Waterberg annual game count The Water-berg Conservancy held its 14th annual game count during August. Organised and co-ordinated by the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), over 60 volunteers counted game at about 40 waterholes on the CCF and conservancy farms around the Waterberg Plateau Park.
Game-count numbers assist conservancy members with their co-operative wildlife management plans and are presented to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to help determine how many animals are on their farms.
CCF staff members conduct strip and waterhole counts to access more accurate game-census results. Among the many animals observed were rhino, caracal, honey badgers, giraffe, zebra and jackal, as well as large numbers of kudu, eland, warthog, gemsbok and hartebeest. Game counts are usually conducted during the dry season in most communal and freehold conservancies throughout Namibia.
Focus on vulture awareness More than 100 organisations around the world celebrated International Vulture Aware-ness Day on 5 September.
Vulture populations around the world are facing a wide range of threats, with some species even facing extinction. With this in mind, vulture organisations recognised that a co-ordinated international day would publicise the conservation of vultures and highlight the important work carried out by them. According to Peter Bridgeford of Vultures Namibia, Namibia has recorded some of the largest vulture-poisoning incidents over the past 30 years and it is vital that awareness be raised to prevent and decrease further vulture deaths.
At a gala dinner held in Swakopmund during August, N$8 000 was raised for vulture conservation in the Namib-Naukluft Park. The funds will be used by volunteers of Vulture Namibia, for ringing, tagging and monitoring lappet-faced vultures in the Namib-Naukluft Park. www.ivad09.org
PAWS Volunteer Project The People and Wild--life Solutions (PAWS) Conservation and Big Cat Rehabilitation Project is growing from strength to strength.
Launched in August 2008 by Clive and Roma Muccio-Johnson, PAWS is a volunteer project that forms part of Okonjima and AfriCat’s vision to restore the land back to its original state. The need to restore the natural environment and reverse the damage caused by man is crucial, as Africa’s fragile ecosystems and wildlife are inseparably linked.
PAWS volunteers have the opportunity to work directly at the AfriCat Foundation, through doing work such as bone collecting within cheetah camps, erecting and repairing fences, cleaning out cheetah and wild-dog waterholes and participating in the feeding of the rehabilitated animals. In the afternoon participants can take part in game drives, leopard and hyaena tracking, Bushman walks, birding and other activities offered at AfriCat. www.pawsnamibia.org
Gobabeb celebrates 50 years
The Gobabeb Training and Research Centre hosted its annual Open Day
during September. The theme for this year – Celebrating 50 years:
Gobabeb then and now – highlighted the range of developments, projects
and activities of the Training and Research Centre over the past 50
years. Additionally, the Open Day focused on current and future
projects, with a special focus on the tourism concession, appropriate
technologies, training programmes and research projects. Some of the
activities held during the day included displays, demonstrations,
centre tours, competitions and games.
The Gobabeb Centre is the first dry-land Training and Research Centre
in the southern sub-Saharan region and has contributed to a wide range
of research, education, training, networking and awareness activities
in Namibia, SADC and internationally.
http://www.gobabebtrc.org/
HWC Policy launched
In September, the National Policy on Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Management was officially launched.
Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who opened the conference, stressed
that we need to address human wildlife conflict in a way that strikes a
balance between conservation priorities and the needs of people who
live with such wildlife, as most Namibians depend on the land for their
livelihood.
At the event, Chief Joseph Tembwe Mayuni of the Mashi traditional
authority gave a brief history of conservation, bene-fits and human
wildlife conflict. “Empowerment is central to my philosophy of CBNRM
(Community Based Natural Resource Management) and I’m pleased
that communities now appreciate the strengths of understanding and
working within their constitution and are learning to speak up more
freely.”
The conference highlighted the importance of conserving our
biodiversity and ecosystem, while at the same time finding ways of
managing the conflict that wild animals can cause.
Focus on the benefits of hunting
The first symposium on the ‘Ecological and Economic Benefits of Hunting’ was held in Windhoek during September.
Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, Willem Konjore, opened the
symposium on behalf of Pre-sident Hifikepunye Poham-ba, stating that
Namibia has created a strong wildlife industry which together with
tourism, has become a major contributor to the national economy. “We
have proved that it has the potential to develop into one of the
country’s most valuable renewable assets if managed properly through
game ranching and utilised sustainably through fee-based trophy
hunting.”
Organised by the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities
(WFSA), the symposium was attended by 60 representatives from 20
countries and included talks on topics such as sustainable wildlife
management, recreational hunting, trophy hunting and conservation
hunting.
Forms of wildlife utilisation in Namibia include trophy hunting, own
use hunting, shoot and sell, premium hunting, and live game sales.
www.napha.com.na
MET field awards
Every year, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) awards field
staff in recognition of exceptional performances. There are a number of
different awards given out each year.
This year, the Incident Book Award, which is given out to the parks
that make best use of the Incident Book Monitoring system, was shared
by the Mudumu National Park and the Sperrgebiet National Park.
The Springbok Award recognises the outstanding performance of a young
MET field staff member who demonstrates great potential to succeed in
the field of conservation, park management and special outreach
services. The award went to Riaan Solomon, a warden from the
Namib-Naukluft Park.
Trygve Cooper, chief warden for the Sperrgebiet area, was awarded the
Welwitschia Award for demonstrating outstanding leadership qualities, a
great work ethic and typifying someone who is innovative in his
approach to park management.
The most prestigious award, namely the Lifetime Achieve-ment Award, was
presented to Chrispin Chizabulyo, a retired principal ranger from the
Caprivi Region. Chrispin worked in the Caprivi during a period of
transition, paving the way for a new generation of conservationists,
and helped transform the old Department into the Ministry it is today.
