1960s to the Present Day - Hunters Namibia Safaris

Development of Trophy Hunting in Namibia –
1960 s to the Present Day
Marina Lamprecht, Hunters Namibia Safaris
Hunting is part and parcel of Africa, the land where mankind
began. It is built into the life of our continent and the spirit of
our people. Namibia is emphatically a pro-wildlife and wildlifeutilisation
country, and our progressive national constitution is the
first in the world to formally enshrine the sustainable utilisation
of living natural resources. We know that it is essential to use this
land effectively for our people and our wildlife, and our hands-on
experience has shown that the most beneficial and sustainable
form of rural land utilisation is, indeed, trophy hunting.
We also recognise that, as we take on the many challenges of our
time in Africa, including poverty, education and land reform, our
focus increasingly must be on the most effective utilisation of land
for the direct benefit of human beings.
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African Outfitter November/December 2012
In political terms, wildlife is not
yet considered agriculture,
but on the vast private land
of our family as well as that of
other Namibian game farmers,
our game animals most certainly
are products of the land. In Namibia
traditional agriculture once focused
on domestic stock such as cattle,
sheep and goats, and wild game was
shot indiscriminately. This attitude is
now almost completely outmoded in
our country.
Trophy hunting began in South
West Africa (today known as Namibia)
in the early 1960s as a sideline
to traditional agriculture, in areas
where game species such as spring-
PH Joof Lamprecht with Canadian client JJ Ouellet and a 77lb elephant taken with a .505 Gibbs in the Caprivi in 1993.

Marga Vaatz, a pioneer in diversifying
farming activities by establishing
SWA/Namibia’s first guest and hunting
farm in the early sixties.
buck, oryx, kudu and warthog were
plentiful. This nascent industry was
mainly based on the free-market
system and began with an absolute
minimum of government interference.
It has grown steadily ever since
and has, inevitably and appropriately,
come under a degree of government
supervision. Recent statistics show
that trophy hunting generates 2,3%
of Namibia’s gross domestic product.
Note that this does not include
secondary goods and services such
as airfares, shoulder accommodations
and meals, game park fees, car
rentals, shopping, etc, which would
approximately double this figure.
Trophy hunting has steadily shown
an annual growth of 12%, which
considerably outpaces the goal of 7%
annual growth that was set by our
government in Vision 2030, a white
paper on economic development in
Namibia.
This success has been based
on devolving rights over wildlife to
freehold and communal area landholders.
By giving landholders rights
to use wildlife and benefit from it,
government has provided incentives
for conservation. This has resulted
in the fact that 80% of wildlife is
now found outside of protected
areas, and wildlife is increasing on
communal land. A strong wildlife
industry has been created that, linked
to tourism, is a major contributor
to the national economy. Income
and other benefits such as jobs and
training linked to wildlife and tourism
in communal area conservancies are
contributing to combating poverty.
Our wildlife is a natural resource,
which, if managed properly and utilised
sustainably through fee-based
trophy hunting, has the potential to
develop into one of our country’s
most valuable renewable assets.
We are now a nation with a proud
hunting heritage, and our trophyhunting
sector is well respected by
our government and fellow Namibians
as an essential and integral part
of Namibia’s conservation, tourism,
farming and business communities.
Early days
In the sixties, when trophy hunting
was just beginning in South West
Africa (SWA), game ranching was unknown
in our country. In those days
wild animals were seen to be in direct
competition with domestic stock
for grazing and water, and therefore
a liability for a stock farmer. That was
the era when a bottle of brandy or
Schnapps would secure you a weekend
hunt with a farmer as well as
stock your freezer with venison!
Legendary professional hunter,
Basie Maartens, is generally regarded
as the first licensed PH, as he guided
hunting safaris in SWA/Namibia,
Angola, Botswana and South Africa as
African Outfitter November/December 2012
Volker and Anke Grellmann in the
offices of Anvo Safaris in Windhoek
in 1969 – behind every successful
man . . .
early as 1959. At that time he guided
Elgin Gates, who was acknowledged
to be the first full-paying overseas
hunting client in Southern Africa.
Such hunting luminaries as Bob Lee
and James Mellon, the author of the
original African Hunter, followed Elgin.
