Southern
African nation aiming to limit starvation and generate conservation funds
Agence
France-Presse
Sun 16
Jun 2019 05.02 BST Last modified on Mon 17 Jun
2019 13.11 BST
Drought-hit Namibia has
authorised the sale of at least 1,000 wild animals – including elephants and
giraffes – to limit loss of life and generate US$1.1 million for conservation,
the authorities confirmed Saturday.
“Given
that this year is a drought year, the [environment] ministry would like to sell
various type of game species from various protected areas to protect grazing
and at the same time to also generate much needed funding for parks and
wildlife management,” the environment ministry spokesman Romeo Muyunda said.
The
authorities declared a national disaster last month, and the meteorological
services in the southern African nation estimate that some parts of the country
faced the deadliest drought in as many as 90 years.
“The
grazing condition in most of our parks is extremely poor and if we do not
reduce the number of animals, this will lead to loss of an animals due to
starvation,” Muyunda said.
In April,
an agriculture ministry report said 63,700 animals died in 2018 because of
deteriorating grazing conditions brought on by dry weather.
Namibia’s
cabinet announced this week that the government would sell about 1,000 wild
animals.
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