WINDHOEK, Oct. 22 — Earlier today, Namibia launched a national elephant conservation and management plan set to run for the next 10 years. Due to the expansion of the elephant population in range and a significant increase in numbers, the species is now present in areas that they had become extinct more than 70 years ago, according to Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta.
“We are devolving… management of elephants to the local level structures headed by regional managers,” he said.
He said that such a move would empower the structures to develop innovative, locally accepted measures and actions to manage elephants according to specific areas.
In addition, Shifeta also launched the Wildlife Corridors Strategy, which provides for the management and protection of wildlife movement routes or corridors that need to be kept open but limit direct contact between people and wildlife in order to reduce human-wildlife conflict and promote biodiversity conservation and wildlife economy.
Five wildlife corridors or wildlife dispersal areas in the northeast Zambezi region have been identified. – XINHUA
