Zimbabwe and Namibia will kill dozens of elephants to feed drought-affected people

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe and Namibia have announced plans to kill hundreds of wild elephants and other animals to feed starving populations amid severe drought in southern African countries.

Zimbabwe said on Monday it would allow the killing of 200 elephants so their meat could be distributed to needy communities. In Namibia, meanwhile, the killing of more than 700 wild animals, including 83 elephants, is underway as part of a plan announced three weeks ago.

Tinashe Farawo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, said elephant hunting permits would be issued in communities in need and the authority would also kill some of the 200 animals available.

“We will start the culling as soon as we have issued all the permits,” said Farawo.

The elephants are being taken from an area where the population is no longer sustainable, Farawo said. The hunt will take place in areas such as Hwange National Park in the arid west of the country, where competition between humans and animals for food and water is increasing as resources become scarcer due to rising temperatures.

Hwange has over 45,000 elephants but can currently care for only 15,000, Farawo said. The country's total population of about 100,000 elephants is twice the capacity of the country's national parks, park officials say.

The El Niño weather phenomenon has made the situation worse. The park authority announced in December that more than 100 elephants had died due to the drought. More animals could die of thirst and hunger in the coming weeks as the country enters the hottest period of the year, Farawo said.

Zimbabwe's Environment Minister Sithembiso Nyoni told parliament last week that she had given the green light to the culling program.

“In fact, Zimbabwe has more elephants than we need, more elephants than our forestry can accommodate,” Nyoni said.

She said the government was preparing to “do the same thing as Namibia, so we can kill the elephants and mobilize the women to dry the meat, package it and make sure it gets to the communities that need the protein.”

The Namibian government last month approved the culling of 723 animals, including 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 300 zebras and 100 eland.

The animals come from five national parks in Namibia, where the country is also trying to reduce its elephant population in the face of conflicts between humans and wildlife.

“This is necessary and in line with our constitutional mandate to use our natural resources for the benefit of Namibian citizens,” said Romeo Muyunda, spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment. “This is also a prime example of how protecting wildlife is truly beneficial.”

Botswana is located between Zimbabwe and Namibia and has the world's largest elephant population with 130,000 animals. But unlike its two neighbouring countries, it has not yet begun to slaughter elephants to feed its own population.

Guyo Roba, a food security and agriculture expert at Kenya-based environmental think tank Jameel Observatory, said the actions of governments in Zimbabwe and Namibia were understandable given the extent of the drought and the state of their livestock populations.

“They are working against a wildlife population that exceeds their carrying capacity,” Roba said.

“It may seem controversial at first, but governments are torn between whether they want to continue to meet their international obligations regarding nature conservation and, on the other hand, whether they want to support the population,” said Roba.