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National Workshop on Human Wildlife Conflict Management 2005 We also looked for some local solutions. We looked deeply into hunting concessions and found that professional hunters come to Caprivi during March and April - when the crops are already damaged. We need communication so the information reaches the Police and MET offices timeously to enable us to solve problems quickly, and MAWF can immediately be asked to assess damage to fields. We know the GRN has zoned some of the regions – for instance Katima Mulilo is controlled from Rundu and by the time the Rundu office receives information from Mamili or Mudumu national parks, more than 24 hours has passed. We would like to bring together Government and the community to establish a 24-hour information flow system, particularly during the crop-growing season when people are in the fields. We are not here to say we should kill all the elephants and lions – that is not our mission. Instead, we are asking how to handle the problem. Let’s conserve and protect our natural resources. We were asked at the last meeting to go to the local people, and they have accepted this challenge. We have the following requests from the Caprivi conservancies to MET: 1. Game Products Trust Fund (GPTF): People want to know from us where the money from the GPTF goes. We should have access to money in the GPTF – when farms are insured, some of this money can be shared with farmers as a type of compensation. If we do this, maybe people will understand us when we ask them to protect our natural resources as they can also benefit from these resources. 2. Institutional support: We have our community game guards who know the problems but don’t have the powers, transport, radios or other resources to help solve our problems. MET rangers from Mamili and Mudumu national parks have similar problems. So why can’t we try to strengthen the information flow, so that the MET head office knows within 24 hours what has happened in Katima Mulilo and Rundu. These are some of the problems we will discuss in groups. Thank you. 3.2 Livestock loss and counter measures at Torra Conservancy Vitalis Florry, Torra Conservancy Stock losses in the Torra Conservancy are our greatest challenge. Last year 96 incidents were recorded involving lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena. The Event Book System was in place and all community members reported incidents to our office at Bergsig. There are still lions in the conservancy. Last year lions occasionally killed livestock at night in kraals and a man was nearly killed by a leopard while searching for livestock. The conservancy members were very unhappy. Elephant damage occurred at waterpoints in the conservancy, but there was no damage to crops as these are not grown in our area.. We pay compensation to our members but they are not happy with the money as it is not enough. We try to convince members to kraal animals at night, but we are in a semi-desert area, there is not enough rain, areas are unfenced and people do not have total control over domestic stock as rainfall is patchy. Animals move from one farm to another and it is difficult to bring them back to 28
National Workshop on Human Wildlife Conflict Management 2005 areas where there has been no rain. This is the biggest challenge currently facing our conservancy. 3.3 Human wildlife conflict: parks perspective from Etosha National Park Prepared by Michael Sibalatani, presented by Johnson Vejorerako (MET) Introduction • Most wildlife in park areas exists as island populations surrounded by people; • The growing human population results in encroachment upon land adjacent to park areas with the major relationship between human and wildlife being conflict; • The type of conflicts depend largely on economic activities of the people; • Agriculture is a major form of land use around most Park areas; • HWC involves casualties on both sides. Etosha National Park (ENP) • The entire boundary of ENP is fenced; • Fencing varies from cattle proof, high game proof, cable to electrified fence; • Two types of land tenure exists along the peripheral (over 800km boundary); • Communal farmers (western and northern boundary); • Private land owners (southern and eastern boundary) . Monitoring of HWC incidents • Two forums established -Southern Boundary Problem Animal Forum (formed in 1995) and the Northern Boundary Problem Animal Forum (formed in 2004); • Meetings are held quarterly; • Incidents are reported at each meeting; • Some incidents are reported as they take place; • Incidents recorded by DSS. Stock losses (reported) Stock 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Cattle 97 372 177 156 184 Sheep 9 129 7 16 77 Goats 12 261 42 95 190 29
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HWCM - Ministry of Environment and Tourism

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