Edgar Vaatz with German hunting client and kudu trophy taken at Düsternbrook,
just north-west of Windhoek, in the early sixties.
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When foot-and-mouth disease
broke out on commercial farmland
in the early sixties, and therefore an
embargo on the trade of domestic
stock was imposed, pioneer and
innovative farmers Edgar and Marga
Vaatz diversified their farming activities
and established SWA/Namibia’s
first guest and hunting farm, Düsternbrook.
Prior to that, the concept of
hosting paying guests on farms or for
a hunting safari was an East African
tradition totally foreign in our country.
The initial daily rate charged at
Düsternbrook was R3 and the trophy
fee for a kudu was R30.
Marga Vaatz, a truly extraordinary
lady, went on to initiate many social
upliftment programmes on her farm,
which I firmly believe are the inspiration
behind a number of the current
worthwhile ventures in farming areas
throughout Namibia.
Volker and Anke Grellmann’s
Anvo Safaris was founded in 1968,
and then registered with SWA Nature
Conservation in 1970. As a schoolgirl
and city child in Windhoek I clearly
remember how intrigued I was by the
adventure and romance of safari life,
which this glamorous and cosmopolitan
couple of South West Africa’s
new venture represented. Anvo
initially focused on hunting on commercial
stock farms, later expanding
to big-game concessions in Damaraland,
Bushmanland, the Kavango and
Western Caprivi.
So, by the late 1960s, farmers
had realised that game indeed had
value, and increasingly thereafter our
wild animals came to be seen as an
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Photo: Roy van der Merwe
asset. Since the mid-seventies the
numbers of wild animals on private
land have increased dramatically. As
our American friends would say, “If it
pays, it stays.”
However, I still remember my
fascination as a child in the seventies
at the sight of so many safari vehicles
– at that time still almost unknown
in SWA/Namibia – in places such as
Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, Livingstone
and Kasane during travels with my
father.
My husband, Joof Lamprecht,
qualified as a PH in the late seventies.
When Joof and I started our safari
company, Hunters Namibia Safaris,
in the mid-eighties, I still remember
the exclamations of disbelief
from friends and family. When we
bought an established cattle ranch in
eastern Namibia (where we are still
based) and started tearing down the
domestic stock infrastructure in order
to return the land to its natural state,
many of our neighbours, all of whom
were cattle ranchers, quite literally
rubbed their hands in anticipation of
the day that we would give up and
sell out to them. Well, over the years
we have in fact bought more and
more land, much of which belonged
to those very neighbours. Through
sound game management due to
sustainable hunting practices we now
have vast herds of more than 30 species
of game, and have been able to
create such a perfect ecosystem that
species such as hyena (both brown
and spotted) as well as wild dog,
which have not been seen in the area
for decades, have moved back here.
African Outfitter November/December 2012
Due to our respect for the natural
wisdom of a fully integrated wildlife
system, predators such as cheetah
and leopard, for which stock farmers
have very little tolerance, are now
also plentiful here. This has occurred
on many sensibly run dedicated wildlife
areas in much of our country.
Namibia has a dual economy. On
the one hand, we have a modern,
well-organised and efficient commercial
sector, and on the other a less
well-structured communal portion,
in which our tribal peoples mainly
rely on subsistence agriculture. The
communal, or tribal, subsistence
sector only recognised the value of
sustainable utilisation of wildlife after
Namibia’s independence in 1990.
This was mainly because until then
local communities had no decisive
rights over game and thus no interest
in it. Although commercial farmers
were granted conditional ownership
of game on their lands during the
sixties, the rural people of the communal
areas only received utilisation
rights through the Nature Conservation
Amendment Act of 1996, which
makes provision for communal
conservancies.
In Namibia, the greatest portions
of revenue from game-ranching
ventures derive from trophy hunting,
live animal sales and tourism,
not the sale of venison, and overall
the potential return from wildlife far
exceeds that of cattle. Once farmers
and local communities realised
that their game offered so much
more than meat value, they were
less likely to engage in uncontrolled

hunting and more likely to become
conservation-conscious. The next
step is to understand that the only
way to ensure the long-term survival
of wildlife is to use the game wisely
for the benefit of man.
