The Game Product Trust Fund under the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) has so far received N.dollars 4.4 million as part of the N.dollars 5.9 million expected to be generated from an elephant auction.

A media statement issued on Tuesday by MEFT spokesperson, Romeo Muyunda, said the ministry is currently busy with the capturing of the 57 elephants that were successfully sold in the auction; 37 elephants have already been captured consisting of 15 that will remain in Namibia and 22 that will be exported to a destination to be announced at the end of the tender process.

He said that the 15 elephants remaining in the country were captured from the Omatjete area in the Erongo Region and they are already supplied to Naankuse as the successful bidder. The 22 elephants meant for export were captured from the Kamanjab commercial farming area in the Kunene Region and they will be supplied to Gerrie Odendaal as one of the successful bidders, and the elephants are currently safely kept in a quarantine facility waiting to be exported.

“The remaining 20 are still to be captured pending the issuance of permits from the country where the elephants will be exported to, a signed agreement and full payment. Namibia Wildlife Vets and African Wildlife Vets did all captures with permission from MEFT and we want to deny allegations that there are elephants designated for China. We expect to generate N.dollars 5.9 million from the auction of which N.dollars 4.4 million is already paid to the Game Product Trust Fund,” said Muyunda.

He added that funds generated through the auction will be transferred to the Game Product Trust Fund to be reinvested in the conservation and management of wildlife resources and rural development including in community conservancies. Furthermore, the fund will be used for human-wildlife conflict management, management of national parks, species conservation, wildlife protection and law enforcement, community based natural resources management and rural development.

“With this auction, we intend to reduce elephant numbers in specified areas to minimise human-elephant conflicts which have become persistent leading to extensive damage to properties, life losses and a disruption of people’s livelihoods,” stated Muyunda.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency