WINDHOEK, March 3 — One of the country’s biggest challenges to conservation in Namibia is wildlife crime, particularly poaching of high-valued species such as rhinos, elephants and pangolins.
Commemorating World Wildlife Day, Ministry of Environment Forestry and Tourism Spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said even though Namibia has a healthy and growing population of elephants, pangolins and rhinos are on the other hand threatened.
“Since independence we have managed to grow populations of wildlife species particularly outside our national parks. This has come with tangible direct benefits to the country which includes growth in the tourism sector, employment creation, and income generation for rural communities,” he said in a statement.
According to Muyunda, deforestation and unsustainable land use also threatens the country’s plant species.
He urged Namibians to join hands and reverse the current trends of poaching as well as refrain from undertaking in unsustainable activities such as deforestation, sand mining and desertification that have the potential to degrade the environment and destabilize the country’s ecosystems.
This year’s World Wildlife Day is celebrated under the theme “recovering key species for ecosystem restoration”. – XINHUA