Quantitatively and qualitatively,
the results of the past five decades
show that trophy hunting has been
THE most successful wildlife conservation
initiative in Namibia.
Trophy hunting has developed into an
extremely lucrative form of land use
as well as the most effective wildlife
management tool. Thus vast tracts
of farmland have been bought up
and consolidated by hunting operators,
who then remove miles of stock
fences and other infrastructure in
order to restore wildlife habitat. The
result is game ranches where wild
animals can breed and range within a
functional ecosystem.
Types of hunting
in Namibia
Namibia offers a variety of hunting
opportunities to meet most requirements
and budgets. Prices are scaled
to the quality, number and species of
trophies, the size of the party and of
course location and duration.
Farm hunting is very popular. Species
offered depend on the region,
but are usually limited to widespread
Namibian game such as kudu, oryx,
hartebeest, springbuck, warthog,
Hartmann’s (mountain) zebra, duiker,
steenbuck, jackal and baboon. Chee-
tah, leopard and caracal are often
taken on farms as well.
Farm hunting was developed by
stock farmers who wished to diversify
their sources of income, so hunting
usually takes place alongside normal
farming activities and among domestic
livestock such as cattle, goats and
sheep. In recent years, conservancies
have been developed in commercial
farming areas wherein farmers cooperate
with each other on the conservation
and sustainable utilisation of
their combined wildlife resources.
This has the benefit to the client of
enlarging the hunting area as well as
offering a greater animal population.
Accommodations are typically
comfortable, either in specially built
and well-equipped facilities or the
farm homestead itself, with the owner’s
family. This is the ideal way to get
to know the people of the country
and be exposed to Namibia’s unique
and charming lifestyle, cultures
and traditions. The host is usually
a licensed hunting guide or master
hunting guide, and this is the best arrangement
for the budget-conscious
trophy hunter.
Private game ranches on dedicated
wildlife areas with no domestic
stock or interior fences are widespread
and becoming increasingly
popular in Namibia. The range of
trophies they offer is very diverse
and often includes sable, blesbuck,
giraffe, Cape eland, Livingstone
eland, black wildebeest, blue wildebeest,
waterbuck, southern and
black-faced impala, Burchell’s zebra,
steenbuck, duiker, tsessebe, white
African Outfitter November/December 2012
rhino, roan and Damara dik-dik,
as well as all the species found on
farms and conservancies. Breeding
herds of many of these species have
been reintroduced in areas where
they had become locally extinct, and
non-endemic species have also been
established. Private game ranches
in Namibia typically encompass at
least 5 000 ha, with some as large as
70 000 ha.
Accommodation is usually in luxurious
lodges or tent camps and the
facilities, service and cuisine are of
world-class standard with a distinctly
Namibian flair, and the emphasis on
the classic African safari ambiance.
Although some people in the
international hunting community
categorically reject trophy hunting
“behind wire” – inside a high game
fence, that is – those who have had
proper, first-hand experience with it
generally develop a different opinion.
Hunting in a huge wilderness area,
one where game animals exist naturally
and in a self-sustainable manner,
can be carried out well within the
guidelines for ethical, fair-chase sport
(“the pursuit of free wild animals,
possessing the natural behavioural
inclination to escape from a hunter
and fully free to do so”) even if,
somewhere in the distance, there is
a fence. Even unfenced regions have
boundaries.
Namibia also has 76 registered
communal conservancies, covering
15,5 million ha or 18,7% of the
country. These contain hunting concessions
in tribal areas where, until
recently, communities often found
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themselves in direct conflict with
wildlife for resources. Trophy hunting
– carried out by Namibian registered
professional hunters in contract
with the government and the tribal
authorities – greatly benefits these
conservancies, where they are now
firmly established as a wildlife management
tool and THE primary source
of income and meat for often marginalised
and remote communities. This
is ideal for the adventurous trophy
hunter who wants to experience “old
Africa” in rugged and remote, very
sparsely populated areas.
Most hunting for the Big Five
takes place in these areas, which
have produced some of the largest
elephant (the heaviest ivory) taken
on the continent during the past two
decades.
