Namibia Africa's Second Biggest Hunting Destination

Namibia Economist (Windhoek)

June 22, 2005
Windhoek

Namibia has the second biggest hunting industry in Africa, second only to Tanzania and is regarded as one of the best hunting grounds.

Jofie Lamprecht, who is a committee member of the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA), said this week that there are currently 505 registered hunting professionals in Namibia. In 2004, the country was visited by 5363 international hunters who took 22500 trophies home.

In 2004, hunters in Namibia spent N$ 28 600 per hunter for an approximate direct income earned of N$153,4million

According to Lamprecht, hunting is a form of consumption tourism. "Animals are hunted as trophies, but it is in actual fact a very low impact with a very high return form of tourism," he said.

He added that the revenue generated from the over 5000 hunters hunting in Namibia annually, when compared to the 750 000 tourists in total, is a substantial one and there is a 'higher expenditure per person' in the hunting market compared to the normal tourist.

Lamprecht said the hunting industry in Namibia has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry. Hunting client numbers have grown from a trickle in the early Sixties to more than 5000 hunters choosing Namibia as their hunting destination of choice in 2004, an increase of 12.2% from the 2003 season.

"Namibia has changed from 'Africa's best kept hunting secret', to the desired destination for classically the German market, and, in recent years, the North American hunting market," he said.

To keep the resource intact, NAPHA has recently raised N$100 000 to initiate an age determination study of trophy animals. The committee has hired a secretary exclusively to help the Ministry of Environment and Tourism capture the trophy hunting record from the last 15 years in order to determine if the consistency of trophy quality in the hunting industry. This project will be expanded to a scientific study of animals to find an easy way to determine the age of trophy animals in the field.

According to Lamprecht, hunting in Namibia has been of great benefit to wildlife conservation. Since the late 1970's wildlife have been protected by game farmers on privately-owned land and the game population of Namibia has increased by more than 60% since the start of commercial hunting in these areas.

In 2003 NAPHA created a committee to form an opinion on the issue of game translocation in Namibia.

"Game Translocation plays a significant role in the repopulation of any area and is an excellent conservation tool. The translocation of game plays a major role in genetic diversity, increasing minimum population sizes of introduction groups, boosting existing populations, supporting the recovery of natural biodiversity and is to be of benefit to all Namibians and future generations.

The historical distribution of game, their sub-species and their individual adaptations, habitat requirements and roles in eco-systems must be taken into account at all times, NAPHA warns.