Drought-Stricken Namibia Auctions 170 Wild Elephants

Namibia's Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism has put up an advertisement in the state-owned daily New Era, auctioning 170 "high value" elephants due to the persistent drought and the increased human-elephant conflict brought by illegal poaching. Said poaching might lead it to the elephants' extinction in the South African country.

According to The Guardian, the environmental ministry has put up the advert on Wednesday, December 2, in hopes of reducing these incidences that might further harm the world's largest land mammal.

Elephants For Sale

The auction for the 170 elephants will be open to anyone in Namibia and abroad who could meet the strict criteria of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism, the news outlet reported.

The requirements for sale include the quarantine facilities and a game-proof fence certificate for the property where the elephants would be kept. They also emphasized that interested foreign buyers must secure proof that conservation authorities in their respective countries allow the exportation of the elephants.

Moreover, the buyers should also be able to meet both the exporting and importing requirements by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species for the trade to be authorized.

The advertisement of the auction also stated that all the bids for the elephants should be left in sealed envelopes at the ministry of the environment by January 29, 2021.

Elephants in Namibia

According to Travel News Namibia, the South African country is known for its over 600 desert-adapted elephants that live in Damaraland and the Kunene Region.

Not only that but the Etosha National Park also houses over 2,500 elephants, and a thousand more also live in the north-east and Zambezi Region. These numbers are just approximated since they are "no respecters of the park or even national boundaries and casually roam through the neighboring territory."

The South African nation is like several other countries in the continent that is trying to balance between protecting the elephants and rhinos, while also trying to manage the dangers these mammals encroach when they reach areas of human habitation.

Namibia's preservation drive has seen a jump in elephant population from around 7,500 in 1995 to 24,000 in 2019, based on the figures from the government.

However, Namibia said last year that it is considering to withdraw from the rules governing the global trade in endangered species after other countries voted to reject proposals to relax restrictions on hunting and exporting the white horns during the meeting in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The Guardian reported that Namibia wanted to allow more trophy hunting and the export of live animals because they believe that the funds raised will also help them in protecting the animals.

In another report by CGTN, Namibia has put 70 female and 30 male buffalos from Waterberg Plateau Park in central Namibia up for sale last October in hopes to ease the pressure on the grazing land.

The auction on elephants is not the first time in Namibia as they have previously auctioned 1,000 animals from national parks, wherein 500 of those are buffalos sold in 2019 as the country faces its worst drought yet.