and overrule all statistics” (Stander 2005:12).

Another possible explanation for the depth of feeling against lions in Ehirovipuka is that
people are angry with the MET because they gain no benefits from the neighbouring
Etosha National Park and a neighbouring wildlife and tourism concession area where
most of the lions come from. People were removed from the park in the past, feel
hemmed in by the park and the concession area and want the park boundaries to be
moved. Lions could be a useful political stick with which to beat the government with
regard to a larger land issue. Situations such as this point to the need for HWC research
that not only looks at the behavioural ecology of problem causing species, but also takes
into account underlying socio-political issues.

Similarly some observers believe that the extent of crop damage by elephants is often
exaggerated by villagers, frustrated largely because they feel powerless to take any
action that will solve the problem (G. Owen-Smith Pers. Comm.). It is unlikely that the
losses are exaggerated in order to claim greater compensation as the Namibian
government does not provide compensation for crop or livestock losses. It is more likely
that people are making a political point.

4.1.2 Conservancies

Although established under legislation to enable local communities to manage wildlife,

conservancies face a number of constraints with regard to HWC. The current MET policy
of having to request the Minister to declare a problem animal has a number of
implications for conservancies themselves. Jones and Butterfield (2001) suggested that
communities in Caprivi were increasingly starting to view wildlife as belonging to the
conservancies rather than to the state. As a result they expected the conservancies to
deal with problems caused by the conservancies’ animals. However, conservancies do
not have the authority to shoot an elephant if necessary and have to wait for permission
from MET for the elephant to be destroyed. As a result of their inability to shoot an
elephant and at that time to provide the means to offset the losses caused by the
elephant, this situation was undermining the support of the conservancies by their
members. The innovative self-insurance scheme introduced in some Caprivi
conservancies has helped to restore support for conservancies (see sub-section 5.3.5
below) in this regard, but conservancies still need to be able to take measures
themselves rather than waiting for MET permission.

Another problem faced by conservancies is lack of secure land tenure. Although the
National Land Policy makes provision for groups of people such as cooperatives and
conservancies to become land holders, this approach is not strongly backed up by the
legislation, which followed, the Communal Land Reform Act. When conservancies
develop local land use plans and zone specific areas for wildlife and tourism, it becomes
difficult for them to exclude other people from outside the conservancy from moving into
these zoned areas. If outsiders move their livestock into areas zoned by conservancies

34
for wildlife, this is likely to lead to conflict with predators in these areas. Within
conservancies, with the support of local traditional leaders who have some authority over
local residents, it is generally easier to enforce such zones and reduce such conflicts.

However, without support from government levels above, even internal enforcement of
management plans and zoning can be problematic. In Caprivi the Salambala
Conservancy on the Chobe River bordering Botswana has set aside about 14 000 ha as
a core wildlife area where there should be no livestock and no settlement. The majority
of people living within this area agreed to move out but three families have remained.
They complain that lions moving in from Botswana kill their livestock. In this case a
mixture of local tribal and party politics and competition between individuals made it
difficult for the conservancy to enforce its zonation. The conservancy appealed to MET
and other government agencies for support, but although government officials requested
the three families to move, they did not follow up on these requests.

National legislation does provide conservancies some degree of protection against

undesirable land uses being introduced by outsiders. The Communal Land Reform Act
requires Communal Land Boards (CLBs) to take into account any management or
utilisation plans developed by conservancies when allocating land leases. The CLBs
may not grant a lease for a purpose that would contradict such plans. There is also
provision in the Act for conservancies to be represented on land boards. Some land
boards have been acting in accordance with this legislation and have taken into account
conservancy management and zonation plans, while others have ignored this provision
because of a lack of information or a lack of understanding of the law (Jones and
Kakujaha-Matundu 2005). Measures are being taken to address this situation through
the provision of training and information to land board members.

4.1.3 Outside Conservancies

Although conservancies now cover most of the main wildlife areas on communal land,
there are still communities which suffer from HWC, but which have not formed
conservancies. Currently these communities are able to make use of existing provisions
in legislation that allow them to defend their property and persons against predators and
elephants (see sub-section 4.1.1 above). As in the conservancies, if there is a persistent
problem causing animal that is a threat to people or livestock, then the MET can declare
it a “problem animal” and it can be destroyed. However, communities that are not formed
into conservancies do not have the same institutional platform for dealing with HWC
more comprehensively. Neither do they have access to the benefits that come from
conservancies that can act as mitigation of HWC.

The MET’s draft national policy on HWC management recognises that conservancies
cannot be the only vehicles for addressing the problems on communal land. It makes
provision for other institutions and organisations that meet certain conditions to develop
local HWC management plans and to apply to MET for authority to deal with certain
problem animals themselves and derive benefits from the use of products from these
animals. However, the main vehicle for gaining significant benefits from wildlife will still
be through conservancies. This is because one of the incentives to form conservancies
will be the opportunity to gain these benefits.

35
 4.2 Meso Level

4.2.1 Regional development and Land Use Planning and coordination between
regional and other levels

Regional development planning is the responsibility of the 13 Regional Councils through

Regional Development Coordinating Committees (RDCCs) but lack budgets for
implementation. Regional Land Boards administer communal land titles and allocation.
They endorse and register allocations by traditional leaders for residential and crop
growing land and allocate leases for commercial forms of land use such as irrigated crop
growing, tourism etc. Apart from municipalities in urban areas there are no government
bodies with decision-making authority below the regional level. There are Constituency
Development Committees (CDCs) and Village Development Committees (VDCs), but
these have advisory functions only and no means of generating income.

As indicated above, land use planning at the national and regional levels do not take into
account issues of HWC. Plans are made without considering whether there are existing
uses of the land based on wildlife, or whether proposed agricultural developments will
increase the level of HWC. Insufficient consideration is given to the economic benefits of
different land uses and to the optimum use of land given the prevailing environmental
conditions.

An example is the programme of allocating “unutilised” communal land to small-scale

commercial farmers developed by the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement (MLR). A
large block of such land has been designated for individual farmers to the west of the
Kaudom Game Reserve in Kavango Region. This allocation has been approved by the
Communal Land Board for the region and was originally made by the land and farming
committee of the local traditional leadership. The farms will be 2 500 ha in size and
allocated to individuals under leasehold rights. The game reserve is unfenced and there
is considerable movement of wildlife (particularly of elephants) westward along drainage
lines during the wet season. According to Jones and Kakujaha-Matundu (2005:23):
“There is thus considerable potential for increased human-wildlife conflict in this area
including the destruction of crops and infrastructure by elephants and livestock losses to
predators. Further, the allocation of this land as farms considerably diminishes the
opportunity to develop economically viable wildlife and tourism enterprises using the
Kaudom Game Reserve as a core wildlife area and tourism attraction”.

For some years the MET has allocated hunting concessions in the communal land west
of Kaudom and the new farming developments will considerably diminish the future
viability of these concessions. Further, there have also been moves to develop a
conservancy in the same area where the land has been allocated for small-scale
commercial farming.

According to a consultant’s report on unutilised land suitable for small-scale commercial

farming in Kavango (IDC 2002, cited in Jones and Kakujaha-Matundu 2005) another
block of land has been designated for commercial farming to the north east of the
Kaudom Game Reserve and along the Botswana border. This area of land is adjacent to
the Muduva Nyangana registered conservancy and adjacent to an emerging
conservancy. It is possible that part of Muduva Nyangana falls within this designated
commercial farming area.

36
The impacts of the “small-scale” commercial farming alongside Kaudom Game Reserve
could be considerable. The area is one of the last strongholds of the wild dog in
Namibia. These animals roam over vast territories and are not contained within the park.
Wild dogs could come into increased conflict with new livestock farmers and their
numbers could be considerably reduced.

In addition to all the above reasons why the establishment of commercial farms next to
unfenced wildlife habitat is inappropriate, the most critical factor to note is that there is
no economic justification for this kind of land-use planning. As also stated in section
3.1.4, agricultural enterprises based next to unfenced wildlife reserves can be expected
to suffer HWC losses 5 times higher than base levels. For dryland crop enterprises, this
would result in a 120% drop in net income, and make the enterprise economically
unviable.

An option to reduce HWC losses and ensure economic viability of the farms would be to
fence the Kaudom reserve. However this could cost in the region of US2 million that
probably would have to be payed by either the government or an International donor. It
is not clear what the impact of this would be on the elephant population of around 4,000.
As this population has been growing mainly through migration from other areas, the
impacts could be considerable.

Therefore, both in terms of economics and environmental sustainablility, it is entirely

inadvisable to establish commercial farms in the vicinity of wildlife habitat. These
enterprises would have far greater economic success if they were established in other
areas further removed from unfenced wildlife areas. In order to avoid inappropriate land
use planning such as this, it is critical that the government bodies with a remit for land-
use planning at all levels take current and potential future HWC into account in their
decision making. This will ensure increased potential for income generation from
wildlife, and increased economic success for new agriculture developments. Section
5.6 outlines a proposed mechanism to secure these important changes.

4.3 Macro level

4.3.1 International Agreements

HWC must to some extent be driven by any forces which result in the enhancement of
wildlife damage on crops, livestock, water facilities, or human security. The
EU/Coutonou livestock protocol, which gives some access for Namibia and other ACP
countries to the protected EU beef markets, artificially enhances the economic viability of
the livestock sector. Similarly, in the past, livestock sectors in southern Africa have
received domestic subsidies which have enhanced their competitive advantage relative
to the natural resources and wildlife sectors. This has been measured in Botswana
where both the external benefit of EU market access, and domestic subsidies on inputs
and prices have been shown to be substantial (Barnes et al 2001). The details of such
subsidisation in Namibia have not been examined in this way. This would require a
detailed analysis of past and present livestock subsidies and taxes in both the
commercial and communal land settings, in the context of a study on the economics of
livestock production and the livestock sector as a whole.

37
Wildlife use activities, and investment in wildlife production have in contrast tended to
receive no subsidisation in southern Africa. On the contrary, the tendency for the central
state to retain ownership over wildlife resources has acted to provide disincentives to the
investment in and use of wildlife. Custodial rights to wildlife resources are currently
bestowed selectively on private and communal landholders in Namibia, but these are
only partial, as landholders are still required to obtain permits for many transactions.
Delays and inefficiencies in government permit allocation mean that many domestic
bureaucratic obstacles reduce the competitive advantage for wildlife relative to livestock.
International regulations affecting trade in wildlife products play a similar role. Given that
elephants are a major contributor to HWC, the case of elephants and the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is illustrative.

Elephants in Namibia have the potential to generate economic value through four main
uses: as a primary attraction for wildlife viewing tourism, as a target for sport hunting
(trophy hunting), as the basis of cropping or culling activities for ivory, hides and meat,
and to a limited extent in sale of live animals. Namibia is a signatory to CITES by which
legal international trade in certain wild species including elephants is regulated. After
massive illegal trade in ivory in the 1970s and 1980s caused dramatic declines in
elephant populations throughout most of Africa, in 1990 African elephants were placed
on CITES Appendix I, which prohibits all international trade of (in this case) elephant
products, for primarily commercial purposes. Namibia’s elephants have since been
transferred to CITES Appendix II (which means that limited trade in products is allowed,
pursuant to CITES requirements). Additional restrictions on trade in elephant products
were adopted by the CITES Parties, and more recently, particularly for Namibia, there
has been some lifting of restrictions on international ivory trade, while others are still
pending. In the case of Namibia, the CITES Parties have approved the non-commercial
(not for re-export) export of individually marked and certified “ekipas” - traditional ivory
carvings by two ethnic communities - as well as the commercial trade in elephant hair
and leather goods. Furthermore, Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa were
conditionally approved at CITES CoP12 in 2002, to sell specified registered stocks of
raw ivory through a one-off sale to approved “trading partners”, once certain conditions
were met. These conditions are intended to ensure that resumed ivory trade does not
negatively impact on the threatened elephant populations of Asia and West and Central
Africa, where significant unregulated domestic ivory markets exist. The conditions have
been met for the African countries, and the realization of the sale is pending approval of
the trading partners (Japan, and possibly China), and verification of certain data from the
MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) database system.

Hunting trophies in Namibia can be exported, and this is consistent with CITES
requirements. At present sport-hunting quotas are relatively low because the safari
industry would not be able to effectively and economically utilise a bigger quota, as
quotas for other species limit the possible number of hunting packages available. These
quotas are set by the government of Namibia (not by CITES). Although the industry also
feels that increased quotas would threaten the desired trophy size, the possibility of an
increase while remaining within acceptable limits on trophies should be tested.

CITES regulates international trade, but does not regulate activities involving wildlife
management within Namibia, and it is therefore possible for Namibia to undertake
management practices such as culling, cropping, translocation and sport-hunting of
elephants without the approval of the Convention. However, as CITES regulates the
international trade in elephant products, and internal markets within Namibia are limited,

38
CITES does in effect limit the consumptive use of elephants in Namibia. Although the
sale of hides has been profitable in the past, the current profitability of this, given the
high recovery costs and uncertain markets, is not known. A study in Botswana (Barnes
1996) provided evidence to show that the effect of CITES controls has been to halve the
potential economic use value of elephants. It is possible that similar results would be
found for Namibia.

4.3.2 Transboundary issues

Elephants in north eastern Namibia are part of a much larger population that ranges
across several countries and are part of what is seen in the region as an increasing
problem of over-population. According to Cumming and Jones (2005: i) both human and
elephant populations in southern Africa have increased 20-fold over the last century
resulting in “compressed and fragmented elephant ranges, increasing human-elephant
conflict and an escalating elephant overpopulation problem”. Overall elephant numbers
have increased from a few thousand in 1880 to around 300,000 in 2005. Botswana, with
approximately 150,000 elephants, carries the largest elephant population in the world,
followed by Zimbabwe with more than 100,000 elephants. Half of the Zimbabwe
elephant population lives in 22,000 km² in the north western region of the country, which
is contiguous with Botswana. The combined population of about 250,000 elephant spills
over into the Caprivi Strip in Namibia, into southwestern Zambia and southeastern
Angola. This population is growing at about 5% per annum (Cumming and Jones 2005).
Elephants from the Chobe National Park in Botswana move regularly onto the eastern
floodplains of Caprivi in increasing numbers as communities have become more tolerant
based on expectations of income through conservancies. This has led to increased crop
damage in this area and an increased likelihood of injury or death to humans. Due to
the transboundary nature of wildlife movements, there is a critical requirement to
address HWC problems across international boundaries.

39
 4.3.3 National policies and legislation

National policies and legislation do not adequately cover Human Wildlife Conflict issues
and in some cases serve to exacerbate the problem. The following is a brief summary of
the links between policy and legislation and HWC in Namibia across relevant sectors.

Wildlife:

In some respects the policy and legal framework allows farmers considerable leeway to
deal with problem animals. The current legislation, the Nature Conservation Ordinance 4
of 1975 (GRN 1975) allows farmers themselves to deal with a wide range of animals that
potentially cause livestock or crop losses. Predators such as hyena, jackal and caracal
may be killed by farmers without a permit. However, a permit is required to kill predators
such as lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog and crocodile, all of which are protected
species. A person may kill protected game without a permit in defense of human life to
prevent a person from being injured or to protect livestock while the threat is occurring.
The person, must, however, report the killing to the nearest police station of Ministry of
Environment and Tourism office within 10 days. Farmers may kill wildlife that destroys
crops without a permit, provided the area of land is adequately fenced. However,
specially protected species such as elephant, rhino and hippo may only be killed without
a permit if threatening human life. If the MET declares a particular animal to be a
“problem” animal it may be destroyed, but in practice this takes too long to be effective.
The specific problems encountered by local people in addressing HWC under the MET
policy and legislation were considered in sub-section 4.1 above.

The policy of the Namibian government is not to pay direct compensation from state
funds for livestock and crop losses. It has however, come under increasing pressure
politically to provide some form of financial assistance to families who lose a family
member to wild animals. In a few cases the MET has arranged for families to receive
some funds to cover funeral and related expenses.

Agriculture:

Past direct and indirect government subsidies to agriculture have tended to promote
livestock over wildlife as a land use in the absence of similar subsidies for wildlife. Direct
subsidies have been phased out although cheap loans for black farmers wishing to
acquire freehold farms perhaps also act as a livestock subsidy. As indicated above,
more research is required to demonstrate the results of such subsidies and links to
increased HWC. A substantial wildlife industry has developed on freehold land despite
livestock subsidies and some support to farmers interested in wildlife (e.g. supply of
game) has been provided by the state. It would be useful to compare the extent of
subsidies in each sector and model what might have happened with wildlife as a land
use if the playing field had been level.

