HWCM - Ministry of Environment and Tourism

National Workshop on Human Wildlife Conflict Management 2005
Executive Summary
Most Namibians depend on the land for their subsistence. But the presence of many species of
large mammals, combined with settlement patterns of people, leads to conflict between people
and wildlife. A balance is needed between forming systems of protected areas in Namibia and
possibilities for community empowerment to manage and benefit from wildlife and other natural
resources.
Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) refers to conflict between wild animals and humans. This ranges
from the destruction of crops and water installations to loss of livestock, homes and human life.
Friction between park managers and neighboring communities living on the perimeters of
protected areas potentially weakens the effectiveness of projects and programmes, for example
the Conservancy Programme.
A stakeholder meeting was held in Windhoek in July 2001 to discuss mechanisms to reduce
conflicts between people and wildlife. Among decisions taken was to replace the term ‘problem
animal’ with the more appropriate term ’Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC)’. Stakeholders identified
elephants as the most challenging and destructive of all HWC species, along with lion, hyena,
hippopotamus and crocodile. Damage assessed included crop damage to farmers’ fields and loss
of human lives. The meeting also discussed different measures of mitigating human wildlife
conflict.
Building on the successes of the 2001 workshop, the Strengthening the Protected Area Network
(SPAN) and Integrated Community-based Ecosystem Management (ICEMA) projects organized
a workshop on 16 – 17 May, 2005 in Windhoek. This meeting was funded by USAID and hosted
by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
The objectives of the workshop were:
1. To develop a framework for future Human Wildlife Conflict Management (HWCM) policy
directions in Namibia;
2. To initiate the development of a standardized monitoring system for HWCM;
3. To discuss best practice mitigation measures in Namibia and throughout the region; and
4. To launch a survey on HWC situations in two areas.
Namibia does not have a HWCM policy and the workshop enabled stakeholders to take the first
steps in identifying essential ingredients for policy formulation. To achieve objectives, field experts
and researchers were invited to share their experiences and knowledge and discuss lessons
learnt from the field.
Presentations tackled the issue of HWC from a variety of perspectives, including detailed
economic, socio-economic and institutional viewpoints. They focused on demonstrating the
impacts of HWC from:
• A crop-farming perspective;
• A livestock farming perspective; and
• A parks’ management perspective.
The workshop also analyzed successful mitigation and monitoring methods for the creation of
best mitigation measures and explored requirements and design implications for a standardized
monitoring system for HWC.
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