Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta has revealed that Namibia currently has an estimated number of 23 736 elephants, a figure which leaves them unthreatened by extinction.

Government in August 2021 announced the sale of 57 live elephants out of the 170 elephants put on auction, to a tune of N.dollars 5.9 million, which sparked social media outcry that Namibia’s elephant population is threatened by extinction due to the sale of elephants.

Shifeta, while launching the National Elephant Conservation and Management Framework at the Bwabwata National Park in the Zambezi Region on Thursday, gave assurance that government’s sale of elephants does not pose a threat to the existence of the species, as elephant conservation efforts have been successful.

“Namibia has a healthy and growing elephant population from about 7000 elephants at independence to an estimated total of 23 736 due to the current conservation efforts,” he said.

Shifeta added that the ministry conducts regular aerial surveys using internationally acceptable best practices to arrive at the total elephant population, noting that some media reports that the ministry inflates elephant numbers is devoid of any truth.

He also said the National Elephant Conservation and Management Framework are geared towards providing further guidance for elephant conservation in Namibia over the next ten years.

The framework involves communal farmers, traditional authorities, line ministries and civil society organisations amongst stakeholders and elephant conservation and management related challenges were identified to develop mitigation measures and actions jointly, the minister noted.

“The implementation of the framework will involve all relevant stakeholders from four elephant management regions established to jointly work with the ministry. The structures will be empowered to come up with innovative but locally accepted measures and actions to manage elephants,” he said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency