Namibia has put 170 “high value” wild elephants up for sale due to drought and an increase in numbers, the Namibian Ministry of Environment Forestry and Tourism said on Wednesday.
An advertisement carried by state-owned daily New Era said that an increase in incidents of human-elephant conflict motivated the sale of the mammals, which are at risk of extinction due to poaching and ecological factors.
The ministry said that it would auction the animals to anyone in Namibia or abroad who could meet the strict criteria, which include quarantine facilities and a game-proof fence certificate for the property where the elephants would be kept.
Photo: Reuters
Foreign buyers must also provide proof that conservation authorities in their nation would permit them to import an elephant.
Like several other African nations, Namibia is trying to strike a balance between protecting high-value species such as elephants and rhinos, while managing the danger they pose when they encroach on areas of human habitation.
Namibia’s conservation drive, which has seen its elephant population jump from about 7,500 in 1995 to 24,000 last year, according to government data, has enjoyed international support.
However, Namibia last year said that it was considering withdrawing from the rules that govern the global trade in endangered species. That was after nations voted at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to reject proposals to relax restrictions on hunting and exporting white rhinos.
Namibia wants to allow more trophy hunting and the export of live animals, arguing that the funds it would raise would help it to protect the species.
In October, it put 70 female and 30 male buffalo from Waterberg Plateau Park up for sale in a bid to ease pressure on grazing land.
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