40
Land:

The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement does not consider HWC issues prominently in
its land use planning approaches if at all. In general, many politicians and government
decision-makers do not recognise wildlife as a legitimate form of land use that can be
economically productive, particularly in drylands such as Namibia. Land use planning
therefore appears to be driven by the desire to promote crop farming and livestock as
land uses, without necessarily considering the existing use of land for wildlife in
conservancies and without considering the most economic forms of land uses based on
land capability and climatic conditions. This leads to increased conflicts at the regional
and local levels. Consideration of the impacts of these policies and recommendations to
address them are provided in sub-section 5.6 below.

Water:

Under recent policy and legal changes local communities are now responsible for water
point maintenance, whereas in the past government took this responsibility. Water point
committees must be formed to manage and maintain pumps and other infrastructure and
to consider how water can be allocated to local users. This approach means that in
areas such as the North-West, water point committees are expected to pay for repairing
damage by elephants. The water point committees are expected to raise their own funds
from water users to carry out such repairs, but often local residents cannot afford this. In
many cases local residents will approach the water authorities for assistance, but will be
referred to MET if the damage was caused by elephants. However, as indicated above,
the MET does not pay compensation for HWC losses and damage. Where
conservancies have been formed and are generating sufficient income, there is potential
for them to use funds generated by elephants and other wildlife to address water-related
problems caused by elephants. Examples of how conservancies can and are doing this
are provided in Section 5 below.

National Development policies

Namibia’s National Development Goals as articulated in national Development Plan II

(NDP II) are as follows:

¾ To revive and sustain economic growth,

¾ To create more employment opportunities
¾ To reduce inequalities in income distribution; and
¾ To reduce poverty

The following are the strategies to achieve these goals:

9 Sustainable provision and strengthening of enabling environment for economic

growth and development
9 Promoting environmental and ecological sustainability
9 Developing Namibia’s Human Resources, promoting, expanding and
strengthening participatory development and equity
9 Promoting, strengthening and sustaining good governance and democracy

41
 9 Expanding and strengthening Namibia’s international role

Although NDP II recognises the ecological and climatic constraints to development in

Namibia, implementation of plans for expansion of land under high value crops could
lead to increased HWC. This is likely to occur if there is agricultural expansion in regions
such as Caprivi and sufficient planning for reducing and preventing HWC does not take
place.

Although HWC issues are not directly considered or addressed in national development
policies, CBNRM is recognised as being able to contribute to national development
goals. For example, The Namibian country report to the 2002 World Food Summit
(MAWRD 2002) emphasised the need for environmental and sustainable development
policies to take a stronger food security focus. It suggested that Community-based
Natural Resource Management, agriculture and off-farm diversification approaches
should be tested and need to be multiplied.

The role of tourism, community-based tourism and conservancies are recognised in the
government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy for Namibia. Action 25 of the National Poverty
Reduction Action Programme (2001-2005) reads as follows: “The MET shall continue its
efforts to establish conservancies. Through this programme, some 25 new
conservancies will be established by 2005 (i.e. five each year) with 175 000 people
benefiting individually and collectively. The MET, along with non-government
stakeholders, will assist in the registration of conservancies, as well as with the provision
of training in game and conservancy management” (GRN 2002).

According to Action 26: “The MET will assist rural and disadvantaged communities to
establish community-based tourism projects, such as businesses and joint ventures”.

These targets in the Poverty Reduction Action programme have already been met
through activities funded by government and donors and implemented by government
and NGOs.

The key provisions of national policies, how they affect HWC or intersect with wildlife
policy, status of implementation and suggested changes are summarised in a matrix in
Annex 4.

42
 5. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

The following sub-sections provide a variety of potential solutions for addressing HWC.
Not all are applicable in all circumstances, or to all species. However, it is important that
they are not applied in isolation. It is particularly important to ensure that prevention
measures on the ground are linked to appropriate local level institutions, which in turn
are nested within broader national policy and implementation frameworks.

5.1 Prevention measures

Local level land use planning

Conservancies carry out local level land-use planning (LUP) which is partly aimed at
minimising HWC. Experience from Caprivi indicates that such planning, if effectively
implemented, can be very effective in reducing the frequency of crop damage caused by
elephants. Data from NACSO (2006) shows markedly different trends in two
neighbouring conservancies – Kwandu and Mayuni. Kwandu (the conservancy with the
highest frequency of incidents in Namibia) has continued to register increasing incidents
over a number of years, but its immediate neighbour, Mayuni, recorded a dramatic
decline in crop damage between 2003 and 2004 (see Figure 5). According to NACSO
(2006): “The reduction in incidents in Mayuni Conservancy was probably due to the
implementation of its zonation plan, which led to the relocation of people away from the
Kwando River floodplains. While this case study needs further investigation, it suggests
that the implementation of land-use plans is a key strategy for reducing incidents of
wildlife damage”. The implementation of the zonation plan in Mayuni Conservancy has
been facilitated by the strong traditional leadership under Chief Mayuni. The experience
in these two conservancies indicates the need for traditional authorities and Communal
Land Boards to take HWC into account when allocating and approving allocations of
land for residential and agricultural purposes.

43
Figure 5. Changing trends in the number of incidents of crop damage (y axis) by wildlife in two
neighbouring conservancies in east Caprivi between 2001 and 2005. (source: NACSO 2006)

Local HWC Management Plans

Many Namibian stakeholders have recognised the need for local HWC Management
Plans that take into account local conditions and problems, identify local HWC
management objectives, identify management strategies and actions, involve all relevant
stakeholders, assign responsibility for actions and allocate funding. This need has been
recognised in MET’s draft national policy on HWC management and the policy aims to
promote and support the development of such plans. There is much hope that such
plans can provide the necessary framework to integrate different approaches and
coordinate inputs of different stakeholders. With such a planning process, communities
can begin to see the links between prevention and mitigation and understand the need
to take a multi-faceted approach to HWC management including such actions as
improved livestock management. Esterhuizen (Pers. Comm.) suggests that if livestock
losses can be reduced through improved management, then this can reduce the burden
on conservancy self-insurance schemes. A pilot process in line with the draft national
policy proposals has begun with the Ehirovipuka Conservancy in Kunene Region. After
an initial meeting between MET and the conservancy committee and conservancy
members a draft set of actions has been developed that includes the following:

¾ Improved monitoring of lions and elephants in the conservancy and the

neighbouring tourism concession and the neighbouring Etosha National Park
¾ Training of conservancy personnel in lion and elephant monitoring
¾ Conduct regular joint patrols of boundary fences (western ENP fence,
concession fence) and upgrade the fences
¾ Expand the existing self-insurance scheme to include damage to gardens and
establish a livestock herd to replace animals lost to predators
¾ Establish some reinforced cattle pens (kraals) in most vulnerable places
¾ Waterpoints vulnerable to elephants to be protected efficiently and conservancy
to supply water to game to reduce conflicts
¾ Introduction of game species to enhance the tourism experience and increase
numbers of natural prey species of predators
¾ Improve communication with the MET through agreed protocol so that problem
animals can be declared quickly and offered to a trophy hunter or dealt with by
MET
¾ Delegation to conservancy of authority to destroy problem animals (conservancy
will use trained hunters)
¾ The conservancy to receive an elephant quota for trophy hunting and to benefit
financially from any predators captured and removed
¾ Expand tourism enterprises in EC to increase income to EC and capacity to deal
with HWCM issues

The MET will hold a further series of meetings with the conservancy committee and
assist the committee to hold consultations with members to further develop and agree on
the plan.

44
Artificial barriers

a) Fences

Electric fencing can provide a useful barrier to elephants around crop fields and gardens
(O’Connell 1995, Hart and O’Connell undated). However, experience in Namibia so far
indicates that while electric fences can successfully deter elephants from entering a
specific area, they fail mainly for institutional reasons. In Kunene Region for example,
the NGO IRDNC assisted conservancies to erect nine electric fences, none of which are
currently functional. The main reasons for this failure are as follows (Esterhuizen, A.
Pers. Comm.):

i. Issues of ownership – the conservancy did not take responsibility for the
fences, and expected the NGO to maintain them even though the fences had
been signed over to the conservancy as their property
ii. Issues of maintenance – due to the conservancy not taking responsibility for
maintenance, key equipment was not cleaned and kept functional, breaks in
the fences were not properly repaired, fences were not dismantled and
stored properly at the end of the rainy season
iii. Other issues - one conservancy wanted a longer fence to surround its
gardens and as the NGO could not supply additional fencing, the
conservancy never erected the fence.

In Caprivi the success of electric fencing also depended on the institutional commitment
and capacity of the community to maintain the fence and equipment. O’Connell (1995)
found that elephants usually found their way around the fences if they were not closed or
narrowed at the ends as much as possible.

Stander (Pers. Comm.) suggests that electric fencing rarely works even in game
reserves because of a lack of capacity to maintain them. He suggests that they only
really work well in areas where intensive management can be applied such as in some
private game parks. They could also work where a small fence is erected around a
hosue to protect the house and garden. Owen-Smith (Pers. Comm.) has suggested that
such small fences could work if powered by a solar panel that could provide electricity
for the house, giving the inhabitants an even stronger incentive to maintain the fence
and equipment.

For electric fences in Kunene Region the cost to cover an area of 5km² was
approximately N$ 15 000 (US$ 2,149) including double wire, alarm, energiser, one solar
panel, battery, regulator, insulators, protection box and tester Esterhuizen (Pers.
Comm.).

Wire fences have also been used in the Kasika conservancy in Caprivi to keep
crocodiles out of areas where livestock drink and where people use the river. The wire
fences cost about N$2 000 (US$ 287) each, are easy to build and are more effective
than traditional thorn fences. The result has been a reduction in livestock losses
(R. Diggle Pers. Comm.) although because the area is subject to flooding, the method
can only be used seasonally.

45
b) Protection of water points

Experience from the #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy and from the work of IRDNC in
Kunene Region suggests that well-constructed walls using appropriate specifications
can effectively protect water installations from elephant damage (Guibeb Pers. Comm;
Esterhuizen Pers. Comm). Walls need to be at least two large rocks in width, and 1.8m
high, to prevent elephants knocking the wall down or climbing over. The walls need to be
a sufficient distance from water tanks and pumps to prevent elephants reaching the
installations from outside the wall. If well constructed it can be possible to erect a wall
without cement that can still keep elephants out.

The most successful model used in #Khoadi //hoas is where the walls meet the above
specifications, and where the wall does not completely surround the main water tank, but
allows elephants access to drink from the outside (see Figure 6). At the same time, there
needs to be a separate tank for domestic water provision that is protected completely
within the wall along with the water pump. Leaving a small gap in the wall for human
access can work if the wall is sufficiently strong, but if the wall is weak elephants will
enlarge the gap and gain entry. Human access can also be effected by using a ladder.

One of the problems with this model of humans and elephants sharing access to water
at the same source, is that elephants might consume large quantities of water that have
been pumped at the expense of the residents where a diesel pump is used. Esterhuizen
(Pers. Comm.) suggests that if permanent springs with strong flow are located nearby it
might not be necessary to allow elephants access to the water at the main tank12.
Further, a solar pump could be used to avoid the need to pay for diesel. The #Khoadi
//hoas Conservancy provides diesel to households where elephants have stayed at the
water point for several days, consuming large quantities of water, and sells diesel at a
subsidised price for households to pump water for livestock and domestic consumption.

Elephant protection walls are probably one of the cheapest and most effective ways to
protect any type of infrastructure in the North West due to the abundance of stone in
most of the areas (Esterhuizen Pers. Comm.) The cost for protection walls varied greatly
as it depended on the availability of stone close to the infrastructure, transport cost of
stone, cement and labour. The cost varied between N$ 5000 (US$ 716) to N$ 10 000
(US$ 1,433) per site.

c) Chilli pepper fences

In Caprivi fences lined with a mixture of grease and chilli peppers are still being
experimented with. Initial indications from Kasika Conservancy (see Kasika case study
above) indicate that they can be effective13. In Kunene Region the NGO IRDNC and a
number of conservancies will begin testing the use of chilli peppers shortly.

12
However, there have been instances where solar panels for water provision have been stolen in Kunene
and other regions, indicating that such installations need to be where people can to some extent guard the
equipment.
13
Such fences have proven effective in other countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

46
d) Chilli “bombs”

Ground chilli is mixed with elephant dung and compacted into a brick mould and dried.
The bricks are burnt along the edge of a field and the smoke acts as a deterrent to
elephants. Initial indications from Caprivi are that this method can be effective in keeping
elephants away from fields. More time is required to evaluate the method and to see
whether elephants become used to the smoke.

Figure 6. Successful protection wall against elephant at a water point in #Khoadi //hoas
Conservancy, Kunene Region, Namibia. The wall is strong enough to keep elephants out, high
enough to keep them from stepping over, and far enough from the main installations within the
wall, including the plastic water tank for domestic use, to prevent elephants reaching the
infrastructure. However, elephants can drink from the reservoir on the right. Photo: Olga Jones.

47
Alternative water points for elephants

The provision of alternative water points for elephants away from the main source of
water for livestock and domestic use has been tried in #Khoadi //hoas and by IRDNC in
a number of other Kunene conservancies. In both cases there have been problems with
the operation of such water points and this approach is not recommended (Guibeb Pers.
Comm; Esterhuizen Pers. Comm). In #Khoadi //hoas, where alternative water points
were provided for elephants, the main water points for people and livestock were not
sufficiently well protected so the elephants used both and caused damage to the pumps
and pipes at the main water point. Another problem was the availability of diesel to
pump water for elephants or if a diesel pump was broken and no water available at the
elephant drinking tank, then the elephants would cause damage to the main installations
while seeking water.
The following were problems identified with the alternative water point supported by
IRDNC (Esterhuizen Pers. Comm):

i. Issues of ownership – the conservancy did not take responsibility for the
alternative water points and did not appoint anybody to maintain or care for
the tanks and equipment such as pipes; the community rarely scared
elephants away from the original water point to teach elephants to go to the
alternative water
ii. Issues of maintenance – due to the conservancy not taking responsibility for
maintenance, leaking pipes were seldom repaired immediately so elephants
ripped up the pipes in their search for water; the tanks dried up and cracked
because of a lack of water
iii. Funding issues: Conservancies did not have enough diesel to pump water
for both their livestock and the elephants.

Esterhuizen suggests that for alternative water points to work, they need to be away
from settlements and function with solar pumps. Communities should agree not to settle
at the water point or allow their livestock to drink there14.

The cost to build alternative elephant water points in conservancies assisted by the NGO
IRDNC varied between N$ 20 000 (US$ 2,865) to N$ 25 000 (US$ 3,582), which
included the corrugated sheet dam, all fittings and sealants, transport cost, piping from
the source ranging between one to five km, cement and labour (Esterhuizen Pers.
Comm.).

Guarding fields

In Caprivi in the past attempts have been made to guard crop fields at night against
elephants. Villagers, conservancy game guards and MET staff have deployed to protect
fields in joint efforts. However, it is difficult to predict where the elephants will aim for and
all fields cannot be guarded. This method can perhaps be used if it is known that
elephants are in the vicinity. People tend to lose interest if they spend the night in their
fields and elephants do not arrive several nights running.

14
It could be difficult to get such an agreement in a semi-arid to arid area such as Kunene Region where
mobility is important for successful livestock farming and drought is a normal occurrence. Again theft of
the solar panels and the pump could be a potential problem.

48
Elephant trip alarms

O’Connell (1995) experimented with the use of elephant trip alarms. Each alarm system
comprised of a 12v, 10w car siren, a 12v, 1.6 amp gel cell battery and a 10-second
timer. Fields were surrounded by polyethylene string mounted to either existing fences
or onto trees and poles with U nails, allowing the string to slide in order for the alarm to
be triggered by an elephant entering a field. The car siren was mounted on a tree or
pole, as close to the pathway of the elephants as possible. The string was then cut at
this point, and a piece of wood or plastic tied to both loose strings, providing a site for
the trip switch to be mounted. The trip switch was constructed out of a spring peg and
attached to the piece of wood. Once the trip is set off, the contacts on either side of the
spring peg engage, setting off the siren for ten seconds. O’Connell found that the trip
alarms could work well if the area covered was not too large or elephants were not
entering fields from different directions. The system worked best when deployed across
a well-known route taken by elephants to reach certain fields. She also suggested that
where fields are being guarded, a portable siren system could be more effective.
Problems included the potential for elephants to become habituated to the sound of the
siren and potential disturbance of homesteads or tourism operations from the sound of
the sirens. O’Connell found that the system was easy to erect and maintain and the low
cost meant that farmers could afford it, particularly if a few farmers joined together.
According to O’Connell-Rodwell et al (2000) trip-alarms were a successful short-term
measure for protecting individual farms, but did not have an impact on the overall
number of conflicts.

Elephant trip alarms cost around N$800 (US$ 115) at 1995 prices (O’Connell 1995).

