HWCM - Ministry of Environment and Tourism

National Workshop on Human Wildlife Conflict Management 2005
We must change the mindset of people. As I said here, even in biblical times the approach was to
eliminate wildlife so that the people could farm. It is true that the approach has changed
dramatically, especially with our people in communal areas who have established conservancies
and see the benefit from it, but what about the communities who are not organised into
conservancies and suffer tremendously from this conflict with wildlife It remains to be seen what
happens in areas such as Tsumkwe where we have never experienced problems with wild dogs
killing livestock. But at the Grootfontein boundary when a wild dog crosses that fence, it goes for
cattle and will not go to eat wildlife. It’s not a question of the game being removed, I think they just
like eating the sheep and goats and cattle – like us.
However, the Minister may approve the hunting of any animal under the conditions he/ she
determines, and that is the system we follow.
This workshop is an important exercise – we must come up with something, we cannot carry on
like this. I must mention briefly how we address this problem in the new Parks and Wildlife Bill.
We are not really addressing it because we don’t have the solution. This workshop will lead to a
policy that can later be written with regulations we can follow but we need to remove Chapter 4 in
the Ordinance that deals with problem animals.
When we discussed the bill, we had a public forum that included farmers from the south. We
mentioned that there won’t be such a thing as a problem animal in future – on the contrary, all
game will be protected, even black-backed jackal. In certain areas the Minister can issue permits
to control certain animals. The Act makes provision for justified killing where:
…any person may, without the authorisation, kill a wild animal or in relation to a wild
animal take such measures or use such force as necessary and proportional in the
circumstances in defence of a human life or prevent a human from being injured.
It also says that:
…no person other than a Nature Conservation official performing duties under the act or a
MET staff member acting under instruction of a Nature Conservator, shall kill a wild animal
to achieve a conservation objective, to prevent the destruction of crops, grazing or
property without the prior written authority of the Minister.
So we can do it and ask staff members to do it but any other person must have the written
authority from the Minister.
Here, we propose any person that kills a wild animal under this section must report the killing, the
circumstances under which it occurred and details of the animal killed to a Conservator as soon
as possible – within 10 days, or such other period as a Conservation Officer may deem
reasonable under the circumstances. The Ordinance says it should be done in writing. So the
communal farmer must put something in writing or get someone to write for them, and then must
get transport to the nearest MET office to report it, otherwise they can be prosecuted. We are
more lenient in the Act as far as that is concerned, but that is about all it says in the Act.
It is our job now with this workshop and follow-up meetings to revisit and provide more input to
come up with a policy and how we can deal with HWC and then have the policy and possibly
regulations approved to be published under the new Act.
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