7 800 wildlife attacks in 2018

A total of 7 862 human-wildlife conflict incidents were recorded in Namibia's conservancies during 2018.

These were however only recorded in 81 of the 86 registered conservancies in the country and indicate that the figure might be an under-estimation of the situation on the ground.

The figure has decreased slightly since 2017 when 8 067 incidents were recorded in 71 conservancies.

However, comparing the 2018 figure to that of 2004, human-wildlife conflict has more than doubled. A total of 2 936 incidents were recorded in 31 conservancies in 2004. This could be attributed to the fact that more conservancies have been registered over the past 14 years and started reporting these incidents.

In 2016, the figure stood at 6 331 reported by 69 conservancies, while 55 conservancies reported 7 117 incidents of human-wildlife conflict in 2015.

This is contained in the 2018 State of Community Conservation Report the environment ministry and the Namibian Association of Community-Based Natural Resource Management Support Organisations recently launched as a website.

The 2018 report printed is in production and will be available later this year.

The report says human-wildlife conflict appears to have increased over the long-term, but in reality, this is because over time more and more conservancies are collecting information and reporting on conflict.

“By far the largest number of incidents reported are attacks on livestock, averaging approximately 6 000 incidents per annum since 2015. Many of the incidents are cattle-related and this is becoming increasingly severe with the worsening drought conditions in the Kunene Region.”

In 2018, there was an average of 97 wildlife attacks and 0.3 attacks on people per conservancy.

That year, the average number of attacks on livestock per conservancy was 76.1 and crop damages averaged 17.7.

The highest number of human-wildlife incidents were reported in 2013 with 9 228 incidents, when 79 conservancies held audits.

The report indicates that in the Zambezi Region, animals that caused the most conflict in 2018 were elephants, with about 400 incidents recorded, while about 100 incidents were caused by crocodiles and about 90 by hippos.

“In the more humid north-east of Namibia, crop farming in addition to livestock pastoralism are important livelihood activities. In this landscape, elephants are normally responsible for most of the human-wildlife conflict incidents such as crop raiding, but during 2018, large predators caused most of the incidents,” the report says. It explains that this was because many crops failed or were not established as a result of the drought

In the Erongo and Kunene regions, about 680 conflict incidents were recorded with hyenas, about 600 with cheetahs and around 430 with jackals.

“In the arid north-west of Namibia where there is little crop-farming, large predators are the source of most of the conflict, although elephants are also an important problem-causing species as they break water infrastructure and pose a danger to both humans and livestock.”

Elephants were reported to cause 230 of conflict incidents.

The report indicates that while there were about 160 conflict incidents with lions in the Kunene and Erongo regions, 12% of these lions were killed.

According to the report, as in previous years, lions were disproportionately targeted because of the danger or perceived threat they pose to farmers, people and livestock.

“It is often the poorest and most marginalised people living far from urban centres without job creation opportunities who bear the brunt of living with wildlife.”

ELLANIE SMIT