Improved livestock husbandry

Improved livestock management practices are crucial for reducing HWC involving
predators. In many areas there is a tendency to allow livestock to wander untended or
unguarded and this leaves animals particularly vulnerable to predation. The use of a
person and/or dogs to walk with the livestock can have a significant positive impact
(Stander 2005). Herding of livestock was a management practice used in the past but
has been in decline, particularly as young boys who would normally be used as herders
now go to school. The #Khoadi //hoas conservancy actively encourages its members to
revert to herding livestock as much as possible. Anatolian Shepherd dogs have been
shown to be particularly effective in guarding against cheetah (Stander 2005) but have
high maintenance costs compared to village dogs which can also be effective.

Kraaling the cattle at night in strong enclosures is another important method of reducing
predation and can be encouraged and financially supported as part of local HWC
Management plans in conservancies.

Stander (2005) suggests that active management by controlling breeding times and
grazing areas can lead to synchronised births, which aid the protection of cows and
calves against carnivores.
Re-location

49
With regard to elephants, re-location is technically possible, but there are some key
problems. These include the very high costs of moving large numbers of elephants, a
lack of areas where elephants could be moved to, and the possibility that elephants
would return to the original sites (Cumming and Jones 2005). This method would also be
problematic in dealing with HWC in an area such as Caprivi where the elephants are not
part of a stable resident population. Removing a herd of elephants would not stem the
movement of others from Botswana into the eastern flood plains of Caprivi for example.

Stander (2005) suggests that re-location can be very effective for lions that can be
described as “occasional raiders” rather than “problem animals” that habitually prey on
livestock. It was important to be able to identify the category which an individual lion falls
into. Of 35 occasional raiders that were relocated, only two returned to the conflict area,
while of 19 lions categorised as “problem animals” all returned to the conflict area and/or
continued killing livestock. The problem animals consisted of a preponderance of sub-
adult males. Stander (2005:50) suggests that for re-location of lions to be successful “it
requires advanced skills, sufficient resources, and a good understanding of lion
behaviour-ecology and local ecological conditions”. He found that re-location could be a
useful tool to deal with HWC and a useful conservation tool (instead of lethal removal).
But sixteen leopards re-located in eastern Namibia to relieve HWC all returned to the
area where they were captured (Stander 2005).

5.2 Reactive measures

Traditional

In Caprivi elephants have become habituated to the traditional deterrent methods of

beating drums, using fire or shooting in the air. O’Connell (1995) found that in some
cases elephants had become aggressive and charged the farmers trying to scare them
away.

Lethal Removal

With regard to lions, Stander (2005) found that re-location did not work for animals that
had become habitual livestock killers and suggests that such “problem lions” require
severe management actions such as lethal removal. Lethal removal is often the only way
to deal with predators, elephants, and crocodiles that repeatedly cause problems and if
they kill humans. In some cases it is possible to offer identified problem animals to
trophy hunters so that the local community can gain some income from animals killed.
During discussions with farmers in #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy they repeatedly made
the distinction between elephants from which they could derive income and predators
which caused losses, but which provided no income. They did not suggest the shooting
of all predators. They felt that because predator numbers (in this case mostly cheetah)
were becoming too high, some animals needed to be removed (either re-located or shot)
and the conservancy should get some income from this.

Esterhuizen (Pers. Comm.) suggests that a small number of lions could be put on trophy
quotas in problem “hotspots” where lions frequently kill livestock. For this system to work
he suggests there needs to be decentralisation of decision-making to the local level so
that a “problem animal” can be identified and the decision taken locally for the animal to
be shot as part of the conservancy trophy hunting quota. He also suggests that each

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appropriate MET regional office could be given its own quota of problem lions that could
be shot (based on local numbers, knowledge of the scale of conflict etc.) and should be
able to take its own decision following a proper investigation. Such an approach would
ensure a quick response and will increase the probability that the correct animal will be
removed. According to Stander (Pers. Comm.) the rate of increase of lions in Kunene
Region suggests that by 2007 it would be possible to establish an off-take quota.

Reaction unit

A number of stakeholders have identified the need for quick reaction when a specific
problem animal needs to be dealt with. As explained above the current policy for
declaring and dealing with a problem animal is impractical. One means is to improve
communication and another is delegate decision-making to local levels. However, there
is also a need for designated personnel to be available to react on the ground if
necessary. In Caprivi in the past communities had official hunters designated by the
chief who had the responsibility for dealing with problem animals. Using conservancies
as the institutional base, a similar system could be applied with designated conservancy
hunters acting in a team with MET officials and possibly NGO staff. If it became
necessary to destroy a problem animal and no hunter was available, then this reaction
unit could take the necessary measures.

5.3 Mitigation measures

5.3.1 CBNRM benefits as mitigation

Conservancies have provided the main platform for experiments in communal areas in
the prevention and mitigation of HWC. In north-west Namibia, MET and NGOs have
assisted communities with a number of measures aimed at preventing damage to water
points and off-setting the costs to local people of sharing water with elephants. In the
North-East a particular focus has been on finding ways to keep elephants away from
crop fields, using various deterrent measures ranging from electric fences to the use of
chilli peppers. In both the North-West and the North-East a number of conservancies
have piloted a self-funded scheme for providing compensation to members who lose
livestock to predators. The conservancies also provide benefits to communities in
various forms that help to off-set the costs of living with wildlife. This section provides
two short case studies regarding the role of conservancies in addressing HWC - one
from the North-West and one from the North-East.

5.3.2 Case study on #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy, Kunene Region

The #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy was registered by the MET in mid 1998, one of the
first four communal area conservancies to be established in Namibia. It was formed by
the Grootberg Farmers’ Union (GFU) and as a result the conservancy has a strong
relationship with the GFU and places considerable emphasis on livestock farming as
well as wildlife. The conservancy area of about 362 000 ha previously consisted of land
owned by white farmers and bought by the South African Government to help create the
Damaraland Homeland as part of an apartheid-style division of Namibia. Many of the
residents were forcibly settled in the area from hundreds of kilometres away. There is a

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scattered settlement pattern with the majority of people living on the fenced former white
farms in small groups of 2-5 families close to artificial water points. Several hundred
people live at the settlements of Erwee and Anker each of which has a school and a
clinic.

The human population of the conservancy is estimated at 3 000 - 3 500. Most people
live a subsistence existence, although there are a handful of fairly wealthy livestock
owners, who farm commercially. The main form of subsistence is sedentary livestock
farming at low stocking rates (however in times of drought the movement of livestock
sometimes over large distances is an important coping strategy). Most farmers keep a
mixture of cattle and small stock. The semi-arid conditions, poor soils, and steep slopes
in the hills make crop farming extremely difficult and even livestock rearing is precarious.
The sale of livestock by the more wealthy farmers and the receipt of remittances and
pensions by the poorer residents are important sources of cash income. There is little
formal employment.

#Khoadi //hoas has been generating its own income from trophy hunting since 2000. For
a number of years it was largely dependent on donor funding, but it has now become
self-reliant. By using donor funding to cover operating costs in its early years it had
managed to build up a surplus of nearly N$400 000 (US$ 57,304). In 2004, the
conservancy began using its funds to provide benefits for residents. Table 2 shows how
the conservancy has benefited local residents in 2004 and 2005. In addition to the
benefits reflected in the table, the conservancy employs eight fulltime personnel: a
manager, a liaison and communication officer, two camp-site managers and four
environmental shepherds responsible for wildlife monitoring and preventing poaching.
The conservancy employs an additional 3 part-time environmental shepherds. Its wage
bill in 2006 will amount to nearly N$100 000 (US$ 14,326), an important injection of cash
into an area with few full-time jobs. Apart from social projects such as supporting local
schools and providing a soup kitchen for the elderly, the conservancy has invested
heavily in measures to prevent or mitigate problems caused by elephants. These
problems include threats to humans, the killing of livestock at water points, damage to
water point installations, consumption of water pumped for people and livestock at the
cost of residents, damage to fences around grazing areas and around homesteads, and
damage to small gardens.

In 2004 more than half of the amount spent on community benefits was used for
elephant-related issues. In 2005 nearly all of the spending on community benefit was on
elephant related issues. In both years the greatest part of the money spent on
addressing elephant problems was the conservancy’s contribution to a Global
Environment Facility (GEF) small grant for building elephant protection walls around
water points.

52
Benefit 2004 (Overall income: 2005: (Overall
N$133 932, income:N$214 245
accumulated surplus: =30 690 $,
N$ 388 599) accumulated
surplus:N$ 340 705)
Contribution to 2 schools 25 000
Support for livestock vaccination 4 000
Diesel for elephant water points 6 235 4 580
(collected by residents to pump water)
Diesel at subsidised price to pump 15 645 10 292
water for livestock where elephants
consume most of water at a settlement
Payment to offset livestock losses to 700 5 500
elephants
Payment to local traditional authority 2 500 2 500
Loan of breeding animals for improving 20 000
farmers’ small stock
Soup kitchen for old people 7 824 6 000
Contribution to building elephant 61 520 116 100
protection walls around water points
Support to Grootberg Farmers’ Union 2 000
Implementation of benefit distribution 14 952 16 391
plan (fuel and travel)
Total 158 376 163 363
Table 5. Spending by the #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy on community benefits in 2004 and 2005. (Data
sourced from conservancy records).

Under the GEF Small Grants Project, the conservancy received N$163 000 (US$23 351)
for protecting water points, and monitoring of elephant movements in order to assist the
development of the conservancy management plan. So far seven water points have
been protected and one more still has to be completed. In 2000 the conservancy
received N$300 000 (around US$ 42 978) for building alternative water points for
elephants so they would not drink at the reservoirs used by people and livestock. The
funding was also aimed at providing electric fencing to protect gardens, at supporting the
conservancy’s monitoring of elephant movements and at building a camp site to be run
by the conservancy (which would bring income from tourists and therefore - indirectly -
from elephants).

These projects have provided valuable lessons for the conservancy regarding the
protection of water points and the provision of water for people and elephants. Over time
a model has been developed that appears to provide protection to water point
installations, although it means that people and elephants share the same water point.
This model works if the conservancy is able to provide diesel to those water points
where water has to be pumped by engine rather than wind pump.

One resident at a settlement where the conservancy has successfully protected the
water point, Mr Seth Awiseb, said he was grateful for the assistance he was getting from
the conservancy. The wall around the water installations was preventing the elephants
from damaging the pump and the pipes. The water point serves three households

53
totalling about 30 people. Mr Awiseb said the conservancy had also provided diesel,
meat from hunting, and stud rams to improve his livestock. If it hadn’t been for the
conservancy he did not think the community would have obtained funds for the wall to
keep out elephants. He said however, that although the wall worked well, there was still
a problem in keeping elephants away from his garden where he tried to grow water
melons, beans and maize. The elephants had also ripped out the pipe he had laid to
provide water from the reservoir to his house. He added that predators were also a
problem in his area and people had lost 5 goats to cheetah in the previous month. Other
problem-causing predators were jackal and caracal.

With regard to protection of gardens, the conservancy manager, Mr Bob Guibeb, said
the electric fences received under the GEF project were not working because of faulty
equipment, and the company that had supplied the equipment had closed. In order for
electric fencing to work, individual gardens needed to be consolidated into one, as it was
not possible to protect all the gardens in the conservancy.

In #Khoadi //hoas elephants range across much of the conservancy. There are areas
where they seldom seem to visit and areas which they seem to favour. Only a few old
bulls seem to be permanently resident in the area and most elephants move seasonally
into other areas and other neighbouring conservancies, depending upon rainfall and
availability of food. The monitoring of elephant movements by the conservancy
environmental shepherds enables the main problem areas to be identified and prioritised
for protection measures.

An important feature of the #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy approach to addressing

elephant problems is that it does specifically try to assist those residents who bear the
most costs of living with elephants. The conservancy has targeted areas frequently used
by elephants for protecting water points, and it makes free diesel available for people
whose water has been consumed by elephants. It pays compensation to those who have
lost livestock to elephants. In essence it has taken a similar approach to addressing
elephant compensation problems that the HACSIS programme in other conservancies
(see sub-section 5.3.5 below) has taken to addressing predator problems.

5.3.3 Case study on Kasika Conservancy, Caprivi Region

Kasika Conservancy in Caprivi is on the Chobe River on the border with Botswana’s
Chobe National Park. It has around 2 000 residents. Although it was only registered in
2005 it has been carrying out wildlife management activities for some time. The main
problems from wildlife come from elephants crossing the river from Chobe and causing
damage to crops and threatening people, from buffalo damaging crops, and from
crocodiles which attack livestock and people. The conservancy and the NGO Integrated
Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) have initiated a series of activities
to deal with these problems with N$200 000 (US$ 28,652) from the GEF Small Grants
Fund administered by UNDP.

The main objectives are to protect crops, protect livestock and to provide a HACSIS
(Self Insurance Scheme) fund that can be used to pay residents for livestock losses. In
order to protect crops, the conservancy is using chilli peppers in different ways. Chillis
grow well in Kasika and the residents have established a chill pepper plantation. A
mixture of chilli and elephant dung is used to make “chilli bombs” which are placed
around fields and burnt to produce an unpleasant smelling smoke. Chilli is also mixed

54
with diesel oil to make chilli grease which is put on fences around the crop fields. So far
these measures have been successful in keeping elephants away from houses and
crops. However the materials for making the chilli grease fences can be hard to come
by, the fences require regular maintenance and use of fresh ingredients, and there are
environmental implications of using old car grease for the fences (R Diggle, Pers.
Comm.). The conservancy is hoping to sell surplus chilli.

In order to deal with livestock losses to crocodiles and other predators, the conservancy
has introduced the HACSIS approach (see sub-section 5.3.5 below). It has paid out
N$15 800 (US$ 2,264) in claims for 16 livestock and one human injury. The payments
to off-set livestock losses have increased the tolerance of residents for wildlife (R Diggle,
Pers. Comm.). Importantly the HACSIS scheme linked payments for stock losses
caused by crocodiles to use of the crocodile fences at designated drinking places. The
GEF small grant funding was used to initiate HACSIS in Kasika, but in future the
conservancy intends to use its own revenue. There are two upmarket lodges in the
conservancy which are expected to bring in around N$400 000 (US$ 57,304) a year and
the current trophy hunting contract is worth around N$500 000 (US$ 71,630). However,
Diggle (Pers. Comm.) suggests that there is a strong argument for the international
conservation community to provide ongoing support to conservancies such as Kasika
with regard to HWC. This is because the elephant problems experienced by residents of
Kasika are part of a regional elephant conservation problem (see sub-section 4.1.2
above). If conservationists propose that areas such as Kasika should be used as
dispersal routes for elephants from Botswana to other countries, they should be willing to
assist local people to bear the costs.

5.3.4 Challenges for CBNRM as a Human Wildlife conflict mitigation strategy

The two case studies support arguments that CBNRM has the potential to mitigate HWC
and could be one of the most sustainable ways to do this (Distefano undated). The
conservancies bring income to local communities from wildlife use and wildlife-based
tourism that can be used to address problems caused by wildlife. The conservancies are
important institutions for implementing a range of other prevention and mitigation
activities (see sub-sections 5.3.5 and 5.7 below). However much still needs to be done
to find ways to off-set the costs of HWC to households. CBNRM in Namibia is based on
a number of principles that underpin the basic premise that people will conserve wildlife
if they are able to benefit from its sustainable use and if they have sufficient decision-
making authority over the use of wildlife. One of these principles was developed by
Murphree (1993):

Differential inputs must result in differential benefits - those communities living

with wildlife and thus bearing a higher cost should receive higher benefits than
those who do not bear the cost.

Within Namibia, this principle is being applied at the conservancy level. Those
communities that live with wildlife gain the income from the use of wildlife in their
conservancies. They do not have to share this income with people in areas with little or
no wildlife. In general, the communities that suffer the highest costs from wildlife are
gaining the most benefit from the use of wildlife. However, this principle is not
necessarily applied within conservancies at the household level.

55
It is clear from the NACSO data presented in sub-section 3.1.4 that the proportion of
overall conservancy income going to households is low and only affects a few
conservancies. Even if employment is included, the number of households gaining direct
benefits compared to the number of residents in conservancies remains low. Further
these benefits are given to all members in the conservancy and do not differentiate
between households that suffer more costs of living with wildlife than others. Neither do
social projects specifically target people who suffer the most costs. This issue has been
framed as a conflict between community benefits from wildlife and household losses and
has become one of concern for Namibian conservationists. Stander (2005:60) notes for
example that “Policies relating to HWC and CBNRM Programmes need to address the
fact that individuals bear the cost of the human-wildlife conflict and that benefits from
using wildlife are usually shared out equally amongst the whole community”. Permanent
Secretary Lindeque notes in his keynote address to the 2005 national HWC workshop
that: “It appears that, in most cases, the benefits from wildlife cannot be easily used to
offset the often dramatic costs suffered by individual households in a way and time that
truly meets the needs of the affected household.”

