Management and Research

The Namibian Government’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) is responsible for the Kunene Region’s desert-dwelling elephants as well as for the public lands where they live.

In the picture on the left a radio collar is being placed on an immobilized elephant in the Huab river.

With donor funding, projects like the protective stone fence erected around this wildmill (picture to the right) are being undertaken.

Management staff and scientists are working together with the people and several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs, which include: EHRA - Elephant Human Relations Aid, IRDNC - Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation; NNF - the Namibia Nature Foundation; and SRT - Save the Rhino Trust) active in the area through ongoing projects that seek to bring benefits to the communities from the wildlife as well as  minimize or avert elephant damage to homes and property.

Co-operative management projects now underway are successfully:

• Protecting gardens and water points used by people and livestock with electric and/or stone fences;

• Providing elephants and other wildlife with alternative water points away from settlements, or providing safe water points for people away from natural water sources used traditionally by elephants;

• Developing community-run campsites in areas frequented by elephants to provide tourists with safe viewing opportunities;

• Monitoring elephant movements and concentrations to assist in developing local, regional and national elephant management plans.

This is only the beginning - we receive numerous requests for assistance from communities and farmers who are visited regularly by elephants, but our resources are limited.

The picture on the right shows a session where game guards are being trained in elephant monitoring techniques.

Research projects are working on:

• Refining estimates of numbers, population                   
  growth rates and age-sex ratios.                                 

• Answering genetic questions.

• Studying the elephants in the Hoanib River Catchment using GPS/satellite collars, with plans to extend coverage to include elephants further south (for more information on this last point, see the Namibian Elephant and Giraffe Trust)

A management goal aims to aims to secure conservation status for parts of the elephant range in order to enhance the peoples` ability to derive benefits from visitors to their area.