By: Rodney Pienaar
The tourism minister Pohamba Shifeta has said he has engaged the justice ministry to impose stiffer sentences for those found poaching in national parks.
This follows a recent incident of poaching in the Namib Naukluft Park.
National parks are said to draw in most of the tourism numbers for most visited places.
“What happens with wildlife is they turn to vacate areas they feel threatened in and tourists that come to see this wildlife are not able to see them because of the doings of poachers. The poaching of protected species is a matter of great concern,”
“Namibia as a nation needs to preserve our national parks. We need to take the issue of working hand in hand to fight this social evil very seriously,” he said.
Shifeta also said that the ministry is working tirelessly to curb poaching in the country and has made progress in some incidences.
“In some of the national parks with assistance from community members, we managed to arrest suspected poachers before they even tried poaching. We as the ministry are working in collaboration with conservancies to cub poaching country-wide,” he said.
Meanwhile, the “combating wildlife crime in the Kavango Zambezi Trans frontier Conservation Area (KAZA) Program” funded by the United States Agency for International Development has been hosted during a three-day workshop in Windhoek.
Members of the judiciary and prosecutors from KAZA countries used the platform to develop an improved understanding of transnational wildlife crime, shared information and experiences, and discussed how to better cooperate and collaborate in the fight against illegal cross-border wildlife trade.
KAZA which straddles the international borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, has seen an increase in wildlife crime, particularly poaching and associated trade of rhino horn and ivory.