There are some ways that this can be done. In some instances conservancies have the
potential to considerably increase their incomes and to make larger amounts available
for direct household benefits. Currently one of the main constraints to fulfilling this
potential is a lack of capacity to manage more business partnerships and enterprises.

There are also ways to specifically increase the income raised by problem causing
animals for communities. Stander (Pers. Comm.) suggests there is good potential in
developing predator tracking safaris linked to tourism lodges in conservancies. Part of
the income from these safaris could be put into a special conservancy fund that can be
used to offset livestock losses.

Conservancies could, in their benefit distribution plans, specifically target households

that suffer high HWC costs. Another means of addressing the issue of household losses
has been developed by CBNRM implementers in which a conservancy self-insurance
scheme specifically targets the households who bear the direct costs of livestock losses.
This scheme is described below.

5.3.5 Insurance/compensation

The Namibian NGO, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC),
has worked with conservancies in Caprivi and Kunene Region to develop the Human
Animal Conflict Self Insurance Scheme (HACSIS). Essentially the scheme provides
funding to off-set the livestock losses caused to individual farmers by predators under
certain conditions. The scheme was piloted in two Caprivi and two Kunene
Conservancies with a third Kunene conservancy operating the scheme on its own. The
aims of the scheme were to (Esterhuizen 2004):

a) Increase community tolerance towards problem causing animals

b) Create an incentive for farmers to manage their stock better
c) Encourage conservancies to put in place a management strategy to mitigate
problems
d) Promote the equitable distribution of benefits so that individuals who suffer
losses can benefit from wildlife income

56
Farmers are able to submit claims for stock losses to the conservancy. A committee
consisting of conservancy representatives and the traditional authority assesses claims,
monitored by MET and IRDNC. Claims are only paid out for losses caused by certain
species of predator and to registered conservancy members under the following
conditions:

• No payments will be made for livestock killed in a protected area or conservancy

exclusive wildlife zone
• Stock deaths must be reported within one day of the incident occurring
• The cause of death must be verified by a community game guard (e.g. by
checking spoor)
• No payments will be made if the livestock was killed at night without being in a
secure kraal or other enclosure
• Conservancy staff and traditional leaders will inspect stock enclosures of
members and advise where strengthening is required. No claim will be valid if
recommended improvements are not carried out.
• Claims will not be accepted if members were warned that predators were in the
area and they took no action to bring the livestock to safety
• Following a successful claim, a member can forfeit any future claim is he/she
does not improve enclosures as recommended

Payments under this scheme are made to cover livestock losses at fixed rates which do
not cover the full value of the animal concerned but aim to partially off-set the loss to the
farmer. A payment at a fixed rate would also be made to cover funeral expenses in the
case of the death of a conservancy member or his/her minor child caused by wildlife.
During the pilot phase payments were made from donor funding. For the second phase it
was agreed that conservancies would cover 50% of the costs themselves, but payments
per year would be capped at N$10 000 (US$ 1,433). The aim is that eventually
conservancies would fully fund the scheme themselves.

During the pilot phase in Caprivi 20 claims were paid out in 2003 totalling N$22 600
(US$ 3,238). Eleven were for livestock losses caused by lions, eight for losses caused
by crocodiles and one payment was for the funeral of a young child killed by an
elephant. In Kunene region for the three participating conservancies, 99 claims were
paid out totalling N$72 940 (US$ 10,449). All these payments were for livestock losses,
most of which were caused by hyena and cheetah.

Although a number of problems were identified in managing the scheme, the results of
the pilot phase were sufficiently encouraging for IRDNC to expand the scheme in each
region. In Caprivi, two additional conservancies joined the scheme and three additional
conservancies joined the Kunene scheme. In 2007 Kwandu Conservancy in Caprivi will
pilot the use of the scheme for addressing crop damage. There is some indication that
the scheme could become a drain on conservancy finances if total annual payments are
not capped, or if conservancies are not able to increase their incomes (Roman Pers.
Comm., Tjiho Pers. Comm.). Some conservancies are considering establishing livestock
herds that can be specifically used to replace animals lost to predators instead of making
payments.

57
Overall it can be considered that the cost of insurance schemes would potentially be
around N$ 13,960 (US$2 000) a year per conservancy, depending upon number of
incidents and whether a cap is placed on the total amount of payments.

5.3.6 Government funding support from sale of ivory

Another means used by the MET to offset losses through income derived from wildlife is
the establishment of the Game Products Trust Fund (GPTF). Income for the fund is
sourced from the sale of ivory allowed under CITES approval and other income to the
state from the use of wildlife and wildlife products. Funding from the GPTF is ploughed
back by the Ministry into conservation management and also to support conservancies
and others in addressing HWC. For example, GPTF funds have been allocated to five
conservancies in Kunene Region to address elephant-human conflicts, to assess
elephant damage to water points in the Omusati Region and to minimize elephant-
human conflicts in the Nyae Nyae conservancy in the North-East (MET undated).
However, the process for applying and gaining approval to access funds from the GPTF
is time-consuming and in the past some conservancies have waited for up to a year to
receive a response to an application.

5.4 Support systems

Monitoring and evaluation

Information is crucial for good decision-making regarding HWC management.

Information is required by managers at the macro, meso, and micro levels to inform
land-use and development planning, assist in developing appropriate HWC management
strategies and in order to adapt strategies and actions over time as data indicates what
works and why.

According to Stander (2005) formal and structured monitoring of HWC in Namibia is a

relatively recent development and there are two main national sources of data, the Event
Book system which operates within communal area conservancies and the MET data
base with information going back to 1997. There are a number of smaller data sources,
that cover certain species only and/or certain parts of the country only. According to
Stander (2005), of the two main monitoring systems the Event Book is the more robust
and systematic (see Annex 3 for a summary of the Event Book Monitoring System). The
variation in the characteristics of HWC across Namibia complicates the use of one
standardised monitoring system (Stander 2005). However, there is clearly a need for
some consistency in approach. Stander’s analysis of the MET data base and the Event
Book System showed “alarming discrepancies” between the two, particularly where for
some species there were hundreds of records in the one system, but none in the other.
He suggests the Event Book System is the most reliable, and also notes that the data
being produced by the HACSIS scheme (see above) in some conservancies is
producing similar or better data than the other two systems. HACSIS data for example is
able to provide a spatial perception of the impact on the community, identifying hot
spots. This information can then be used to improve management.

There is also a need for more rigorous monitoring of specific activities aimed at
preventing or reducing conflict. In #Khoadi //hoas conservancy for example, various
“projects” have supported the development of alternative water points for elephants and

58
the protection of water points, but there has been no structured monitoring of the
usefulness of these approaches once the projects ended and no wider dissemination of
the results. It would be extremely useful to have an accessible data-base on what was
tried, the technical specifications, whether it worked or failed and why.

Different types of information are required by managers at different levels. There is a

need to identify these needs and develop data bases that are appropriate and
accessible at each level. For example at conservancy level such a data base could be
linked to the conservancy’s own HWC Management Plan. The conservancy and support
agencies would gather data that assisted the conservancy in developing the plan and
implementing it according to local priorities. At the other end of the scale, MET at HQ
level requires an overview of HWC in the country as a whole, the number of incidents,
costs of damage, species involved etc.

5.5 Appropriate policies

Appropriate policies are required at the national and international levels that provide the
right incentives for rural people to tolerate elephants on their land. This includes enabling
land holders to benefit from elephants and other wild species that cause problems and
significantly affect people’s livelihoods. National legislation in Namibia goes far in
achieving this objective, but could be improved to extend additional rights and
opportunities to local communities. However, the extent to which local communities can
benefit from international trade in wildlife is also impacted by the provisions of
international treaties such as CITES (see sub-section 4.3.1 above), although this is
offset to some extent by the potential benefits of trade pursuants to CITES requirements
such as trophy hunting. As indicated in sub-section 4.3.2, policy changes are required at
international level to enable local people to benefit fully from having elephants on their
land and in order to address the “elephant problem” in Caprivi and other parts of the
Kavango/Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA). The EU livestock
protocol is also likely to affect the way in which wildlife and livestock are perceived as
economic forms of land use through providing incentives that artificially favour livestock.
More detailed study on the effects of taxes/subsidies and trade restrictions/trade
advantages, in both the livestock and natural resources/wildlife sectors, is recommended
in order to better inform policy development and reform.

MET has recognized the inadequacies of current policy and legislation and has begun
the process of drafting a national HWC management policy. There have been three
consultative workshops (see annotated bibliography in Annex 7) and a second draft is
being prepared. The draft policy encompasses the following main principles (MET
2005b):

¾ Human-Wildlife Conflict cannot be removed permanently and will always occur

where people and wildlife co-exist: therefore the conflict needs to be managed
¾ HWC management needs to balance the needs of people with the aims of
biodiversity conservation
¾ Government will promote self-reliance amongst farmers and other land-holders
and will assist farmers who take responsibility themselves
¾ Government cannot provide direct compensation to farmers but can provide
incentives for living with wildlife and bearing the costs

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 ¾ Strategies designed to implement the policy need to be flexible, taking into
account different situations in different parts of the country, recognizing that the
scale and impact of Human-Wildlife Conflict changes at different times of the
year, and that different methodologies are required for different species of
wildlife.

Based upon the principles above, a draft policy statement has been formulated:

“To manage Human-Wildlife Conflict in a way that recognizes the rights and
development needs of local communities, recognizes the need to promote
biodiversity conservation, promotes self-reliance and ensures that decision-
making is quick, efficient and based on the best available information. In order to
achieve this, the government will devolve decision-making to the lowest
appropriate institutional levels, develop appropriate mitigation and monitoring
methods and develop the capacity of all stakeholders to manage Human-Wildlife
Conflict”

The draft policy document includes a number of strategies for implementing the main
policy statement. These include devolution of decision-making to appropriate institutions,
mitigation through CBNRM, developing and implementing the best appropriate technical
solutions for preventing and reducing HWC, developing appropriate monitoring and
evaluation systems and data bases, and promoting self-reliance through capacity
building and self insurance schemes. The policy also recognises the need for HWC to be
taken into account in land-use planning at all levels, and that other Government
agencies should take responsibility for considering existing and potential HWC in their
planning of development projects in rural areas.

One of the key policy provisions required at national level is the decentralisation of
authority to identify a problem animal and authorise its lethal removal to local level
(O’Connell 1995). This is crucial to enable a quick reaction in the field and to ensure the
correct animal is removed. The draft national policy on HWC Management makes
provision for such decentralisation and sets out the procedures and conditions under
which this would happen. The objectives of this decentralisation strategy are as follows:

a) To devolve decision-making authority over the destruction of identified problem-

causing wild animals to the lowest appropriate institution so that the correct
individual animal can be speedily destroyed, providing protection to people and
their property

b) To provide sufficient safeguards to ensure that specific animals are destroyed for
good reason

The policy makes provision for authority to decide on the destruction of an identified
problem animal to be devolved to MET regional offices and conservancies that have
HWC management plans. Where there are no conservancies, owners, or occupiers of
land, private organizations or local institutions would be able to apply to MET for rights to
take decisions on destruction of problem-causing animals and to use the products
derived from that animal.

MET has also recently drafted other new policies that aim to increase the benefits from
wildlife to local communities at least in part to help address HWC. A Policy on Tourism

60
and Wildlife Concessions on State Land will enable the Minister to reserve such
concessions in protected areas or on other areas of state land specifically for a
community resident in the area or adjacent to it. One of the justifications for awarding
such a concession to a community neighbouring a protected area would be to offset
loses caused by wildlife. One of the conditions for awarding a concession in a protected
area to a resident or neighbouring community would be the existence of a
representative, accountable and stable community institution that is a legal entity, such
as a conservancy (MET 2006).

A draft policy on Protected Areas and Resident People recognises that people living in
or next to protected areas often suffer costs from HWC as a result of wildlife leaving the
parks and game reserves. It promotes the development of cooperative management of
protected areas between MET and residents/neighbours, the development of compatible
forms of land-use adjacent to protected areas based on the CBNRM approach, and the
development of protected areas to maximise economic benefit, locally, regionally and
nationally within the bounds of ecological and economic sustainability.

The development of the Concessions policy and the Protected Areas and Resident
People policy will support the national HWC policy by increasing the financial and other
benefits from these areas to local communities, thus helping to mitigate the costs of
HWC in or near protected areas. By developing co-management of protected areas and
awarding concessions in parks to local communities, government hopes that
communities will become true stakeholders in these areas. As a result it is hoped that
communities would be more tolerant of problem causing animals and that joint HWC
management strategies can be developed.

A number of factors are driving these policy changes. Firstly the conservation successes
of CBNRM approaches have shown government that devolution to local communities
can work. Secondly, all government agencies are under pressure to demonstrate how
they contribute to the Millennium Development Goals and national development goals,
and there are increasing indications that CBNRM can contribute to both. Thirdly, key
individuals at high levels in MET are convinced of the need for CBNRM approaches and
are committed to driving their implementation. The result is a policy focus that aims to
integrate biodiversity conservation with rural and national development.

5.6 Integrated approach across different levels, sectors, institutions etc.

It is clear from the above discussion on various prevention and mitigation methods that
none of these are adequate on their own to address HWC. Some are very clearly linked
and even dependent on others. For example, the activities proposed for the Ehirovipuka
draft HWC Management Plan outlined above contain a mix of preventive, reactive and
mitigation measures as well as capacity building, joint action between different
stakeholders and responsibility and action by the community itself. When addressing
HWC issues it is necessary to consider a suite of approaches that together help to deal
with the identified problems.

It is also clear that HWC management cannot be successful if the macro, meso and
micro levels work in isolation and are not articulated through appropriate policy and
implementation frameworks. Namibia’s draft national HWC management policy is one
important step in providing the framework for creating the necessary links between

61
levels. However, as identified above, a national HWC policy also needs to be linked to
and to inform national land-use and development planning policies and frameworks.
These frameworks are still weak and need further development before HWC
management will be properly taken into account. Without these links the likelihood is
strong that land-use and development plans will lead to increased HWC, increased
financial costs for farmers, and increased economic costs for the country.

It is also clear that there needs to be cross-sectoral integration in addressing HWC.

Many governments and private agencies are involved in various forms of land-use and
land-use planning. It cannot be the responsibility of the government conservation agency
alone to address HWC. Other sectors need to be aware of HWC issues, be aware of the
potential prevention and mitigation measures and need to include these in their planning
and implementation.

The Kaudom Game Reserve example described in subsection 4.2.1 illustrates the need
for links between the different levels and integration across sectors. The small-scale
commercial farms being developed adjacent to the reserve required a proper
assessment of the potential impact of the scheme taking into account national and
regional resettlement plans as well as local plans for conservancies and the
development of wildlife and tourism as land uses. This approach would have required
coordinated land-use planning between different agencies, a full-consideration of the
existing and potential uses of land and of the potential increases in HWC. An integrated
multi-agency approach to land-use planning in this case could have investigated the best
economic uses of the land and carried out a cost-benefit analysis of various options. For
example, the cost of developing farming activities would need to take into account the
likely costs of repairing fences and water installations damaged by elephants, crop
losses to elephants and livestock losses to predators. It would also need to take into
account the value of the wildlife likely to be killed as part of addressing HWC in the
absence of any system (such as a conservancy) to return income from such animals to
the community. Even if for political or other reasons the final decision was to go ahead
with small-scale farming, then at the least HWC prevention and mitigation measures
could have been identified if an appropriate planning process had been carried out.

The major problem is the lack of a national land-use and development planning system
that is based on public consultation, good technical feasibility studies and environmental
assessments, and links the different levels. In order to provide the necessary integration
a number of steps are required. The following recommendations are adapted from those
made by Jones and Kakujaha-Matundu (2005) for promoting environmentally
sustainable decision-making about land use at national and regional levels. The
measures proposed below should all include the consideration of HWC issues and
enable HWC to be incorporated in national and regional land-use and development
planning:

¾ Relevant ministries should develop a coordinated planning system that

encompasses land-use planning, physical planning and development planning at
national and regional levels, establishes clear procedures for taking
environmental considerations into account in land-use decisions (e.g.
Environmental Assessments) and which also identifies the roles of key
stakeholders at different levels.

62
 ¾ The relevant ministries should develop TOR for the proposed national and
regional Land Use and Environmental Boards15 and establish these boards as a
priority in order to administer and coordinate national and regional land use
planning systems.
¾ The relevant ministries and other stakeholder agencies and organisations should
regularly update all land use plans and information (e.g. areas designated for
small-scale commercial farming, emerging and existing conservancies and
community forests, planned agricultural schemes, etc.). This information should
be used to coordinate planning at national level and should also be made
available to land boards and regional councils at regional level.
¾ Develop training programmes for regional council and regional land board
members that cover basic land use planning, map reading and interpretation,
basic environmental principles, economic potential of different land uses,
Environmental Assessments and Environmental Management Plans, other
relevant sectoral legislation, and principles of CBNRM (including community
forests).
¾ Provide regional councils and regional land boards with the appropriate data,
documentation and maps that will enable them to make informed decisions.
¾ Regional Councils, Land boards, and traditional authorities should be involved in
the development of regional and local level HWC management plans with MET,
other relevant ministries, NGOs, and community institutions such as
conservancies as envisaged by the MET’s draft national HWC management
policy.

5.7 Integration across frontiers

The transboundary issues discussed in sub-section 4.3.2 above indicate the need to
address HWC problems across international boundaries. In many ways the challenges
are similar to addressing HWC within national boundaries. A key requirement is for the
necessary frameworks and links to be made between systems and institutions. The
development of transfrontier conservation areas is one means to try to achieve this type
of integration. For example, plans are underway to develop a transfrontier conservation
area (TFCA) linking parts of south-east Angola, northern Botswana, southern Zambia,
and south-western Zimbabwe with Caprivi in Namibia. This Kavango/Zambezi
Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) will include protected areas and communal
land. One of its aims is to increase economic benefits to local residents from wildlife and
tourism. KAZA provides opportunities for increasing the mitigation of HWC through
increased income to communities, provided that they benefit directly rather than through
a “trickle down” effect. The TFCA also provides opportunities for joint approaches to
elephant and HWC management, not only involving the conservation agencies and
NGOs of the participating countries, but also the local communities. For example, a
community trust (a similar institution to a Namibian conservancy), exists across the
Chobe River in Botswana opposite the Salambala Conservancy in Namibia. Many of the
people from these two areas come from the same tribal group, speak the same
language and some are related. Wildlife, including elephant and lion, crosses back and
forth between the two community conserved areas. There is potential for these two
entities, supported by government and NGOs, to develop joint approaches to wildlife and
HWC management. At the overall KAZA level, there are plans for a transboundary forum

15
Proposed in the National Land Policy

63
for community-based organisations and for developing various integrated plans for
managing elephants, and tourism.

As elephants have begun to move out from Chobe in Botswana and into other
neighbouring countries, attention has been focused on the possibility of developing
“elephant corridors” that leave areas of land open to facilitate elephant movement (e.g.
Chase undated). However, the main constraint to such proposals is human settlement
and consequent human-elephant conflict in the potential corridors between sub-
populations and the rate of dispersal along and through corridors may be too slow to
relieve pressure on source populations (Cumming and Jones 2005).

It is clear that developing elephant corridors or aiming for significant range expansion of
elephants would have to include large areas of the communal lands of the region that
are already settled by people. If these people are to tolerate elephants they need
realistic incentives which “could be generated if farmers and rural communities were
able to derive the full range of benefits from elephants, including, for example, trophy
hunting and the sale of elephant products from animals harvested. Range expansion will
thus require shifts in national, regional and international policy regarding the
conservation and management of elephants outside of protected areas, as well as policy
changes relating to the sale of ivory and other elephant products. Such a strategy may
also serve to assist in containing the ongoing elephant population eruption in the region”
(Cumming and Jones 2005:ii).

Diggle et al (2005) also emphasise that the residents of Caprivi conservancies will bear
the costs of large herds of elephants moving through their land, but suggest that the
Botswana elephant problem can be seen as an opportunity and can become a catalyst
for social and economic development in the KAZA TFCA. They believe “Caprivi
Conservancies can provide the key local management structures, which if coordinated
with government strategies, can result in the conservation and safe movement of
elephants between Botswana, Angola and Zambia” (Diggle et al 2005:8).

5.8 Appropriate institutions with the necessary decision-making authority

There has been considerable emphasis within this report on technical issues such as
methods to prevent or reduce HWC, methods to deter elephants and predators, and on
land-use planning. However, the conservation and development worlds are full of good
ideas that don’t get implemented and of wonderful zoning plans that are never enforced.
This is because the necessary institutional frameworks were not in place for
implementation to take place or for land-use and zonation plans to be enforced. It is
crucial that there are clear institutional arrangements that assign not only responsibility
but also authority for management actions to be carried out. To some extent
conservancies on communal land in Namibia provide this institutional framework,
although as discussed elsewhere in this report there is a need to extend the existing
decision-making authority over wildlife that conservancies already enjoy. Crucially
conservancies need the appropriate group land tenure rights that would enable them to
enforce their land use zonation with the full backing of the state at regional and national
levels. They also need to be able to take decisions regarding the destruction of
persistent problem causing animals, and to be able to decide on the balance they wish
to keep between wildlife and livestock.

64
Diggle et al (2006) emphasise the importance of conservancies as grassroots
management structures which focus clearly on issues on the ground and the needs of
members. They suggest that “by Government providing a democratic mechanism for
communal area residents to manage the wildlife and with experienced and professional
NGOs building capacity, then community structures can become the solution towards
balancing the conservation and wellbeing of elephants with the social and economic
empowerment of rural residents” (Diggle et al 2006:8).

The process of conservancies reaching the stage when they can successfully fulfil this
role is taking time. As indicated earlier some of the technical solutions for dealing with
elephant problems in Kunene Region have not worked due to institutional failure in their
implementation. Esterhuizen (Pers. Comm.) suggests this reluctance to take ownership
and responsibility is partly due to Namibia’s colonial past under South Africa’s apartheid
system. As a result, communities find it hard to believe that they really do have decision
making authority over wildlife, and it is taking time for them to understand that they do
not always need to ask someone else for permission to act. Esterhuizen thinks that this
will change over time, but needs to be recognised and factored in to the way that support
agencies work with the conservancies.

6. CONCLUSIONS

6.1 Main conclusions

This report has demonstrated how wildlife is increasing in many parts of Namibia partly
as a result of government policies that provide economic and other incentives for land
holders (including rural communities) to adopt wildlife as a viable form of land use and to
live with wildlife on their land. Rural communities have become more tolerant of wildlife
because they receive or perceive the potential to receive a range of benefits from
wildlife. However, the increase in certain parts of the country of potentially problem
causing species such as elephants and various predators is also leading to an increase
in HWC.

Analysis of the key issues and drivers regarding HWC in Namibia leads to the following
three broad conclusions:

I. The costs of HWC to communities and governments can be outweighed by the

economic benefits generated by CBNRM that devolves rights over wildlife and
the right to benefit from its sustainable use to local communities. This provides a
sustainable long-term solution to the problem which reduces the need for
continual government interventions.

This report has shown how in Namibia CBNRM brings a number of livelihood
benefits to rural communities. While the financial benefits to households are
currently low, these can be increased in various ways providing a direct means to
off-set the losses caused by HWC. At the same time, CBNRM provides a number
of other intangible benefits that help to increase tolerance of wildlife that causes
problems such as elephants and predators.

II. For HWC to be effectively mitigated, it is essential to implement cross-sectoral

coordination that ensures all relevant ministries take existing and potential HWC

65
 into account in land-use and development planning. This will prevent financial
losses to farmers and other land-users, and reduce losses to regional and
national economies.

This report has shown how national and regional planning by ministries in non-
conservation sectors can lead to increased HWC and increased costs to the
government and the economy. Planning of agricultural developments,
resettlement schemes and other rural development projects, including provision
of water need to assess potential HWC and incorporate methods to prevent
damage and losses.

III. For HWC to be effectively mitigated, integrated coordination between macro,

meso and micro levels is essential. Such coordination can reduce the costs of
HWC by increasing the efficiency of planning and implementation of development
projects, and ensuring that HWC prevention and mitigation measures are
integrated as part of a coordinated and systematic programme.

This report has shown that HWC at the local level is impacted by processes and
events at the meso and macro levels. Attention needs to be given to the
provision of supportive international and national policies, efficient national and
regional decision-making frameworks and local institutions that have the capacity
to address HWC.

6.2 Specific recommendations for addressing HWC in Namibia

With regard to the implementation of the draft national HWC Management policy and
future HWC management in Namibia the following recommendations are made:

¾ Much more focused attention is required on monitoring the effectiveness of

various measures to prevent or reduce conflict and on disseminating the
results. Some indications of possible successful models for protecting water
points are emerging in the Kunene Region and these need further monitoring to
assess their effectiveness.
¾ More attention needs to be given to the monitoring and assessment of the
costs of HWC particularly with regard to crop damage. Various methods have
been used which differ in their approach. There is a need for ongoing research
that also aims to assess the impact and hardship caused to households so that
conservancies can support those hit the hardest.
¾ Although the draft HWC Management policy calls for other line ministries to
take responsibility for addressing HWC in the planning and implementation of
development activities, mechanisms will be needed to operationalise this such
as the establishment of the proposed Land Use and Environmental Boards and
similar bodies.
¾ Key Ministries such as Lands and Resettlement need more exposure to and
training in the means of avoiding increased HWC through appropriate planning
processes. The use of Environmental Assessments for key ministerial projects
would assist in identifying potential problems and the development of
appropriate prevention, reduction or mitigation measures.

66
 ¾ The HACSIS scheme is one means of ensuring that conservancies provide
targeted support to households. However, more attention needs to be given to
expanding the benefits reaching households if CBNRM is to be a successful
mitigation mechanism. This requires further policy changes at national level
such as further devolution of authority to local communities and increased
security of land tenure.
¾ Removal of the domestic and international disincentives to investment in and
use of wildlife could be expected to considerably enhance the economic
benefits of wildlife relative to the HWC costs. There is a need for a detailed
study on the effects of trade barriers, restrictions, taxes, subsidies, property
rights, and similar factors on the value of wildlife in Namibia.
¾ Change is required in international trade agreements (such as the
EU/Coutonou livestock protocol) that potentially negatively affect wildlife as a
land use.
¾ Working within the CITES system, the means need to be found to enable
Namibia, with plentiful elephant populations, to provide economic benefits to
local communities from regulated trade in elephant products A concerted effort
must also be undertaken in both consumer countries and in parts of Africa
(mainly West and Central) to control domestic ivory markets. Furthermore, until
this can be achieved, international support to communities in Namibia needs to
be increased in the form of payment for ecosystem services (biodiversity) in
order to ensure that recent gains at community level are not turned into losses
because of increased conflicts with an expanding elephant population.
¾ Due to the considerable variation in socio-ecological conditions in Namibia,
HWC policies and strategies need to be sufficiently flexible to allow different
approaches to be applied in different areas, at different times of the year and
for different species.

6.3 Possible lessons learned from the Namibian case study for the global
conservation community

Clearly all countries have different contexts but it is possible to draw conclusions about
the principles and approaches from the Namibian experiences that are likely to be of use
for other countries:

¾ This report has shown how Namibian approaches to dealing with HWC are
affected by international policy and how HWC is also affected by national
policies in other sectors. This indicates the need for policy analysis and reforms
to look beyond the wildlife sector in order identify the key drivers of HWC.
¾ The CBNRM programme in Namibia has demonstrated the effectiveness of
devolving management authority over wildlife to land holders as a conservation
mechanism. Results from the programme indicate the need to ensure that
devolving rights over wildlife to local communities should also include the
authority to deal with problem causing animals.
¾ Where communities perceive that they derive sufficient benefit from wildlife,
providing them with decision-making authority over problem causing animals is
unlikely to lead to the disappearance of those animals.
¾ The report provided analytical evidence that the Namibian government’s policy
of approaching HWC though CBNRM development is sound economically. The
economic benefits associated with CBNRM initiatives in Caprivi are higher than

67
 the associated HWC costs. This finding is likely to hold in the context of the
broader CBNRM programme. This means that even though at local level
household livelihoods may be badly affected by HWC, there is a good case for
communities to be allowed to internalise their HWC problems through physical
mitigation measures and insurance schemes. Approaches to mitigation can be
implemented by CBNRM.
¾ This report has demonstrated how HWC differs spatially and temporally. There
are considerable environmental differences between parts of Namibia, and such
spatial and temporal variations are likely to occur in other countries. This
indicates the need for HWC management policy and approaches to be flexible
so that local solutions can be found to local problems.
¾ The report also showed how a variety of linked approaches is often required in
order to deal with HWC. Technical solutions may appear ideal, but might not be
implemented because of institutional failure. Attention needs to be given to who
will implement the technical solution, who will maintain the infrastructure if
necessary, and whether there are sufficient incentives for implementation and
maintenance to be carried out.
¾ The role of conservancies points to the need for effective local level institutions
that can be used to internalise costs and benefits of living with wildlife, channel
benefits to villagers, carry out local level HWC management, and interact with
other sectors and levels of decision-making.

Overall the Namibian case study indicates that in order to address HWC, government
policy and legislation need to enable land holders to internalise the costs and benefits of
living with wildlife, rather than focusing only on ways by which external agents can
reduce or mitigate conflict. Such an approach requires appropriate economic incentives
for living with wildlife, appropriate decision-making authority, and appropriate skills and
information for developing specific management interventions. Further, HWC
management needs to be incorporated into the planning process and viability
assessments of national and regional (district) development. Such an approach can
reduce overall costs to government and the economy and contribute to improved local
livelihoods.

68
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Stander, P. 2006. Population ecology and demography of Kunene lions, 2006: Towards
resolving human-lion conflicts with applied research and pro-active management.
Research Paper 2006/1. Predator Conservation Trust. Windhoek.

72
Stander, P. 2005. Situation Analysis of Human Wildlife Conflict in Namibia. Ministry of
Environment and Tourism Integrated Community-based Ecosystem Management
(ICEMA) Project. Windoek.

Suich, H. 2003. Summary of partial results from the socio-economic household survey
regarding community-based natural resource management and livelihoods in Caprivi
and Kunene. Working Paper No. 12, Wildlife Integration for Livelihood Diversification
(WILD) Project, Directorate of Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Environment and
Tourism, Windhoek, Namibia. 274pp.

Sutton, W.R., Larson, D.M. & Jarvis, L.S. 2004. A new approach to assessing the costs
and benefits of living with wildlife in developing countries. Research Discussion Paper
No 69, Directorate of Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Tourism,
Windhoek, Namibia. 21pp.

Turpie, J., Smith, B., Emerton, L. and Barnes J. 2000. Economic value of the Zambezi
basin wetlands. IUCN Regional Office for Southern Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe. 346pp.

Van der Walt, P. T. 1987. The Status of Wildlife Conservation and Utilisation in Namibia.
Directorate of Nature Conservation. Windhoek.

WWF. 2006. Species and People: Linked Futures. A report with case studies on the
contribution of wildlife conservation to rural development and the Millennium
Development Goals. WWF Global Species Programme.

73
 ANNEX 1
TRENDS IN WILDLIFE NUMBERS IN NAMIBIAN CONSERVANCIES

Estimates of wildlife numbers in north-west Namibia based on the June 2006 Game
Count, an area with 21 conservancies, and three tourism concession areas and the
Skeleton Coast Park, covering 5.2 million ha and with rainfall ranging from around 200
mm to 25 mm per year. The method used was vehicle surveys driving fixed routes. No
data was collected for one conservancy and in the Skeleton Coast Park.

Oryx 24 574
Giraffe* 2 435
Kudu 5 355
Ostrich 6 220
Springbok 139 475
Mountain zebra 17 789

The graphs below indicate the population trends showing a dramatic increase over the
past 20 years. Population estimates between the 1980’s and 1990’s were derived from
aerial surveys (left y axis) while the more recent figures are density estimates from
vehicle surveys (number of animals recorded per 100 kilometres travelled, right y axis).

Source: NACSO 2006

74
Populations of Springbok and Oryx appear to have now stabilised in north-western
Namibia. There have been no mass mortalities or poaching to account for this, and
harvest quotas have been so small in relation to the total populations that they are also
unlikely to have had any effect. In fact, the biggest declines were recorded in the
Palmwag concession area where no harvesting took place. What appears to be
happening is that carrying capacity in the conservancy areas for these species has been
reached and animals are moving up into the mountains (which are not surveyed) and
expanding their range eastwards outside the survey areas (NACSO 2006).

There has also been significant recovery of wildlife populations in the large Nyae Nyae
conservancy in the east of the country (See the table and figure below). While this
recovery has been aided by the introduction of about 2,114 animals since 1999, the
latest population estimates confirm that current population growth is also due to the
breeding of existing and reintroduced populations (NACSO 2006).

Estimated Changes To Game Populations For The Nyae Nyae Conservancy, Based Upon
Ministry of Environment & Tourism Aerial Censuses In 1995 (Stander), 1998 (Craig), and
2004 (Stander).

