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Namibian Chamber of Environment

Beytell's bullfrog is the biggest frog to be described by scientists worldwide in the last 104 years! This impressive amphibian was collected and studied in the Nyae-Nyae Khaudum Pans as part of a survey to show that this remote part of Namibia should be declared a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. The bullfrog is named after Ben Beytell, former Director of Parks and Wildlife, who was passionate about this landscape and the Ju/'hoansi San people who call it their home.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

Namibia's seabirds are in trouble, mainly due to the massive decline in fish stocks over the last few decades off our coastline. Fish declines have also reduced jobs in the fisheries sector and affected the national economy. If fishing pressure is reduced the birds will start to bounce back, and the fishery sector may also start to recover. In this article, we show how monitoring specific aspects of four different seabird populations can be used to indicate the health of our fish stocks.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

Public trust in Namibia's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process seems to be at an all-time low, with many complaints and protests occurring after development projects have been given the green light. The new EIA Tracker website will increase transparency and public engagement with development projects during and after the EIA process in order to minimise environmental and social impacts. In particular, high risk development projects require careful public scrutiny to ensure sustainable development.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

Sharks are well-known for their fearsome reputation, but did you know that they have an important role to play in the ecosystem? As the apex predators of the ocean, they even help mitigate climate change! Namibia boasts 52 shark species, many of which are under-studied. The new Namibia's Rays and Sharks project was established to discover more about sharks in our waters and create awareness about the threats they face and their role in the marine ecosystem.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

An elephant survey covering 60% of the massive 519,912 square kilometre Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area was completed in late 2022 and the results released in 2023. This survey includes the northeastern part of Namibia and parts of four neighbouring countries. These results confirm that the Namibian elephant population is healthy and stable, while the areas surveyed also host numerous other wildlife species in protected areas and communal conservancies. 
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

A small sub-population of elephants living in the Kunene highlands have adapted remarkably well to traversing rocky, mountainous terrain where few other elephants would tread. The people of Orupupa Conservancy have managed to coexist with elephants until the recent drought increased human-elephant conflict, which is a harbinger of worse droughts to come due to climate change. The community game guards and a new funding partner provide hope for a future of coexistence despite the changing climate.
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University of Cologne/London School of Economic and Political Science

Wildlife conservation and agriculture are ordinarily seen as opposing sectors, since wildlife can damage crops and livestock, while conservation zones usually exclude farming. The impact of COVID-19 caused conservancies in the Zambezi Region to re-examine their relationship with the agricultural sector and has opened some doors for future collaboration between these sectors. Carolin Hulke researched the needs of farming conservancy members and how their conservancies can assist them to create a broader base of beneficiaries from community-based natural resource management.
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University of Cologne

Dr Linus Kalvelage uses insights from his research on tourism in communal conservancies in the Zambezi Region to suggest ways to improve the current state of community-based natural resource management in Namibia. He explores options for increasing income from wildlife products and using current tourism revenue to invest in other economic sectors, thus creating a more resilient regional economy.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

Did you know that a green turtle was found nesting on Namibia's shores for the first time ever in 2020? This is exciting news since this endangered species is threatened in many of its nesting sites elsewhere on the west coast of Africa. The Kunene River Mouth where this turtle was found is protected and remote, thus reducing the chance of humans disturbing turtle nests. Here are eight things you should know about this species of sea turtle.
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University of Cologne

Communal conservancies in Namibia rely heavily on photographic and hunting tourism income to fund their activities and generate benefits for their members. However, this income is not enough to provide substantial returns for all rural households living in conservancies. In this first of two articles, Dr Linus Kalvelage shares insights from his research in the Zambezi Region on how much money from tourism remains in the region and where it goes.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

The desert-adapted lions in north-west Namibia have rediscovered the marine food resources along the Skeleton Coast, which is great news for their long-term survival. Their coastal movements created conditions for a different kind of human-lion conflict, however, as sea fishermen use the same area during the fishing season. Constant monitoring and awareness campaigns during the 2022/23 fishing season kept both lions and fishermen safe.
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The Fairy Circles of the Namib Desert are an excellent subject for scientific research. Scientists have posed several theories about what causes these bare patches of sand and maintains them over time. Dr Stephan Getzin weighs in on the subject based on many years of field research, data collection and analysis. Unconvinced of the sand termite and Euphorbia hypotheses, he argues for plant self-organisation.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

