Wildlife management in Namibia
Namibia is famous all over the world for one thing in particular — the way it looks after its wild animals. In this lesson we find our great conservation areas on the map: Etosha National Park, the Cheetah Conservation Fund and the network of community conservancies. We discover why wildlife is one of Namibia's richest economic resources, how animals and the environment shape each other, and how desertification and a changing climate threaten them. We meet the conflicts wildlife causes — raided crops, lost livestock and poaching — and we evaluate the stakeholders, from government to local communities, who make wildlife pay for itself through CBNRM.
By the end you should be able to (NSSCO Geography 2.6):
- Identify and locate on a map the major areas of wildlife conservation and management in Namibia (e.g. the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Etosha National Park, communal conservancies in the north)
- Discuss the importance of wildlife as a resource to Namibia's economy
- Discuss the impact of wildlife on the environment
- Discuss the impact of environmental change on wildlife, such as desertification, deforestation and global warming
- Discuss the conflicts between the management of wild animals and other land-use activities
- Evaluate the role of stakeholders (government, NGOs, the private sector, local authorities and local communities) in the sustainable use of wildlife in Namibia
Mr Thomas and Mike talk through the whole topic — with the figure and working drawn live.