Species 1995 1998 2004 Estimated

Population
Change (1995
– 2004)
Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) 30 33 90 60
Eland (Taurotragus oryx) 0 12 97 97
Elephant (Loxodonta Africana) 302 552 967 665
Oryx (Oryx gazella) 110 429 1,196 1,086
Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) 6 47 89 83
Red hartebeest (Alcephalus 31 18 282 251
busephalus)
Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) 249 283 1,502 1,253
Ostrich (Struthio camelus) 190 311 412 222
Roan (Hippotragus equinus) 123 0 44 -79
Springbok (Antidorcas 0 0 421 421
marsupialis)
Warthog (Phacochoerus 0 160 149 149 1
aethiopicus)
Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes 164 204 1,037 873
taurinus)
Total Estimated Change in 5,081
Game Numbers
Source: WWF LIFE Project

75
Source: WWF LIFE Project

76
 ANNEX 2
INCOME DERIVED BY CONSERVANCIES
(Source: NACSO 2006)

Income to local communities from Community-based Natural Resource Management

(CBNRM) in Namibia has risen from zero in 1994 to a total of over N$19 million (around
US$3 million) in 2005 (NACSO 2006). The graph below divides income into three
categories: cash payments to conservancies, non-cash or in-kind incomes to
conservancies, and income to CBNRM activities outside conservancies.

Income in the form of direct cash payments to conservancies and wages comes mainly
from joint venture lodges, trophy hunting, small enterprises (e.g. campsites), craft sales
and sale of game. In addition, some benefits are non-financial or ‘in-kind’ such as meat
from hunting or other contributions (computers, education materials, equipment etc.) to
local social or economic development activities primarily made by joint venture partners.
Income from other CBNRM activities is generated from activities that are either outside
conservancies or, in the case of those inside conservancies, there is no formal
relationship between the particular enterprise and the conservancy. This can occur
where the enterprise pre-dates the formation of the conservancy. The majority of this
income is generated by small tourism enterprises (campsites, traditional villages and
tour guiding), thatching grass and crafts.

By far the largest source of income is from joint venture tourism lodges and camps in
which conservancies negotiate a levy or income sharing agreement. A total of
N$7,643,943 (US$ 1,095,071) was earned from these ventures during 2005,
representing 56% of all conservancy income. At the end of 2005 there were 10 formal
joint venture agreements that were operational and generating income for
conservancies. A further six conservancies were receiving income from operators for
traversing or resource utilisation. In addition, there are currently 13 potential joint venture
agreements under negotiation. Since 1999, more than N$21 million (about US$3 million)
has been generated from joint venture lodge agreements.

77
Existing options for financial benefits from joint ventures include direct revenue as a
percentage of net turnover, a flat concession fee paid annually, a monthly lease fee, or a
levy for every bed night sold by the lodge. Many agreements include a combination of
these options. The development of ‘non-financial’ social infrastructure, such as schools
and clinics, has been included in several contracts. All agreements include clauses for
minimum performance to protect conservancies and operators against non-performing
partners. Strict clauses regarding environmental impacts are included and
conservancies have ensured that contracts provide jobs and build skills of local
conservancy members. At least one agreement includes community shareholding.

In terms of its contribution to conservancy income, trophy hunting increased in real terms
but declined as a percentage of total income from 36% in 2003 to 26% in 2005.
However, trophy hunting concessions still currently provide the second highest source of
income for conservancies, in 2005 generating N$3.44 million (US$ 492,814), of which
77% was from concession fees and 23% from meat distribution. By the end of 2005, 12
concessions extending over 16 conservancies had been allocated to professional
hunters. A further five conservancies have approved trophy quotas and will be entering
into agreements with private sector hunters in 2006. The value of the meat distributed to
community members from trophy hunting was N$774,567 (US$ 110,964) in 2005.

In 2005, the total income generated from direct wildlife utilisation was N$4.77million
(US$683,350) or 35% of all conservancy income. There has been diversification in the
form of utilisation carried out including ‘premium’ hunting, ‘own-use’ hunting, ‘shoot and
sell’ and live game sales. Income generated from these activities totalled N$1.34 million
(US$ 191,968). Over the years between 1999 and 2005, conservancies have
cumulatively earned a total of N$16.5 million (about US$2.4 million) from direct wildlife
utilisation.

78
 ANNEX 3
SUMMARY OF THE EVENT BOOK MONITORING SYSTEM
Greg Stuart-Hill, WWF/LIFE Programme
Introduction
The Event Book System is a grass-roots monitoring programme. It differs from
traditional monitoring in that the community dictates what needs to be monitored, they
collect the data and they undertake all the analysis themselves. Most conservancies
have included Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) in their event book systems. The Event
Book System began slowly in a few conservancies in late 2000. Now more than 33 of
the 44 communal area conservancies in Namibia have adopted the system.
The success of the system in communal conservancies prompted the Namibian Ministry
of Environment and Tourism to use the same principles in their national parks.
Exchange visits to Namibia have resulted in similar systems being developed in
Mozambique (including marine parks), Zambia, Botswana, and most recently Cambodia.
Initial CBNRM monitoring systems in Namibia were conventional in that experts
(scientists) designed them, conservancy staff collected the data and handed in data
sheets which were analysed by the experts. Communities often never received
feedback or there were lengthy delays. Commonly community members were not able
to understand results. The consequence was no ownership of the monitoring process or
results and these early systems struggled to survive beyond a few years.
The Event Book System emerged as a result of the need to develop a system that could
and would be used by the conservancies themselves. The name derives from the
challenge of monitoring events that occur randomly e.g. fire, poaching, human-wildlife
conflict, mortalities, etc. It also makes provision for systematic monitoring activities such
as vegetation or wildlife censuses. A technically more accurate term might be
Management Orientated Monitoring System (MOMS).
The “Event Book” differs from traditional monitoring in that: (i) the community decides on
what they want to monitor, (ii) technicians only facilitate the design process; and (iii) data
analysis is undertaken locally by conservancy members.

Description
The Event Book is a personalised A5 ring file maintained by each community ranger.
The file contains a set of yellow cards, one card for each monitoring theme/topic – i.e.
there is a card for poaching, a card for human-wildlife conflict, rainfall and so on. As
events occur, rangers select the appropriate card and record the event. At the end of
the month a line is left and the same card used in the ensuing months. At the end of the
year, all of the old cards are removed, archived and a fresh set of cards inserted into the
book.
Data collection, analysis and reporting are done locally. It is essential that the people
collecting the data also analyse and interpret it, even if the analysis is sub-optimal. This
principle emerged following failures with the conventional system (data sheets being
handed over to an expert to analyse).
For each monitoring topic there is a complete modularized kit that begins with data
collection, goes through monthly reporting and ends with long-term reporting. Colour
coding is used to avoid confusion between these data-flow levels; with a) yellow being

79
for data collection; b) blue for reporting within one year (i.e. monthly/quarterly reporting);
and c) red for tracking long-term trends.
In all cases the community decides on what they want to monitor apart from certain
things that conservancies are obliged to report on to the government. Agreement on
what to monitor is reached through a workshop involving community leaders and the
community rangers. This starts with brainstorming all issues of importance. Then the
task is to identifying from the overall list those issues that should be monitored –
normally resources critical for livelihoods and which the community is concerned about,
key threats to the community and indicators of achievement of the conservancy. To
make the final selection of topics absolutely clear a ‘job description poster’ is
constructed. Known as a mind map (or job description) it contains pictures and icons to
assist semi- and illiterate members of the community to understand the responsibilities
of community rangers.
To support local design, yet provide some standardized and a rigorous methodology, the
system has been modularized by topic or theme. Twenty-one modules have been
developed thus far.

Modules Developed:
Problem animal incidents; Poaching; Predator encounters; Rare and endangered animals; Fence monitoring; Water point monitoring;
Flooding and river levels (for those conservancies that are in flood plains); Rainfall; Wildlife sighting during fixed foot patrols;
Wildlife mortalities; Trophy hunting; Wildlife harvesting; Livestock mortality; Livestock theft; Livestock condition; Fishing effort;
Fish catch trend; Long-term vegetation change; Seasonal grass grazing assessment; Craft resources; Wildlife re-introductions.

Once the conservancy has selected what it wants to monitor, the technical support team
then develops a complete kit for each monitoring topic or module. Each kit contains the
colour coded 'tools' necessary for: (i) data collection, (ii) monthly/quarterly reporting and
(iii) reporting and analyzing long-term trends.
New conservancies can use these modules whilst still maintaining control in that they
decide which modules they wish to use. Over time, as needs, skills and confidence
increase, a community can add more and more modules eventually covering a wide
spectrum of issues – all at their own pace.
Analysis
Data ‘analysis’ is simple in the extreme. There are three types of reporting: (i) monthly
incident reports; (ii) annual reporting maps; and (iii) long term incident reports. On a
monthly basis, the senior ranger gathers all the field rangers together and they
collectively complete the monthly (blue) reporting charts. These charts are pre-prepared
A3 templates that are housed in a large format display ‘flip-file’.
The reporting principle is that one ‘block’ on the chart refers to one ‘event’. For example,
to report on poaching, one block is coloured in for each poaching incident, two incidents
= two blocks and so on. In some instances one block may represent standard values,
e.g. 5 mm of rainfall or 10 animals seen whilst on patrol. There are A3 reporting
templates for all of the monitoring topics and to avoid confusion these are prepared on
blue card.
More advanced conservancies also complete reporting maps. One map is used for each
monitoring topic and lasts a year.
Incidents are recorded by hand onto the map using symbols used to differentiate
between different types of incidents; e.g. for problem animals there would be different
symbols on the map for say elephant, lion or hyena incidents.

80
 At the end of each year, the totals for the year are transferred onto the long-term trend
(red) reporting charts. These are similar to the monthly reporting charts and use the
same method of colouring in blocks to represent number of incidents or quantities (e.g.
mm of rain or animals seen.
Year-end Auditing, Reporting and Archiving
At the end of each year there is an annual audit of the system that is attended by
external stakeholders (government, donors, NGOs’ or neighbours). The audit is based
on a yes/no activity questionnaire. If the answer to any activity is ‘yes, it was done’, then
the summary results are recorded. The completed questionnaire constitutes the
conservancy’s annual monitoring report and copies are circulated to stakeholders as
required. The annual audit takes place in January each year. It takes approximately 2
hours to complete and this includes archiving all the previous year’s data, updating the
red long-term reporting charts and placing fresh unused cards in the Event Book for the
new year.
Paper-based system
The entire system is paper-based, which seems to be appropriate for remote rural
communities and avoids the sustainability problems of ever-changing computer
technology. All papers are filed in a specialized filing box. This simple tool has proved
indispensable as it formalizes the system in an environment where conservancies often
have no office. The data are archived by the conservancy and any data extraction is
done by copying – i.e. if someone, a researcher or government official, wants data or a
report then the information is copied and only the copy can be taken away. Original raw
data never leaves the community.
Copied data can easily be captured into digital format for purposes of central storage
and further analysis by scientists. All event book data have a spatial element so these
are compatible with GIS.
Each year data from the annual audit are captured into a national monitoring and
evaluation database which aggregates results from many different conservancies to
create a national view of the performance of the CBNRM programme in Namibia.

Elements of the System

1. A visual description of the monitoring work to be done
i. the ‘Monitoring Poster’ for the area as a whole
ii. ‘Job Description Posters’ for key persons
2. ’Data-Flow’ posters
3. A data capture system – ‘Yellow Data Cards’ (e.g. ‘Event Books’, ‘Incident Books’,
‘Pocket books’; Office Registers’)
4. A monthly/annual reporting system
i. ‘Blue Reporting Charts’
ii. ‘Reporting Maps’
5. Long-term ‘Red Reporting Charts’ (for Trend)
6. An Annual ‘Audit Report’
7. An ‘Archiving and Filing System’

81
 ANNEX 4
KEY FEATURES OF NAMIBIAN POLICIES AND LEGISLATION RELEVANT TO HWC

Policy/legislation Relevance to HWC Status Recommendations

Conservancy policy Provides the institutional framework for Policy passed by 1. Provide stronger rights over wildlife to conservancies including
and legislation devolving rights over wildlife and Cabinet in 1995. decision-making over problem animals
tourism to rural communities that form Legislation and
conservancies. A conservancy must regulations in 1996. 2. Assist conservancies to target benefits towards those most
have designated boundaries, defined affected by HWC
membership, a legal constitution, a New Parks and
representative committee, and plan for Wildlife Legislation
equitable distribution of benefits. being drafted.

Conservancies provide the institutional

mechanism at community level for
channelling benefits that can offset
HWC losses, for implementing
prevention measures, and for
interacting with the meso and macro
levels.
Draft EIA screening compulsory for all Policy approved by All other sectors need to be fully aware of the provisions of the
Environmental Act development projects. Should enable Cabinet 1994. Act and their responsibility to include HWC in TOR for
HWC to be considered in the planning Legislation almost Environmental and Social Assessments.
and implementation of agricultural and completed.
other rural development projects.

Community Based Provides framework for government Policy approved by Intent to give tourism concessions to conservancies must be
Tourism (CBT) support for community-based tourism. MET 1995. included in legislation.
Policy Provides for conservancies to get
concession rights to "lodge"
development. Crucial for increasing
financial and other benefits that can
help to offset HWC losses.

82
Draft tourism policy Provides framework for national tourism Draft policy being 1. Community Based Tourism (CBT )should be defined
and legislation development. finalised. Legislation 2. Role of communities should be defined vis a vis govt. and
to follow approval of private sector.
Crucial for increasing financial and other policy. 3. Principles of CBT policy should be incorporated.
benefits that can help to offset HWC 4. Control of tourism (e.g. planning, zoning and regulations
losses should be devolved to conservancies)
Draft policy on Provides a framework for relationships Being finalised by 1. Role of conservancies as neighbours should be emphasised.
protected areas between protected areas (PAs) and MET. 2. Park staff should develop joint HWC management plans and
and neighbours neighbours (including people resident in co-management agreements with neighbours, particularly
parks). Promotes benefits to neighbours conservancies
from PAs and provides for co-
management arrangements with regard
to HWC on park borders and other
issues.
Forestry policy and Provide institutional framework for Forest Act passed in 1. Community forest management plans should also address
legislation giving communities rights over forest 2001. HWC
resources. Arrangements similar as
for conservancies. Compatible with
conservancy approach and provides
rights over a wider range of resources.

Community forest committees could

also provide useful institutions for
addressing HWC and interacting across
sectors and levels.
Land policy and Land Policy provides for categories of Policy approved by 1. Provisions for secure and exclusive group tenure should be
legislation land holder that includes conservancies, Cabinet 1998. explicitly incorporated in legislation
but legislation does not clearly provide Communal Land
for groups such as conservancies to Reform Act passed 2. Traditional Authorities and Land Boards should take HWC into
gain secure land tenure. This 2002. account when allocating and approving land allocations for
undermines the ability of conservancies agricultural and residential purposes.
to enforce their land use zoning plans,
and can lead to increased HWC where 3. Provide information and training to Communal Land Boards
people ignore this zoning on conservancies, HWC and Environmental Assessments.

Communal Land Reform Act provides

that Land Boards have to take
conservancy management plans into
account when allocating land for leases

83
 for commercial activities.

Land Boards and traditional leaders

rarely consider HWC in allocating
residential and agricultural land.
Water policy and Provides framework for cost recovery Policy approved by 1. As with the #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy case study,
legislation for water provision including transfer of Cabinet. Legislation conservancies in the NW can do much to prevent and mitigate
management, operation and being finalised. the damage to water installations
maintenance of water points and 2. Conservancies should develop practical integration with
installations to communities. water committees in particular regarding protection of water
points and other forms of funding support such as provision of
The approach means that local people diesel for pumping water where elephants drink regularly
have to pay for any repairs required due
to damage by elephants.
National Provides framework for Agricultural Policy approved by 1. Needs legislation on group tenure over rangelands (see Land
Agricultural Policy development. Calls for community Cabinet 1995. Policy and legislation)
empowerment and group tenure.
2. Carry out research on effects of past subsidies and new
Past subsidies to livestock being subsidies under the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme
phased out.
Decentralisation Framework for devolution of functions to Policy adopted by 1. Regional Councils and development committees need to take
policy regional councils. Provides for Regional Cabinet 1997. HWC into account in agricultural and rural development planning
and local governance structures and
development committees to carry out 2.Promote positive links between conservancies and regional
development and land use planning. and local governance structures and development committees

3. Provide information and training to Regional Councils and

development committees on HWC, mitigation and prevention
measures and environmental assessments.