In 2008, Namibia adopted a new
policy to regulate the granting of
tourism and trophy-hunting permits
on state land, which includes
game parks as well as protected and
communal areas. This will serve as
the basis for new laws concerning
concessions that are to become part
of the Namibian Ministry of Environment
and Tourism’s New Protected
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Areas and Wildlife Management Bill.
The new policy lays down clear objectives
and principles for the granting
of concessions, including empowerment
objectives for the communities
in these areas.
Licensing hunting
professionals
Intelligent game-management programmes
to ensure sustainable yields
are only part of the whole picture.
Education and training are also of the
utmost importance as the trophyhunting
industry must be responsible
for the safety of clients in situations
that go far beyond normal tourist
activities. To this end, Namibia has
several categories of hunting professionals,
and our country’s standards
of training as well as the criteria
for these categories are respected
around the world. To qualify, applicants
must pass both theoretical and
practical hunting examinations set
by the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism (MET).
The entry level is that of hunting
guide, a person licensed to guide
hunts on his or her own farm, or the
farm where they are employed, as
well as a conservancy where the land
may be registered. A master hunting
guide may hunt on two additional
farms where the hunting rights are
registered in his or her name.
The next rank is professional
hunter. To become a PH, unless the
owner of a guest farm or hunting operation,
the applicant must successfully
complete a two-year apprenticeship
with a registered PH and then
tackle the notoriously difficult theoretical
and practical examinations.
A MET-certified PH may hunt with
clients anywhere in Namibia with the
permission of the landowner.
A big-game (or dangerous-game)
PH is, in addition to the above, also
licensed to take clients to hunt lion,
buffalo, elephant, crocodile and rhino.
This class of hunting professional
must first qualify as a PH before gaining
the required experience hunting
dangerous game and then passing
further examinations.
Any of these certified professionals
may also qualify as a bow hunting
guide by attending a specialised
Professional hunter Volker Grellmann (right) with client Eilert von Voss, the chief of Krupp in Brazil, with an exceptional
mature sable trophy taken in August 1971.

course and passing another set of
tests. All Namibian hunting professionals
are required to hold current
MET certificates, to be registered
with the Namibian Tourism Board
and to refresh their first-aid training
every two years.
The Namibian
Professional Hunting
Association
One of the turning points in the
history of trophy hunting in Namibia
came in 1974, when a group of interested
parties banded together to
establish NAPHA, the Namibia Professional
Hunting Association. NAPHA
has become one of the most active
and respected organisations of its
kind in the world. Although it is a private,
non-profit and non-governmental
organisation, NAPHA works closely
with the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism on hunting-related matters.
NAPHA members are expected to
adhere to strict codes of ethics and
guidelines that address hunting and
the environment as well as business
and social issues.
While many skinners and trackers
have superb hunting skills as well as
a deep knowledge of fauna and flora,
they are often unable to qualify as
hunting professionals because they
are illiterate or semi-literate. One of
NAPHA’s proudest achievements was
our successful negotiation with MET
to allow verbal theoretical examinations.
The high standard of the examination
is not affected in any way,
and the practical test has remained
the same. The NAPHA Education
Committee drew up a detailed syllabus
for an intensive 10-day preparatory
course with the Eagle Rock
Hunting Academy, run by veteran PH
and NAPHA founding member Volker
Grellmann. Since the inception of this
programme in 2001, more than 200
previously disadvantaged Namibians
have thus qualified as hunting guides
or professional hunters.
The NAPHA “Hunters Support
Education” Committee provides
books, computers, photocopiers,
faxes and even mattresses, blankets,
PH Joof Lamprecht (left) of Hunters Namibia Safaris with client Dennis Doherty
from Kansas City, and a mature leopard taken in 2004.
towels and catering equipment to
schools across Namibia that educate
children from the hunting community
(see NAPHA News on p 59 of this issue).
Since 2004, 22 schools throughout
Namibia have received donations
worth almost one million Namibia
dollars. This does not include the
independent donations – funds,
learning materials, supplies and
meat from the hunt – made by many
hunting operators and their guests to
schools throughout Namibia. Hunters
Support Education also recently
introduced an initiative to reward individual
students from these schools,
selected for their academic excellence
and model citizenship. The first
award ceremonies took place at the
end of 2008; the winners were honoured
with NAPHA certificates as well
African Outfitter November/December 2012
as cash prizes to the value of N$250.
