The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) has issued four permits for the exportation of 60 white rhinos by private individuals in the current financial year.

In an interview with Nampa on Monday, the ministry’s public relations officer, Romeo Muyunda said 47 rhinos were exported to Zambia and 13 to Angola.

Muyunda explained that the permit to export 47 rhinos was issued to a private owner who has decided to relocate all his rhinos to Zambia.

The ministry also issued four import permits for four white rhinos imported from South Africa by private owners, he said.
“We cannot mention the value of the rhinos for security purposes,” he noted.

Speaking at the recent World Rhino Day celebration in the Etosha National Park, line minister Pohamba Shifeta said a national Rhino Custodianship programme was established in 1993 to facilitate the recovery of Namibia’s rhino population while allowing for conservancies and private landowners to become custodians over state-owned rhinos and the right to benefit through ecotourism.

“Although all black rhinoceroses in Namibia remain state-owned, the programme enables conservancies and private landowners with land to apply for custodianship of black rhinoceroses. 

After a rigorous screening process by the ministry to assess amongst others security threats and habitat suitability, approved custodians enter into a memorandum of understanding with the ministry, thereafter sharing responsibility of the animals,” he said.

He noted that presently, white rhinos in Namibia occur both in private and public ownership on freehold and government land respectively, adding that Namibia has the second-largest white rhino population in the world after South Africa.

“This species had become totally extinct and all current populations thus originate from animals imported and introduced,” said Shifeta.
- Nampa