84
 ANNEX 5
KEY FEATURES OF THE HWC PREVENTION AND MITIGATION MEASURES APPLIED IN NAMIBIA

Prevention/Mitigatio Area where Method Effectiveness Cost (where

n Measure used available)
Local level land-use Mayuni Re-location of people away from the Comparison with neighbouring Kwandu Possible re-location
planning Conservancy, Kwando River floodplains which are conservancy indicates decrease in HWC costs: transport and
Caprivi Region visited by elephants from the incidents. Success partly due to strong construction of new
neighbouring Bwabwata National traditional authority which was able to get dwellings
Park people to agree to move.
Local HWC Ehirovipuka Develop integrated HWC Yet to be finalised and tested. Cost of developing
management plans Conservancy, management plan that addresses, the plan includes
Kunene Region prevention, mitigation and roles of transport and other
different stakeholders. In the case of logistics for
Draft plan Ehirovipuka includes co- meetings.
developed management with staff of
neighbouring Etosha National Park
Artificial barriers 1. Used in Etosha Erection of electric fencing as a Mixed results. Can work if regularly maintained. Cost to cover area
Electric fences National Park, barrier particularly against elephants Problems: Communities have not taken of 5km² = N$
conservancies to prevent them from leaving a ownership and do not maintain fences; 15,000 (US$2 149)
in Kunene & protected area or to protect crops elephants find ways to break or go around including wire and
Caprivi and/or settlements fences; high maintenance costs (e.g. regular other equipment
fence patrols in protected areas) such as solar panel
Artificial barriers 2. Kunene Region Construction of protective stone wall Effective if at least two large rocks thick, 1.8 m Between N$5,000
Protection of water Conservancies, around water installations. high, walls a sufficient distance from (US$716) and
points Nyae Nyae installations to prevent elephants reaching over, N$10,000
Conservancy access is left to part of the reservoir for (US$1,433)
elephants to drink and there is a separate, including materials,
protected tank for domestic consumption. transport and
labour.

85
Artificial barriers 3. Caprivi Fences lined with a mixture of grease Initial indications (see Kasika Conservancy
Chili pepper fences and chilli peppers. case study) are that this can be effective. Still
being tested. Possible environmental
implications of use of grease. Needs ready
supply of ingredients and regular maintenance.
Artificial barriers 4. Caprivi Region Ground chilli mixed with elephant Seems to be effective, but time required for
Chili bombs dung and compacted in a brick further testing and to see if elephants become
mould and dried. Bricks are burnt used to the smoke.
along the edge of fields and smoke
acts as a deterrent to elephants.
Alternative water Kunene Region Provision of water point away from Not very successful as communities have not Around US$2 870 –
points for elephants the settlement and where livestock taken ownership of the alternative water point 3 580
drink. Usually water is drawn off and usually do not continue to ensure a water
from the main installation at the supply (sometimes because they cannot afford
settlement. the additional diesel to pump water). Main water
point needs to be completely inaccessible to
elephants.
Guarding fields Caprivi Region Villagers and conservancy game Difficult to predict where elephants will appear. Loss of sleep and
guards deploy in fields during the Can be dangerous. Difficult to cover a large subsequent
growing season to scare away area. productivity.
elephants.
Elephant trip alarms Caprivi Region Trip alarms around fields consisting Can work if the area is not too large and if Around US$115
of car siren, battery, timer and elephants are entering fields from the same
polythene string mounted to existing direction. Elephants can become habituated to
fences or onto trees and poles. the sound. Potential disturbance of people in
settlements or tourism operations.
Improved livestock Being promoted 1. Herding of livestock (including use All can be effective but are rarely practised.
husbandry in #Khoadi of dogs) Problems include young boys going to school
//hoas are no longer available for herding.
Conservancy. 2. Kraaling livestock at night
Kunene Region
3. Promoting synchronised birthing

86
Re-location Used for lions Re-location of a specific problem Difficult for elephants due to high costs, lack of
leaving Etosha causing animal to another place or areas where they can be moved to (there is
National Park back to where it originated, already a problem due to increasing numbers)
and in some particularly if from a protected area and possibility they would return to original
communal sites.
areas
Can work for lions if they are “occasional
raiders” rather than habitual problem animals.
Can be important alternative to lethal removal.
Requires good understanding of lion behaviour-
ecology
Lethal removal Kunene/Caprivi Shooting of identified and persistent Effective in order to protect property or life if the
problem animals that are a clear correct animal can be identified.
danger to property or life.
Possibility for a sustainable off-take quota for
lions in problem “hotspots”
Reaction unit Proposed Provision of designated personnel on Would be able to provide a quick response that
the ground who can react to calls for could identify and deal with the problem
assistance from villagers. Could be causing animal.
designated persons from
conservancy game guards and MET
staff.
Self-insurance Kunene/Caprivi Provision of funding to individuals to Initially supported by donor funds, gradually Potentially around
scheme off-set (not necessarily fully conservancies are taking over the funding from US$2 000 a year
compensate) for livestock and crop their wildlife and tourism income. Effective, but per conservancy,
losses. could become a drain on conservancy finances. depending upon
number of incidents
and whether a cap
is placed on the
total amount of
payments

87
 ANNEX 6
LIST OF PERSONS CONSULTED

Seth Awiseb Community member, #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy

Richard Diggle WWF LIFE/IRDNC Business Advisor, Caprivi
Anton Esterhuizen NRM Coordinator, IRDNC, Kunene Region
Bernardus Guibeb Manager, #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy
Michael Hoebeb Senior Ranger, MET, Grootberg, #Khoadi //hoas
Conservancy
Susanna Hoxobes Community member, #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy
Albert Katsiambi Community member, #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy
Rensia !Kharuxas Community member, #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy
Malan Lindeque Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and
Tourism
Ismael Nauseb Community member, #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy
Caitline O’Connell-Rodwell Stanford University
Benny Roman Institutional Development Coordinator, IRDNC, Kunene
Region
Phillip Stander Kunene Lion Project
Eben Tjiho NRM Facilitator, IRDNC, Kunene Region
Chris Weaver Chief of Party, WWF LIFE Project
Frans Xoagub Community member, #Khoadi //hoas Conservancy

88
 ANNEX 7
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Workshop Proceedings

1. Murphy, C. 2001. Reducing Conflicts between Wildlife and People. 5-7 July,
2001, Greiters Conference Centre, Windhoek, Namibia. Ministry of Environment
and Tourism. Windhoek

Proceedings of a workshop bringing together a variety of stakeholders including local

community representatives for the first time. The workshop aimed to develop a strategic
framework for addressing human wildlife conflict. A number of presentations on were
given on the links between community-based natural resource management and HWC in
Namibia, the value of wildlife, current government policy on HWC, lessons from the
southern African Region, and lessons from Namibia. Working groups identified the main
problem causing species in their regions, the types of conflicts and defined “problem
animals”. Main management options were identified and recorded and an action plan
was developed based on the formation of a multi-stakeholder working group. 80 pp.

2. MET. 2005. National Workshop on Human Wildlife Conflict Management

(HWCM) in Namibia. Safari Hotel, Windhoek, 16 and 17 May. Ministry of
Environment and Tourism. Windhoek.

Proceedings of the 2nd National Workshop on HWC. Contains presentations on the

policy and legal framework, economic analysis of the impact of HWC, examples of HWC
from the field, a review of conflict between people and predators, a draft elephant
management plan for Namibia, lessons from around the world (IUCN Human Elephant
Conflict Task Force), the Namibian Human Animal Conservancy Self Insurance Scheme,
and CBNRM in southern Africa. Working group results on the following:
decentralisation/devolution of wildlife management, self insurance methods, alternative
mitigation measures and options, a standardised monitoring and reporting system. The
workshop developed a draft vision and policy framework for HWC in Namibia. 76 pp.

3. MET. 2006. Human Wildlife Conflict Management (HWCM) Policy Workshop.

Kalahari Sands Hotel, Windhoek, 15th March 2006. Ministry of Environment and
Tourism. Windhoek.

Proceedings of the 3rd national HWCM workshop. The main aim was to consider and
comment on a draft HWCM policy for Namibia developed subsequent to the 2nd national
workshop. The report contains presentations on: A situation analysis of human wildlife
conflict in Namibia; the results and recommendations from the survey on Human Wildlife
Conflict Characteristics on the northern Etosha National Park boundary; results and
recommendations from the survey on HWC realities in Ehirovipuka and Omatendeka
conservancies and on the draft policy. Working group results on the following aspects of
the draft policy: HWC M&E, mitigation measures, self-reliance, capacity building and
self-insurance, and protected areas and devolution of authority. 48 pp.

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General HWC documents

1. Stander, P. 2005. Situation Analysis of Human Wildlife conflict in Namibia.

Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Integrated Community-based Ecosystem
management (ICEMA) Project. Windhoek.

Synthesis of data on HWC from a variety of sources, focusing on large predators,

elephants and crocodiles. Covers frequency of incidents, nature of problems, regional
differences, effects on the wildlife populations, preventive and mitigation measures and
recommendations for future action. Main recommendations include zoning for different
types of land use, developing localised HWC management plans, continuation of the
conservancy self insurance scheme and the need to ensure that benefits from wildlife
should reach households affected by HWC. 64 pp.

2. Long, S. A. 2004. (ed). Livelihoods and CBNRM in Namibia: the Findings of

the WILD Project. Final Technical Report of the Wildlife Integration for
Livelihoods Diversification Project. Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
Windhoek.

A comprehensive report on CBNRM in Namibia from a sustainable livelihoods

perspective. Contains chapters on the history, development and implementation of
CBNRM in Namibia, livelihoods in conservancies in Caprivi and Kunene Regions, wildlife
use, the cost of living with wildlife, livelihoods and tourism, and conservancy institutions
and governance. The chapter on the costs of living with wildlife concludes that the costs
of HWC contribute to household vulnerability, particularly for poorer households with
fewer resources. Contains summary of prevention and mitigation measures.
Recommendations regarding HWC include the need for multi-dimensional approaches to
HWC, the need for a combination of monitoring and research, changes to policy and
legislation, continue with the conservancy self-insurnce scheme and the need to ensure
that the cost of HWC does not exceed people’s minimum level of tolerance. 289 pp.

3. NACSO. 2004. Namibia’s communal conservancies: A review of progress and

challenges. Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations. Windhoek.

Provides an overview of communal area conservancies, with chapters on natural

resource management in conservancies, wildlife numbers and trends, governance
issues and benefits to conservancies and their members. Provides some overall data on
HWC in conservancies and data for the Kwando Conservancy on the number of problem
animal incidents from 1993 to 2003. 80 pp.

4. Annual audits of the Event Book Monitoring System.

Reports of audits of the Event Book Monitoring System carried out by WWF on behalf of
the NACSO Natural Resources Working Group. They summarise data on HWC from the
conservancy event books in specific areas of the country, including number of incidents
for the year, the species involved and estimates of damage caused.

5. Sutton, W.R., Larson, D.M. & Jarvis, L.S. 2004. A new approach to assessing
the costs and benefits of living with wildlife in developing countries. Research

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Discussion Paper No 69, Directorate of Environmental Affairs, Ministry of
Environment and Tourism, Windhoek, Namibia. 21pp.

Area specific HWC documents

1. Stander, P. and A. Esterhuizen. Undated. Detailed Survey on the State of

Human Wildlife conflict in Ehirovipuka and Omatendeka Conservancies. Ministry
of Environment and Tourism, Integrated Community-based Ecosystem
management (ICEMA) Project. Windhoek.

Synthesis of monitoring data from different sources for the two conservancies, produced
in 2005. Focuses mostly on predators but also covers elephants. Makes
recommendations on monitoring HWC, zoning for different land uses, developing
localised HWC management plans and suggests quotas for sustainable off-take of large
carnivores in the conservancies. 35 pp.

3. Mfune, J. K. , A. Mosimane, H. Hamukuaja, and M. Angula. 2005. A

preliminary survey of human-wildlife conflict along the northern border of the
Etosha National Park. Ministy of Environment and Tourism. Windhoek.

This document focuses on HWC on communal land on the northern border of the Etosha
National Park. It defines the nature of the problems (caused mostly by predators and
elephants and provides brief background material on land use and livelihood activities. It
provides an overview of the policy and legal context for HWC and provides data on the
types of problems on the Etosha northern boundary. It provides a brief assessment on
the impact of HWC on livelihoods and makes recommendations for future action. It
suggests MET should provide better maintenance of the park border fence, there should
be clear procedures for how local people and MET deal with HWC, MET should be more
proactive instead of reactive, and local people need to benefit more from wildlife through
mechanisms such as conservancies. The report calls for a national HWC policy and the
devolution of decision on HWC to local levels. It provides a draft HWC strategy for the
Etosha northern border area.

4.Esterhuizen, A. 2004. A perspective on problem causing animals in the Kunene

Region, Namibia from the Huab River north to Opuwo with regard to strategies
implemented to reduce conflict between local communities and problem causing
animals. Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation. Windhoek.

The report reviews current attitudes of people in Kunene Region to wildlife and problem
animals, and concludes that generally there is greater acceptance of problem causing
animals than 10 years ago due to the government’s conservancy approach. The report
reviews a number of existing strategies in the region for reducing conflict and makes
recommendations for improvements. It reviews the implementation of the Human Animal
Conflict Conservancy Self Insurance Scheme in Kunene Region, concludes that despite
teething problems the scheme should continue and makes recommendations for
improvements. 18 pp.

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5. Mulonga, S., H. suich and C. Murphy. 2003. The conflict continues: Human
Wildlife conflict and livelihoods in Caprivi. DEA Research Discussion Paper No.
59. Directorate of Environmental Affairs. Windhoek.

This paper summarises data on HWC in Caprivi from different sources, and provides
new data from case study sites. It provides data on impacts of HWC on households and
makes recommendations for addressing HWC including the need for a national HWC
policy and the need for transboundary management of elephants in Caprivi.

6. Arnold, B. M. 2001. Predators in the Kunene Region: An overview of problems

and prospects. Wildlife Integration for Livelihoods Diversification Project. Ministry
of Environment and Tourism. Windhoek.

The report provides data on human predator interactions, seasonality of incidents,

different forms of livestock management in the region, and responses by farmers to
HWC It provides some data on the financial impacts of livestock losses and suggests
that average losses per household per year could be around US$900 while predators
bring little direct benefit to households. 25 pp.

7. Jones, B. 1994. Huab Catchment Area Conservation project: Final report.

European Commission African Elephant Conservation Programme. Oxford.

The final report of a project aimed at elephant and black rhino conservation in the Huab
River catchment of the Kunene Region, Namibia. One of the project objects was to
remove sources of conflict between elephant and rhino and local people and to bring
benefits from wildlife to residents. The project assisted local farmers to build and
maintain stone walls around water installations to protect them from elephants and
provided additional diesel to farmers whose water pumped for livestock was consumed
by elephants. The project also built alternative water points for elephants in an attempt to
draw them away from water points at settlements. The report found that despite the
creation of alternative water points, elephants still approached settlements, possibly
attracted by small-scale gardens. 24pp.

8. Caitlin E. O'Connell-Rodwell, C. E., T. Rodwell, M. Rice, and Lynette A. Hart. 2000.

Living with the modern conservation paradigm: Can agricultural communities co-exist
with elephants? A Five-year case study in East Caprivi, Namibia. Biological
Conservation 93. 381-391. Elsevier Science Ltd.

This study considers the economic impact of elephants and predators, particularly lions,
on rural agriculturists in the Kwando region of Caprivi from the years 1991 to 1995. It
found that elephants were responsible for the greatest number of wildlife conflicts in the
region, while lions had the greatest financial impact on farmers. Attempts were made to
reduce conflicts between elephants and farmers using deterrents such as electrical
fencing, trip-alarm techniques and elephant warning calls. Success of deterrents
depended on the frequency of exposure to elephants, maintenance and the ecology of
both humans and elephants in the region. Of the deterrent strategies explored, only
electrical fencing reduced elephant damage at the community level, but the future
efficacy of electric fencing was uncertain, however, if elephants did not associate it with
fear and possible death. Deterrent efforts played a role in improving relations between
communities and conservationists. According to the authors their results lead to the

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conclusion that there are primarily two community conservation models when elephants
are a part of the system. One is to commit to a comprehensive system of crop protection
and the other is to eventually replace subsistence farming with an economy based
entirely on wildlife related revenues.

9. Evans, K. 2004. Crop losses caused by wildlife and mitigation measures in

Kwandu and Mayuni Conservancies. Unpublished Report, Namibia Nature
Foundation, Windhoek, Namibia. 48pp.

Species specific documents

1. MET. 2005. Draft Species Management Plan: Elephants. Ministry of

Environment and Tourism. Windhoek.

The management plan draws on data from the accompanying background study on
elephants (see 2. below), shows how elephants are increasing and are not threatened in
Namibia, demonstrates the economic contribution elephants could make to the state and
rural communities (sufficient to offset the costs which elephants cause through damage),
and provides a goal and objectives for managing elephants in Namibia. Important
aspects of the proposed management plan are: The devolution of authority to
landholders to manage elephants on their land; removal of the particular constraints to
sustainable use of elephants in Namibia under CITES, the development of co-
management institutions between government and landholders and the use of an
adaptive management approach that incorporates, trophy hunting, problem animal
control, population reduction, and cropping. (These management plan recommendations
still need to be approved by MET). 36 pp.

2. Martin, R. B. 2005. Transboundary Species Project Background Study:

Elephants. Transboundary Mammal Project of the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism. Windhoek.

