Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 22 Aug 08;
A decision to allow the trophy-hunting of endangered elephants in Namibia has angered conservation groups.
Trophy permits have been issued for the killing of six bull elephants by the government's Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET).
It will allow any big game hunter willing to pay about $40,000 the right to hunt and shoot a bull elephant in Namibia's north-west desert region.
But opponents say killing bull elephants in an already endangered population is unsustainable and risks pushing the desert elephant towards extinction.
The elephants, who spend their lives wandering the arid wastes of the Kunene region in search of food and water, were decimated by hunting and poaching in the 1980s and reached a low point of only 52 individuals.
But conservation policies and protection measures adopted by the Namibian government have seen numbers recover to somewhere between 240-400.
But breeding success is very low with a calf mortality rate as high as 80 per cent and many of the cows also die soon after giving birth.
This could be due to genetic deficiencies caused by in-breeding and the loss of even a few of the remaining breeding bull elephants would further weaken the gene pool and have devastating consequences for future generations.
The lucrative hunting permits, a valuable source of income, have been granted to conservancies in the Kunene Region run by local communities who then sell them on to professional hunting companies.
But local groups who work to protect the elephant claim the decision to grant the trophy permits had been based on inflated estimates of elephant numbers.
Ironically the elephant is seen as a key species by the government to its wildlife tourism industry which brings in much needed foreign currency and provides hundreds of jobs in tourism camps and lodges.
Critics say granting the permits is short-sighted because the elephants are worth far more alive than dead apart from the damage to Namibia's international reputation as a tourist destination.
Conservation scientist Dr Betsy Fox said the elephant population in the Kunene region would not be able to cope with the loss of six bulls.
"I think MET officials who approved these quotas are not thinking in terms of the best conservation measures for the keystone species in the Kunene region, but are succumbing to pressure from conservancies to earn quick bucks," she said in a letter to the MET.
The desert elephants don't normally come into contact with people but farmers have gradually encroached on their range bringing them into conflict with local communities.
Last year a farmer was chased and torn apart by a cow elephant in an area where elephants had previously been shot at to drive them away.
Elephant-Human Relations Aid is a volunteer organisation, established in 2003, which helps protect the elephant by working with local communities in Namibia helping protect infrastructure such as walls, fences and windmills from damage by elephants.
Operations director Johannes Haasbroek said that in the south of the Kunene region - where three of the trophy permits have been granted - only three breeding bulls had been spotted in total.
He said the permits should not have been issued because not enough work had been done by the Namibian government in scientifically establishing elephant numbers and he called on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to revoke all trading permits until the counting was carried out.
"The Government should stop issuing 'problem animal' and trophy permits. From Sept 2006 to Sept 2007 12 large bulls have been shot in the Kunene region as 'problem animals'.
These are not bulls that have been positively identified as problems, but permits issued to merely placate pressure on the MET from surrounding communities. This off take, added to the trophy hunts, could have catastrophic affects on the desert elephant population," he said.
He warned that killing bull elephants would seriously damage elephants groups because they played an important social role in keeping adolescent bulls in check as well as passing on ecological intelligence.
"Eradicating the bulls could lead to a social breakdown and a massive loss of knowledge. This knowledge is needed to alleviate the pressure on resources," he said.
"Misuse of resources will only lead to more conflict with humans, more pressure on government and more elephants being shot. This domino effect can head them to extinction faster than we can ever believe."
