Faced with the worst drought of the century, caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon, and food insecurity affecting nearly half of Namibians, the southern African country has decided to cull hundreds of wild animals to feed its population. In total, “723 animals – including 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 100 blue wild animals, 300 zebras, 83 elephants and 100 elands” are affected by this cull, the Ministry of Environment said earlier this week in a press release.
Authorities say more than 150 animals of various species have already been hunted, yielding 56,875 kilograms of meat. A cull “in line with our constitutional mandate that our natural resources are used for the benefit of Namibian citizens,” the Environment Ministry says, adding that the game comes “from national parks and communal areas where populations are sustainable.”
The government also wants to reduce the number of individuals of certain species, such as elephants, in order to avoid “cases of conflict between humans and wildlife”, as the animals migrate in search of water and food. “With drought raging in the country, these threatened populations are expected to move closer to human civilisations,” the environment ministry said in its statement.
Pressure on water and pastures
This should also allow the country to “manage the current pressure on pastures and water, by reducing the number of wild animals in certain parks and communal areas where we estimate that their numbers exceed the quantities available”, indicate the authorities. The country, faced with recurring droughts, is regularly confronted with the question of the management of wildlife in its national parks. In 2019, Namibia had already had to take the decision to sell a thousand wild animals, including buffalo, giraffes and elephants, as they could not guarantee their survival, indicated at the time an article by The Namibiantranslated by International Mail.
On August 23, the United Nations (UN) estimated that 84% of the country’s food reserves were already depleted, and warned that nearly half of Namibia’s population – 1.4 million people – “are expected to experience high levels of food insecurity between July and September.” Like Namibia, several southern African countries affected by El Niño-related weather events, namely Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, have declared a national food disaster.
Five degrees above average
“The impact of the El Niño phenomenon, which began globally in July 2023, has led to a severe rainfall deficit across the Southern Africa region, with temperatures five degrees above average. The region experienced its driest February in 100 years, receiving 20% of the usual rainfall expected for this period,” the statement said. World Food Programme“The rural communities we met on the ground tell us they have never seen anything like this. They are extremely worried about their future,” Reena Ghelani, the UN’s El Niño/La Niña response coordinator, said in a statement.
El Niño is a natural weather phenomenon that occurs in the tropical Pacific Ocean, typically every two to seven years, depending on World Meteorological OrganizationIt is characterized by a warming of surface waters in the central and eastern part of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, with repercussions on the global climate – such as droughts, floods and storms.
Droughts worldwide have devastating effects on wildlife and livestock. Reduced food resources for animals, water stress, increased disease: it is not uncommon for some producers themselves to be forced to slaughter their animals, often the weakest, to ration resources. The practice is not unique to the African continent and is now affecting the most arid areas of Europe. This summer, Sicilian farmers explained to the newspaper Fanpage having had to kill dozens of animals to preserve the rest of the herds: “There is no water, no food,” they said.