The Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism will be hosting a three-day national conference on human-wildlife conflict management. 

The event will strategize on how to curb human-wildlife conflict, which has become a more frequent occurrence in Namibia in recent years.

"Human-wildlife conflict in general refers to the unpleasant interaction between human beings as well as wild animals, and in recent years, the ministry and the country have been concerned about incidents in which human-wildlife conflict has taken place. This includes infrastructure damages, crop and livestock losses, injuries to people, and the loss of human life. With the frequency of such incidents, we are concerned even though we have measures in place," explained the ministry's spokesperson, Romeo Muyunda.

Muyunda added that a variety of approaches can be implemented to manage human-wildlife conflict effectively, in line with strategies set out in the National Policy on Human-Wildlife Conflict Management.

These include preventing conflict from occurring, addressing its root causes, and setting up protection.

"Such measures include the development of the National Policy on Human-Wildlife Conflict Management, which was launched in 2009 and revised in 2018, to look at specific ways in which the government can manage this kind of conflict. Specific interventions include the destruction of problem-causing animals, early warning systems, monitoring of wild animal movement awareness, and a self-reliance scheme that the government pays farmers and communities."

Innovation, he says, has become imperative to counter the current challenges, hence the conference.

He explained that the conference will also review progress, opportunities, and challenges in the implementation of the 2018 Revised National Policy on Human Wildlife Conflict Management.

The specific areas of the country affected will come up with resolutions on how these strategies can be implemented.

"The conference is going to be attended by, among others, members of the National Council and National Assembly, conservancies, community forest members, the private sector, line ministries, NGOs, etc. The conference will come up with recommendations or resolutions that will help the country manage the human-wildlife conflict better so that moving forward, our people should enjoy the fruits of conservation, and the cost of living with animals must not outweigh the benefits." 

The conference is slated for between the 10th and 12th of this month in Windhoek.