The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) has paid over N.dollars 27 million towards human-wildlife conflict losses over the past 12 years.

In an interview with Nampa recently, Director of Wildlife and National Parks Bennett Kahuure said under the human-wildlife conflict self-reliance scheme, the ministry spent N.dollars 27 581 827 compensating for livestock, crop damages, injuries and loss of life since 2008.

He explained that Namibia has adopted conservation of wildlife through communal conservancies and recognises human-wildlife conflict, hence a National Policy on Human-Wildlife Conflict Management was adopted in 2009.

Kahuure explained that payments are done in various categories such as N.dollars 100 000 for loss of life; N.dollars 10 000 for injuries with no limb loss; N.dollars 30 000 for limb loss and N.dollars 50 000 for permanent damage.

Other payments include crop damage and livestock according to the incident magnitude.

“The scheme does not compensate for loss of life, however it does give a relief amount of N.dollars 100 000 to the bereaved family for support. The ministry does not put value on someone’s life, therefore what the scheme gives towards the family is only a relief support,” he noted.

He indicated that since 2019, N.dollars 2.1 million was paid for 559 incidents of livestock killings, and N.dollars 1.7 million for 1 826 hectares of crop destroyed. MEFT paid N.dollars 310 000 for 31 incidents of injuries with no loss of body parts; N.dollars 100 000 for two incidents of permanent injuries and N.dollars 1.4 million for 14 incidents of loss of life.

Kahuure explained that human-wildlife conflict is common in the Kunene, Kavango West, Kavango East and Zambezi regions, as well as areas surrounding the Etosha National Park.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency