Outrage grows over baby elephant sale (Namibia)
Ellanie Smit, Namibian Sun
June 15, 2017
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for photo.
Outrage is growing among international conservation organisations against
the permission granted by Namibia to a game farm owned by a Swedish
national to capture and export five young elephants to a zoo in Dubai.
The Humane Society International (HSI), together with 35 other conservation
organisations, representing millions of people worldwide, has sent an open
letter to Johan Hansen of Eden Wildlife, urging him to immediately halt
plans to capture and export the five young elephants to Dubai Safari Park
in the United Arab Emirates. This follows after the environment ministry
confirmed that a permit was granted to Eden Wildlife for the export of five
elephants aged between four and eight. It has also come to light that this
will be the second time that the game farm is selling elephants. In 2012,
the farm exported nine young elephants to Mexico.
Some have alluded to the fact that Hansen could be under financial duress
as it appears that a company he owns and manages in Sweden is not doing
well.
ITTUR Industrier AB, a Swedish company of which Hansen is the CEO and
chairman, has filed for bankruptcy twice in the last few years.
Hansen himself reportedly filed for bankruptcy in March 2013 and has been
implicated in tax fraud, including a tax deduction for a luxury hunting
trip.
Many of Hansen's company's subsidiaries have reportedly also gone bankrupt,
including Ittur Global Industries, the latest to fail, in May of this year.
According to the Audrey Delsink, executive director for HSI Africa, the
group decided to take action amidst fears that forcibly removing the young
calves from their herd and transporting them vast distances will traumatise
the elephants, and possibly kill them.
The letter was also sent to the Swedish embassy in the United States and
the embassy in South Africa, as well as offices of the ambassadors in
Stockholm.
?African elephants belong in the wild, on African soil, not held captive
for entertainment in a zoo in a Middle Eastern desert. Subjecting wild
elephants to a life in captivity is inhumane; wrenching these five calves
from their families is a trauma that will scar them for life. Ethically
responsible elephant scientists and preserve managers know that capturing
and selling elephant calves is not a humane or efficient population
management measure, as the Namibian government claims. Rather, it is a
false pretence to make financial gains that have no conservation benefits,?
said Delsink.
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has dismissed allegations and
reports insinuating that the export of the elephants has not met the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species on Fauna and Flora
(CITES) criteria.
It has stressed that the sale of these elephants is not for commercial
purposes but purely for conservation as Namibia has seen an increase in its
elephant population and in human wildlife population.
However, reports have quoted Earth Organisation Namibia as saying: ?In a
recent CITES report Namibia has given its official elephant numbers as 22
711, of which 13 136 live in the northeast of the country. It is impossible
to verify those numbers because Namibia decided not to be part of the Great
Elephant Census. Of all the countries with substantial elephant
populations, Namibia was the only one that elected not to participate. If
Namibia has such a large population of elephants, why did it choose not to
be part of the Great Elephant Census??
Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta last year explained to Namibian Sun
there were various reasons why Namibia did not take part in the census.
He said firstly that Namibia conducts its own wildlife counts and therefore
has the data for elephant numbers and mortalities, those which died due to
poaching and because of natural causes, at hand.
Shifeta said this information is public and the government would not refuse
to furnish it to those conducting the survey.
However, if they wanted to conduct their own aerial surveys in Namibia
there were various aspects to consider, of which the main reason would be
security.
?We have the capacity to do our own counts and we have the figures
available. It will depend if there is the need for them to conduct this
survey, security measures, who they are, where they are flying, how low
they are flying and when, because they can disturb elephants during their
breeding time.?
While Namibia was not officially surveyed by the census, aerial surveys
that took off in northern Botswana to survey southern Angola and Zambia
flew over the Zambezi Region of Namibia.
It was reported that Namibia has shown increasing numbers of elephants in
that region, but this is possibly because the territory runs the length of
the unfenced border with Botswana, the country with the largest single
population of elephants, which stands at about 130 000 strong.
Outrage grows over baby elephant sale (Namibia)
Ellanie Smit, Namibian Sun
June 15, 2017