Schools that receive support from
NAPHA report an increase in pass
rates, especially in the higher grades,
resulting from greater motivation
among both learners and teachers.
Funding for these Hunter Support
Education programmes comes
from the sale of NAPHA medals and
donations from hunters as well as
international hunting organisations
such as Dallas Safari Club and SCI.
NAPHA members believe that education
is the most effective way to end
the cycle of poverty in Namibia. The
community regards trophy hunters
as generous and supportive and it
is heart-warming to see the enthusiastic
waves and bright smiles of
recognition when driving past a rural
school in a hunting truck.
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Hunting legislation in
Namibia
One of NAPHA’s first actions as a
duly constituted body was to petition
government for legislation to regulate
the trophy-hunting industry. Thus “Ordinance
No. 4 of 1975 on Nature Conservation”
and “Regulations on Trophy
Hunting No. 240 of 1976” came into
being. These codes stipulate, among
other things, that only registered
persons and establishments, meeting
strict requirements, may participate in
commercial trophy hunting. This was
regarded as a management tool to
help achieve sustainable utilisation of
game in our country.
Namibian firearms law was designed
not to unnecessarily impede
visiting trophy hunters, who may temporarily
import their own rifles and
shotguns with no advance permitting.
(Visitors may be asked only to show
proof that they have booked a hunt
with a registered Namibian hunting
operator.) The Namibian Police issue
Temporary Weapons Importation
Permits at the airport or other point
of entry into our country, and this
document must be shown again upon
departure. A maximum of 100 rounds
of ammunition, for the specific calibre
only, may be imported. For safety as
well as humane kills, there are legal
minimum calibres for hunting small,
medium and large game. Handguns
and automatic weapons are prohibited.
New initiatives
The population of huntable game –
largely kudu, oryx, springbuck and
warthog – on privately owned land in
Namibia has grown by 8% per annum
since 1972. However, since 2005,
the offtake of those species by the
trophy-hunting industry has increased
by 22,5% per annum. In addition, nontrophy
game animals are also utilised
for meat as well as live capture and
sale.
Thus the demand for certain species
of game has begun to grow at a
more rapid rate than production and
we are no longer using those game
populations sustainably. The Lazarus
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Shinyemba Ipangelwa Foundation, in
partnership with NAPHA, is consequently
reaching out to commercial
farmers (that is, those raising crops or
domestic stock for the market rather
than subsistence) to educate them
about game ranching and trophy
hunting.
We presented two workshops, in
2008 and 2011, specifically for emerging
commercial farmers, in order to
promote game ranching and trophy
hunting as an effective and lucrative
form of land use, provided it is done
in a controlled, sustainable and ethical
manner. Dallas Safari Club and Blaser
demonstrated a true understanding
of the conservation benefits of this
initiative by sponsoring this important
conservation programme, along with
local companies. The workshops were
addressed by respected experts in
their fields and attended by government
ministers, members of parliament
and new farmers, as well as
business people aspiring to become
farmers and trophy-hunting operators.
The majority of the participants
came from previously disadvantaged
communities.
The Ministry of Environment
recently introduced a programme to
stock farms belonging to emerging
commercial farmers free of charge
with breeding populations of a variety
of game species, with the agreement
that MET would capture the same
number of animals for relocation once
viable herds had been established on
the farms. This initiative is expected to
make a valuable contribution towards
addressing the increase in demand for
certain game species by international
trophy-hunting clients.
Economic challenges
facing hunting
Most of the trophy-hunting industry’s
marketing takes place at large expositions
in the USA, Europe and Asia between
January and March each year.
Traditionally, these events have been
effective and critically important media
for hunting operators from all over
the world, providing opportunities
to interact with many thousands of
potential clients. However, recent experience
shows that prospects for the
safari industry have been damaged by
African Outfitter November/December 2012
the global economic crisis. Attendance
has declined at most of the recent
conventions, and as a result bookings
were down noticeably as well.
