Bring The Elephant Home is part of a coalition of 60 wildlife organisations, scientists and veterinarians, who are calling on Namibia’s authorities to abandon plans to sell off as many as 170 live wild elephants to as yet unknown destinations within or outside the country.
In a tender notice published in local media in December 2020, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism advertised up to 170 live elephants for sale, including adult males and family groups, from the Omatjete area, Kamanjab commercial farming area, Grootfontein-Kavango Cattle Ranch area and Grootfontein-Tsumkwe area. News reports suggest the Namibian authorities are claiming the sales are in response to overpopulation, drought, and increasing human-elephant conflict.
The proposed sales will not achieve the stated objectives of controlling populations or reducing human-elephant conflict. Moreover, the capture and relocation of elephants could have extremely deleterious impacts on the health and welfare of the individuals concerned, the stability of their wider societies, and the health of the ecosystems of which they are an integral part.
The coalition, which is led by Born Free Foundation, implores the Namibian authorities to abandon these sales, and instead work with experts to find practical and humane solutions to the problems of drought and conflict, that will enable elephants and the people who live alongside them to peacefully co-exist.”
The coalition has written to President Hage Geingob, and to Namibian embassies, calling on them to intervene and cancel the sales, and offering its expertise to help protect Namibia’s elephants.
A full version of the letter can be seen here.
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