African Wildlife & Environment Issue 85

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

CONSERVING CARNIVORES ON COMMUNITY LAND IN NAMIBIA

Wildlife in the Zambezi Region of Namibia has increased significantly over the past two decades – thanks to community support for conservation, with trophy hunting playing a major role in this positive picture, says Lise Hanssen, a large carnivore conservationist with more than 30 years’ experience, 16 of them based in the Zambezi Region.

“The future of wildlife in protected areas and outside is totally dependent on community tolerance. If the well-controlled trophy hunting that happens in communal conservancies here was to stop, people would no longer be prepared to live with wild animals,” she asserts. “It’s all about co-existence. If income from hunting ended, there would be a huge loss of wild habitat to other uses. If the land cannot be used for hunting, it will be used for agriculture and the all-important connectivity for wildlife between the KAZA countries (Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area) will be lost. A massive blow for wildlife conservation, and leading to a decline of some, if not all species.” Highly respected locally and internationally for her carnivore conservation work that goes far beyond mere research, Lise focuses on helping

Margaret Jacobsohn Photographs: John Wesson

Lise, who works with hyena, lion, wild dog and leopard, regards communities as the key to conservation in the Zambezi which she points out is a mixed-use landscape, shared by wildlife and people who make a living growing crops, fishing and keeping livestock.

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