Etosha National Park has a long history that includes changing boundaries, building a fence and establishing permanent water holes. Etosha's lions have adapted to the changing conditions and survived in the face of prey declines and persecution due to human-wildlife conflict. This article unpacks the history of lions in Etosha drawing from a scientific paper in the Namibian Journal of Environment.
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Human-wildlife conflict poses a major challenge to Namibian community conservation efforts. As part of her PhD research, Marina Tavolaro collected data on livestock losses, crop raiding, infrastructure damages and human attacks across 79 conservancies in Namibia during 2001-2019. She established which species cause the most damages in which parts of Namibia, which seasons are the worst for conflict with different species and what other environmental factors were linked with high levels of human-wildlife conflict.
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Mining activities in the //Huab Conservancy are threatening endangered black rhinos and have caused the only lodge in their area to shut down. The Environmental Impact Assessment was incomplete and ignored the impacts of mining on rhino-based tourism. Despite repeated attempts to stop the mining project and appeals to the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) to intervene, nothing has happened. The conservancy is therefore preparing to take MEFT to court to fight for their livelihoods and the rhinos that are part of the MEFT custodian programme.
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Most of the research on human-wildlife conflict in Namibia has been done on communal conservancies. Herman Aindongo's research into conflict on non-conservancy land therefore helps to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge. He found that farmers outside conservancies experience significant levels of conflict and are therefore in need of assistance.
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Enviro Science

South of the small town of Warmbad in Southern Namibia lies a little-known biodiversity hotspot located where the Succulent Karoo and Nama Karoo biomes meet. Antje Burke reports on her plant survey in this hotspot within the Orange River-Karoo Conservation Area, which comprises several private farms that are managing the land for conservation purposes. What she found exceeded even her most optimistic expectations - high plant diversity and several key populations of rare and protected plant species.
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Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust

Education for Sustainable Development is crucial to conservation. Children need to understand the importance of the environment and find out what they can do in their daily lives to reduce their impact and improve the state of the natural world. The most effective way to reach children is through passionate, inspired and empowered teachers. Find out how the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust is creating a network of such teachers across Namibia.
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The inaugural GOSCARs (Grass-Roots Owen-Smith Community Rangers Awards) event was held on the 7th of April to recognise the commitment and hard work of four conservancy field workers. This event is held in honour of the late Garth Owen-Smith, who was among the early pioneers of community conservation in Namibia. This year's winners include two rhino rangers, a lion ranger and a Field Officer who continue are dedicated to carrying out their duties and mentoring others in the field.
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The fishrot scandal revealed major flaws in the way Namibian marine fisheries are governed, particularly relating to the allocation of fishing quotas. The subsequent overfishing has left key economically and ecologically important fish stocks severely depleted, with severe consequences for livelihoods and marine conservation. The management of fisheries must change fundamentally if Namibia is to prevent future scandals of this nature and restore the marine ecosystem on its shores. Dr Chris Brown proposes a way forward for improved fisheries management.
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Did you know that a rolling zebra makes a measurable impact on the desert environment? Hartmann's mountain zebras are near endemic to Namibia, where they occur widely on the western escarpment. Their habit of rolling in the dust creates important microhabitats for plants and animals. A new scientific study reveals how this works.
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Namibia's Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism has auctioned 37 elephants, 22 of which were exported to captivity in the United Arab Emirates. This article provides the basic facts of the matter and evaluates the consequences of this decision as it relates to elephant conservation, welfare and legality.
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Flying in a light aircraft over the spectacular desert landscape of the Kunene Region can be hazardous. Nonetheless, pilot Conrad Brain spent several weeks making regular flights over the Christmas period on the lookout for potential rhino poachers and elephants. He describes the flying experience and his part of this joint operation to protect Namibia's special desert-adapted species.
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The sardine fish stock off Namibia's coastline collapsed by 99.5% between the 1960s and 2015, prompting the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) to impose a three-year moratorium on sardine fishing in 2018. It is now time to review the moratorium, but it is clear that this fish stock has not recovered sufficiently to sustain any level of commercial fishing. Three seabird species provide ideal indicator species for sardine stocks, and none of these have recovered. Keeping the moratorium in place until the ecosystem recovers is therefore essential.
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Lead is a toxic substance to humans and all other biological organisms, yet it is still used in bullets and fishing sinkers. Lead bullets fragment into hundreds of tiny pieces upon impact. These fragments pose a threat to game meat consumers, including people and scavenging species like vultures. Namibian stakeholders are working together to switch to lead-free bullets as a matter of urgency for the sake of human health and the environment.
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Despite their name, the Angolan giraffe no longer occurs in Angola, as it was eradicated during the 40-year conflict in that country. Hope remains, however, as Namibia's population of Angolan giraffe is thriving. Jackson Hamutenya investigated whether or not Iona National Park in Angola will be suitable for a giraffe introduction from Namibia. Read all about his findings here.
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In the early 1980s Garth Owen-Smith joined forces with traditional leaders and rural communities in Namibia to stop poaching. Together they did something unthinkable at the time - employ people from within rural communities to look after wildlife on behalf of their people. Community rangers thus sit at the heart of Namibia's community-based conservation success story. A new annual awards event for community rangers is thus a fitting memorial to this conservation giant.
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Following the recent revival of the theory that Euphorbia bushes cause fairy circles in the Namib Desert, a team of researchers revisit dead Euphorbia bushes after 40 years to show that this is not the case. Based on this and other evidence, they suggest that neither Euphorbias nor termites explain the phenomenon of fairy circles.
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When a desert-adapted lion attacks Helge Denker in his tent near Brandberg, it sets him thinking about the complex situation these lions find themselves in today. Lions are coming ever closer to human settlements after the recent drought followed by scattered rainfall that dispersed their few remaining prey. Communal conservancies bear the brunt of the resulting conflict, but is there a way to create real benefits from these lions? Managing the situation will be difficult, but today we have better knowledge and systems in place to handle it.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

African savannah elephants are declining in many countries, but not in Namibia, where their numbers are increasing. This good news has been met with some scepticism and questions have been raised about how elephants are counted in the country. Here, the methods used for counting elephants using aerial surveys are described and the oddly controversial issues surrounding these counts are addressed.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

The recent proposal by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to auction 170 elephants has been met with harsh criticism and many unsubstantiated accusations. This article provides the historical and current context required to understand this decision and calls for support to help Namibian farmers coexist with elephants in future.
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Namibian Chamber of Environment

Danene van der Westhuyzen's new book, From the Veld, showcases all-Namibian recipes for food obtained from nature. Danene and her family live off the land by hunting, gathering, milking and picking the ingredients needed for the delicious meals at home and at their two game lodges. We ask her more about life on the farm and the philosophy behind her new book and hunting in Namibia.
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Giraffe Conservation Foundation

Researchers from the Giraffe Conservation Foundation recently recorded not one, but two dwarf giraffes! This is the first time the condition known as skeletal dysplasia has been found in giraffe. Using a technique called photogrammetry, the scientists measured the bone lengths of each giraffe (one in Namibia and one in Uganda), with interesting results.
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The period between and around Christmas day and New Year’s is a time of increased criminal activity, thus requiring a bigger anti-poaching effort to protect Namibia’s free-ranging black rhinos. Dr Conrad Brain, an experienced bush pilot and veterinarian, joined the joint anti-poaching efforts with a Cessna aeroplane to provide valuable aerial support. He provides insight into why aerial support is necessary and what flying at low altitude in the rocky desert of north-west Namibia is like.
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Omba Arts Trust

The Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions on international travel has had a devastating impact on the arts and crafts market in Namibia. Omba Arts Trust, which has empowered Namibian women to hone their craft-making skills and marketed their products to tourists since 2004, experienced a 90% income cut. Yet Director Karin le Roux is determined to find ways to help the local artisans who have partnered with Omba over the years. Find out how you can help.
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