The emerging trend among those
hunting clients whose financial position
still allows them to travel seems
to be to concentrate on the very
well-established and known operators,
which leaves newer companies
with little business. According to Digu
Naobeb, CEO of the Namibia Tourism
Board, every indication is that the top
end of the travel market will be less
affected than the middle and lower
ends.
German-speaking countries have
traditionally been the source of most
of Namibia’s trophy-hunting visitors.
However, recent statistics from the
Ministry of Environment and Tourism
indicate that while Germans hunting
annually in Namibia over a 10-year
period increased from 1 490 to 1 905,
the number of trophy hunters from
the USA in the same decade swelled
from 155 to 1 516 annually. The
American market is thus now one of
Namibia’s most important markets,
but it is also the one most affected
by the global economic contraction.
A downturn in hunting revenues
threatens the further development of
trophy hunting in our country for the
next several years.
Cultural challenges
facing hunting
Recent financial data from the USA
and Europe indicate that the losses
to those economies seem to have
been stemmed and recovery, however
slow, is in the foreseeable future. As
consumers in those countries regain
confidence, not to say some of the
value of their portfolios, it is expected
that they will eventually resume
trophy hunting and other recreational
activities. However, there is a larger,
long-term threat to the business of
trophy hunting, and that is the steady
shrinkage in the numbers of hunters
in much of Europe and North America.
Many factors contribute to these
declines, but chief among them appears
to be the continual urbanisation
of populations, while overall factors
include the aging of hunters and the
lack of new hunter recruitment.

Conclusion
Thanks to Namibia’s excellent hunting
opportunities, the variety and quality
of game species, outstanding hunting
professionals and the focus on fairchase,
ethical hunting, as well as our
political stability and well-developed
infrastructure, Namibia is now firmly
established as one of Africa’s most
popular and successful trophy-hunting
destinations.
As Namibian citizens, we realise
it is essential for each of us to utilise
our land to its fullest potential in
sustainable ways by developing farming
operations that make meaningful
contributions to our country. Game
ranching and trophy hunting are,
without a doubt, two of the most
lucrative means of doing so. The
inherent biological, ecological and
physiological advantages of wild animals,
and the fact that wildlife offers
substantial extra value beyond meat
and hide, make game ranching and
trophy hunting extremely beneficial
forms of land utilisation, as well as
proven tools for conservation.
Trophy hunting currently employs
more people and pays better salaries,
as well as provides more training,
skill recognition and job promotion
opportunities than any other form
of commercial agricultural or communal
conservancy land utilisation in
Namibia.
The Namibian trophy-hunting
industry can do little to counteract
the effects of the global economic
contraction other than to continue
to offer high-quality hunting for good
value. While Namibia has developed
its own programmes, policies and
legislation to sustain high-quality
trophy hunting, organisations within
the nations from which we draw our
clientele will hopefully, in turn, create
their own programmes to sustain
hunters as an ecological force.
Joof and Marina Lamprecht, who founded Hunters Namibia Safaris in 1984.
They still personally host every safari on their superb wildlife reserve in the
camel-thorn Kalahari of eastern Namibia.
It is with pride I say that the
results of the past five decades have
proved that selective, ethical and sustainable
trophy hunting is one of the
most lucrative forms of land utilisation
as well as a great conservation tool
in our country. The Namibian trophy
African Outfitter November/December 2012
hunting and conservation sector is
grateful to our international trophyhunting
clients for their continued
investment in our wildlife, people and
country.
We look forward to welcoming
you to our beautiful Namibia – soon!
Marina Lamprecht co-owns and personally manages Hunters Namibia Safaris with her husband, professional
hunter Joof Lamprecht. They are based on their vast wildlife reserve in eastern Namibia. Marina is a widely published
writer, and presents talks throughout the world on Namibia’s conservation successes due to the country’s policy of selective,
ethical and sustainable utilisation of wildlife resources, for which she has won international awards. She is Co-editor:
Hunting – Namibia for African Outfitter. She is also involved in education projects all over Namibia, and is chairperson of
the Lazarus Shinyemba Ipangelwa Foundation. Marina can be contacted at hunters@mweb.com.na. You can also follow
her on Facebook (Marina Lamprecht and/or Hunters Namibia Safaris) or visit the website: www.huntersnamibia.com.
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