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Village Guards Reduce Poaching in Namibia

by Sandra Mbanefo
ELLAS Hambo is a quiet
Iler through Damara-tand s soulful, desert fond-scape. He drives along wind swept trails. Invisible to the inexperienced eye. Hie black hair has turned a fine shade of dusty grey as a whirling cloud of sand follows his Landrover like a faithful shadow
Mr Hambo ts delivering monthly rations to community game guards living in some of northern Namibia's remotest areas. He has been senior field officer of a WWF Wide Fund for Nature project In Damarafond and Kaokoland (together called Kaokoveld) for nine years His truck Is laden with bags of ground maize, flour and sugar, boxes of tea. bars of soap, and bottles of cooking oil. Four vil lagers sit squeezed in between supplies son the bock. hitching a ride to a desert valley just beyond.
Damoraland and Kaokoland were created in the early 196Os as black homelands for the Domara. Herero and Hlmba peoples. The new territory was carved out of existing tribal reserves. white commercial farms and land de-garetted from Etosha National Park.
For more than I000 years people shared thia land with their livestock and wildlife, Including the desert elephant (l>oxodanta African) and black rhino (Diceros blcornts bieor nls) However new forming practices and a changing poili leal climate began to disturb this peaceful co-existence Military conflict also con trtbuted to instability and a proliferation of guns In
By the 197Os. the hunt for rhino horn and Ivory began In earnest. With poverty 1n the homelands, horn traders found people to track down northern Namibia s unique black rhinos which are specially adapted to the desert.
'In the olden days, my people only hunted kudu, gemsbok, springbok and zebra for food." Mr Hambo recounts. The people didn't hunt elephant or rhino because they weren't eaten. That type of hunting came with the white people, who wanted horn and brought money, ammunition and rifles '
By the early 1980*. rhino and elephant poaching became so rampant that carcasses dot ting the desert landscape became almost a daily sight. The elephant population fell from over 1.000 to 250. and the rhino population decreased from an estimated 250 In 1970, to 60.
It became obvious that government anti-poaching units were not enough to solve the problem. Local people had to somehow become involved In stooping the poaching.
At the time. Mr Hambo was working In Etoaha Nattona) Park with a conservator called Garth Owen Smith. In 1082, they left their job* and with the help of another conservator. Chris Eyre, started a new system of wildlife protection.
The majority of focal com munities were a* concerned as we were about the poaching," Mr Owen-Smith remember*. "But they felt powerle** because the wildlife seemed to belong to the government."
With Initial funding from the Endangered WIldKfe Trust and .ater WWF. Mr Owen-Smith set up a community-based conservation project. After months of village meet Ings — with Mr Hambo acting a* interpreter and project spokesperson — local communities decided to join the conservation effort by appoint-Ing their own game guards
Moot of the guard chosen were ex-hunters, known for their skill In tracking animals They monitor wildlife and report poaching Incidents to natures conservation officials.
Most importantly, they provide a mechanism for local people to share responsibility for the wildlife in their area
Being expert trackers, they could follow weeks old spoor. In many case, poachers were apprehended a long time after poaching incidents, simply by the game guards' skilful tracking From 1983 to 1984 illegal hunting virtually came to a stoop in all the areas where there were game guards.
"Western conservation policies failed because they addressed wildlife without Integrating the people of Africa in the conservation movement," Mr Owen-Smith says. "Any management plan must be drawn up together with the to-
As a direct result of com-munity participation In Kaokoiand. animal population arc growing. In the last ten year*, elephant number* have increased from 250 to an es-
creaaed from 60 to 100. springbok from 1 OOO to 7,000, gemsbok from 400 io 1,000 zebra from 560 to 2.200 and giraffe from 232 to 3000
Today there are 30 com munity game guard* tn northern Namibia • Kaokoiand: the
Fast Caprivi where 15 com-appointed by local communi
Because they live tn remote areas, their salary consists of both money and supplie*. Mr Hambo distributes their »up plies each month and collects their wildlife monitoring reAfter hour* of driving. Mr Hambo * Landroyer come* to a halt on a rocky mountainside. A small herd of goats flees up the hill, away from a family settlement of three round dung hut*. Mr Hambo jump* out of the jeep, and greets Salmon Karutjatva. a community game guard
They unload the supplies before finding some shade in which to hold their meeting. Mr Karutjaiva give* hl* monthly report : he sighted 7 elephants, 40 gemsbok. 20 springbok and several lions. He also saw a male and female rhino; the cow Is pregnant and due to give birth any day. Finally, four people moved in to the area, and have started a settlement close by.
— WWF Features
Sandra Mbanefo is Africa Communications Officer. Conservation News Service. World Wide Fund for Nature.