This document provides a background report for the draft species management plan
(above). It considers the status of elephants in different regions and nationally, models
population growth, considers the conservation and economic significance of Namibian
elephants, briefly looks at the impact of CITES on elephant management and
emphasises the need for co-management between government and landholders. It also
looks at the need for transboundary management of elephants. The report has a short
section on human-elephant conflicts drawing on existing data and concluding that the
current level of income from elephants to conservancies does come close to providing
sufficient compensation for the losses caused by elephants. 104 pp.

3. Matson, T. 2005. Human-Elephant Conflict Research Project: Nyae Nyae

conservancy and Khaudum National Park. Project Updarte 30th October. Namibia
Nature Foundation. Windhoek.

This report focuses on the Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Otjozondjupa Region in north-
east Namibia and the neighbouring Kaudum Game Reserve. It provides data on HWC
conflict with regard to variables such as season and herd size, documents conflict types,

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estimates the financial costs of HWC and provides information on attitudes towards
elephants of conservancy members. 9 pp.

4. MET. Undated. Conservation and Management of Elephants in Namibia.

Ministry of Environment and Tourism. Windhoek.

This document, produced in 2002 covers distribution and numbers, population status
and trends, habitat availability, law enforcement and ivory control, and data on elephant
problems from Kwando conservancy in Caprivi. It gives information on the Game
Products Trust Fund, which provides funding raised from the sale of wildlife products to
promote the better co-existence of people and wildlife outside of protected areas. It
shows that the Trust Fund supported four projects to reduce damage caused by
elephants. 9 pp.

5. MET. Undated. Elephant Management in Namibia. Ministry of Environment

and Tourism. Windhoek.

Produced in 2005, this document sets out the MET approach to elephant
management covering distribution, numbers population trends, the importance of
conservancies for elephant conservation and the need to address human
elephant conflict. The document states that the main strategy to do this is to
increase the value of elephants to such an extent that they become more
valuable than the losses, experienced by communities.

6. MET. 2004. Proposal to amend the annotation regarding the Namibian

population of Loxodonta Africana. Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the
Parties, October 2004, Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
Windhoek.

Namibia’s proposal to CITES COP 13 to allow an annual export of 2 000 kg of raw ivory,
trade in raw ivory products for commercial purposes and trade in elephant leather and
hair goods for commercial purposes. It emphasises the conflicts between elephants and
people, notes the changes in attitudes towards wildlife due to the MET’s CBNRM
approach and emphasises that more needs to be done to provide benefits from
elephants to communities that suffer losses through living with elephants.

7. Barnes, J. I. 1996. Changes in the economic use value of elephant in

Botswana: the effect of international trade prohibition. In: Ecological Economics
18 215 – 230. Elsevier Science B. V. Amsterdam.

This article in the Journal of the International Society for Ecological Economics
suggested that when international trade in elephant products was effectively banned in
Botswana about half of potential economic use values were lost. In Botswana poaching
of elephants was low and the main threat to elephants would be the conversion of their
habitat to cattle ranching unless land holders could realise high elephant use values.
The article argues that total economic value of elephants should be maximised including
complementary combinations of non-consumptive and selected consumptive use values,

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as well as non-use values. The article has relevance for Namibia because of similar
environmental and climatic conditions, and similar land use issues affecting elephant
conservation. 16 pp.

8. Cumming, D. and B. Jones. 2005. Elephants in southern Africa: Management

issues and options. WWF – SARPO Occasional Paper Number 11. WWF
Southern Africa Regional Programme Office. Harare.

A review, commissioned by the WWF Africa and Madagascar Programme, of the status
of elephant populations and management issues and options in Southern Africa with
country studies from Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and
Zimbabwe. With regard to HWC, the report concludes that conflict between humans and
elephants is reported to be a major and escalating problem in all countries in southern
Africa except South Africa. The report notes that elephant and human populations have
both increased twenty-fold in southern African countries over the last century. It
recommends that to address the HWC problem there is, firstly, the need to devolve
decision making about the conservation and management of elephants to those
communities that live with elephants, and secondly, there is the need to increase the
benefits derived from elephants (both live and dead) to local communities. The Namibian
country study provides data on HWC incidents involving elephants and impacts on
livelihoods. 98 pp.

9. Diggle, R., B. Munali, and G. Owen-Smith. 2006. Community benefits from

Elephants: Examples from Caprivi. Paper presented at the workshop ‘Towards
Rationalizing Transboundary Elephant Management and Human Needs in the
Kavango / mid- Zambezi Region’ held on 23-24 May 2006 in Gaborone,
Botswana.

This paper provides data on income to conservancies in Caprivi from trophy

hunting of elephants and estimates of the tourism value of elephants in the
region. It provides data on the value of crop damage by elephants but cautions
that it is difficult to obtain a good understanding and consensus on what is a
realistic financial and economic value of crop losses caused by elephants. It
shows how community attitudes towards elephants have become more positive
despite the problems they cause. It suggests that the most important mitigation
strategy has been working with traditional leaders and establishing a community-
game guard programme over a 16 year period which was the major catalyst for
changing attitudes towards community conservation. 8 pp.

10. O’Connell. C. (1995) Final Technical Report: East/West Caprivi Natural

Resource Monitoring Project: Elephant/human conflicts. Ministry of Environment
and Tourism/USAID/WWF. Windhoek.

Results of a three-year research project to study elephant/human conflicts along the

Kwando River, quantify losses and experiment with ways to reduce conflict. Data is
presented on damage to vegetation along the river in the Bwabwata National Park, (then
West Caprivi Game Park), trends in crop damage on communal land, costs of crop
damage and livestock losses due to predators and the results of experiments with
methods to deter elephants. The report made recommendations for policy changes to

95
deal with human-elephant problems including appointment of a problem animal control
officer, decentralization of decision-making to regional level, and re-instating the
appointment of a problem animal “hunter” by the traditional authorities.

11. Hart, L. A. and Caitlin E. O'Connell. Undated. Human Conflict with African
and Asian Elephants and Associated Conservation Dilemmas. University of
California, Davis.

This paper reviews the sources of conflicts of Asian and African elephants with people. It
describes the behavioral patterns associated with crop raiding and discusses attempts to
prevent and mitigate the damages. The authors suggest that in both areas the economic
realities of elephant damage create a dynamic problem without a clear solution, despite
the wide range of attempted methods. The paper discusses specific attempts to deter
elephants from raiding crops in the Kwando area of Caprivi in Namibia. It concludes that
the effectiveness of electrical fencing, trip-alarm techniques, or elephant warning calls
depended on various factors, including the frequency of exposure of elephants to the
deterrents, maintenance of the deterrents, and other complex social factors of both
humans and elephants.

12. Osborn, F. V. and L. A. Welford. Undated. Living with Elephants: A manual

for wildlife managers in the SADC region. USAID Regional Centre for Southern
Africa. Gaborone, Botswana.

This manual provides an overview of human-elephant problems in southern Africa,

elephant ecology and the relationship of community-based natural resource
management to dealing with elephant problems. It carries brief country surveys of key
issues in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It reviews
the effectiveness of various preventive and mitigation methods and templates of various
reporting forms.

13. Chase, M. Undated. The Population Status, Ecology and Transboundary

Movement of elephants in the Okavango Upper Zambezi Transfrontier
Conservation Area (OUZTFCA). OUTZFCA Elephant Project. Maun, Botswana.

Produced in 2004 or 2005 this report summarises findings from surveys of elephant
movements and of elephant numbers in the OUZTFCA area which includes Caprivi in
Namibia. The project began in 2001. With regard to HWC it concludes that the large
density of elephant in the area and increasing human populations and farming activities
have amplified the human-elephant conflict. It argues that there is a need for the
development of “safe corridors” for elephants between protected areas in the region and
identifies the Kwando/Linyanti “corridor” in Caprivi which elephants use to disperse from
Botswana into Namibia, Angola and Zambia. See also results of aerial surveys to count
elephants in the Luiana Partial Reserve in Angola, the Caprivi Strip, Namibia, and the
Sioa Ngwezi National Park, Zambia, by the same author, all of which emphasise the
importance of the Kwando/Linyanti corridor for elephant dispersal in the OUZTFCA,
although do not address HWC specifically.

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14. Stander, P. 2006. Population ecology and demography of Kunene lions,
2006: Towards resolving human-lion conflicts with applied research and pro-
active management. Research Paper 2006/1. Predator Conservation Trust.
Windhoek.

This paper documents the demography and population dynamics socio-ecology,

behaviour and habitat utilisation, and the habitat expansion and dispersal of lions in
Kunene Region. The data presented shows that lion numbers have increased from 15 in
1999 to 85 in 2006 and that lions have considerably expanded their range. The author
suggests the data on the population status and demography of lions that are in line with,
and complement, the upward trend in other wildlife species in the region and recent
conservation achievements through conservancies and other conservation programmes.
He suggests that conflict between lions and the local communities remain the most
important ecological, conservation, and economic problem and presents his data as a
ecological and technical foundation for developing measures to resolve this conflict.

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 ANNEX 8
STATEMENT OF WORK

A. Description of Work

Terms of Reference
1
Human Wildlife Conflict Study

Objective
One of the main aims of the Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) programme being
developed by the Global Species Programme is to generate political will and funding for
2
human-wildlife conflict prevention and mitigation measures.

This study will examine the dynamics of human wildlife conflict at the local level, and
also examine the root causes of the conflict stemming from constraints to properly
planned and executed conservation efforts, lack of adequate forward planning to prevent
new occurrences of HWC, conditions of poverty and limits to livelihood improvement,
and other drivers such as national and international trade, incentives for agriculture
production and infrastructure. Furthermore, in some circumstances communities and the
general public perceive that HWC is ‘owned’ by a particular Department of the State.
However, when the damage caused by wildlife is significant, mitigation must be cross
sectoral and multi pronged in order to be effective.

The study should be a lobbying tool that makes the case for action to change policy
drivers that cause or exacerbate HWC. The information will also be important in
stimulating funding, political and community commitment to conservation and
development solutions.
The analysis will review:
• existing conditions of human wildlife conflict in three case sites/locations
• obstacles to implementation of a sustainable and equitable approach to preventing
and/or mitigating HWC that would benefit both local communities and wildlife;
and
• opportunities and positive models for preventing and/or mitigating human wildlife
conflict in development and planning strategies.

1
A Collaborative Effort Between the Global Species Program and the Macroeconomics Programme Office
2
Prevention here refers to land-use planning and socio-economic development planning that ensures HWC
will not occur. Mitigation refers to techniques to reduced HWC in those situations where it has not been
possible to prevent it.

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The analysis will identify critical issues related to human wildlife conflict in the selected
countries and provide the basis for recommendations to develop an integrated planning
approach for addressing the local conditions and root causes of the conflict.

Long-Term Goals:
• Highlight the rationale for ensuring that the potential to inadvertently stimulate,
exacerbate, or mitigate human wildlife conflict, is taken into consideration and
appropriately addressed in development planning for the benefit of both
communities and species
• Provide a tool for decision makers in development policy and planning
• Identify avenues for sustainable financing of solutions

Background

Human-Wildlife Conflict – The Issue

Human-wildlife conflict is defined as any event in which animals injure, destroy or

damage human life or property (including destruction of crops), and are killed, injured,
captured or otherwise harmed as a result - i.e. both humans and animals suffer from the
interaction with each other.

Human wildlife conflict (HWC) is one of the greatest threats today to both species and
impoverished rural communities. HWC will continue to increase as the human population
grows. Successful prevention or mitigation of human wildlife conflict is absolutely
essential if we are to achieve our conservation goals, and a world in which ‘people live in
harmony with nature’.

The impacts of HWC on humans and their livelihoods are highly significant. For
example, an elephant eats around 150 kg of food per day and a single elephant can
destroy a hectare of crops in a very short time; a small herd can decimate a farmer's
livelihood overnight. The same goes for large cats, which have been known to kill dozens
of sheep in a rampage. Often, the people who suffer these attacks are already
economically and nutritionally vulnerable (the circumstances that lead them to encroach
on wildlife habitat), and the loss of crops and livestock can have grave impacts on their
income and food consumption. Such attacks can also cause damage to water supplies,
housing, other infrastructure and in some cases can lead to human injury and/or death.
For example, in India alone it is estimated that 300 people are killed annually in human-
elephant conflicts.

HWC also affects significantly effects large-scale agri-business. In the largest palm oil
producing province in Indonesia, Riau, losses due to elephant damage of oil palm
plantations and timber estates are estimated to be around US$105 million per year.
The biggest direct driver of conflict with elephants and rhinos is the loss of habitat,
combined with the attraction presented by certain domesticated crops. In the case of most
big cats, the direct driver is movement of people into tiger habitat, but also prey depletion

99
which forces big cats to look to other sources, namely, livestock, and occasionally,
humans. Root causes can include private-sector activity, government policy vis-a-vis
powerful special interests, infrastructure planning and or trade.
Poverty and Vulnerability

For rural communities, consequences often associated with human-wildlife conflict are
loss of life or injury, threats to economic security, reduced food security and livelihood
opportunities. Due to their lack of resources, communities with limited livelihood
opportunities are often hardest hit by conflicts with wildlife. Without mitigating human-
wildlife conflict the results are further impoverishment of the poor, reduced local support
for conservation, and increased retaliatory killings of wildlife causing increased
vulnerability of wildlife populations.

Poverty is the result of a combination of socioeconomic circumstances that limit

livelihood opportunities. It is now generally accepted that poverty is more than just a
question of low income; poverty is a “pronounced deprivation in well-being” (World
Bank 2000) resulting from a deprivation of a multifaceted set of material goods, assets,
conditions and opportunities.

Methodology
The analysis will address local and root causes of HWC at the micro, meso and macro
levels:
• At the micro level (local), there are conditions that may not allow local communities
to deal effectively with human wildlife conflict including participating in
planning.
• At the meso level (district, provincial), livelihood issues in relation to human
wildlife conflict may not be fully understood by decision makers
• At the macro level (national, international), regulation and policy decisions may not
plan for, or reflect the realities of, local conditions of human wildlife conflict. For
example, national governments can also play a critical role in determining the
location and development of factors that cause or exacerbate conflicts such (eg.
agri-business, barriers to wildlife movement such as fences etc.) At the
international level, subsidies can play a part in exacerbating HWC (for example,
the effects of EU subsidies to the beef industry in southern Africa.)

The analysis will answer these and other key questions:

• What is the dynamic of the human wildlife conflict?
• What is the current process of HWC mitigation in terms of decision making,
transparency and practices of good governance?
• What are the costs in terms of lost livelihoods from conflict and the implications for
communities concerned?
• What are the costs to the state of living with (and compensating for) conflicts, and in
mitigating conflict in the way it is currently practiced?

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 3
• What are the policy and market drivers that cause human wildlife conflict, or
hinder efforts to address it?
• What are the planning mechanisms in place that are possible avenues for addressing
such drivers?
• What are the opportunities and potential benefits from implementing human/wildlife
solutions?
• What would the cost of implementing human/wildlife conflict solutions be (both
4
direct and indirect ) and how does this compare to the cost of living with
human/wildlife conflict? (To the extent possible within the scope and timing of
this research)
• What is the value to livelihoods of maintaining wildlife?
• What are the case studies of best practices that can be replicated in other sites with
appropriate modifications?
• Additional site specific questions for more in-depth analysis

Timeline

Overall Project Time: June-December 2006

1 month: literature search and review of relevant prior studies/information, design of the
study protocol, selection of sites for data collection, collection of published or
otherwise available documents, travel & meeting arrangements.
1 month: travel to key sites and set up researchers
2-4 months: work with researchers in analysis and report writing, in close collaboration
with Global Species Programme and relevant field staff and experts.

3
‘Market drivers’ here refer to external economic factors affecting HWC. This may include, for example,
• Subsidies which artificially inflate the real market value of the commodity concerned, resulting in the
undervaluing of the benefits of the wildlife resource.
• Subsidies that otherwise influence HWC (eg. EU subsidies for beef exports from southern Africa which
result in large scale fencing to ensure compliance with health protocols for EU meat imports. These fences
may cut off migratory routes for wildlife, thus pushing them into areas where they come into conflict with
humans.)
• Consideration of who should bear the financial burden of HWC and HWC mitigation (eg. are agribusiness
involving commodities such as tea, palm oil and coffee shouldering the financial burden of HWC or is this
burden borne by society/government?)
4
‘Direct cost’ here refers to the actual cost involved in the implementation of a solution. ‘Indirect costs’
here refers to the loss of revenue / assets for a community that may be associated with
implementation of a solution (eg. if land previously used for agriculture / resource use is turned
into a wildlife corridor.)

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B. Deliverables, including due dates

1. Draft Outline of Work July 17, 2006

2. First Draft of Report September 1, 2006
3. Final Report October 1, 2006

Report to include policy recommendations, one site visit, and a bibliography. An

economic study and the research for the bibliography may be subcontracted by the
consultant.

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