By Fifi Rhodes
WINDHOEK
The Namibia Professional Hunting Association (Napha) and the Emerging Commercial Farmers Support Programme will next week host a one-day workshop.
The theme for this year’s workshop that will take place on 28 July at the NamPower Convention Centre is: “Introduction to Trophy Hunting as a Lucrative Form of Land Utilization.”
One of the organisers for this event is the Lazarus Shinyemba Ipangelwa Foundation.
Marina Lamprecht, of Hunter Namibia, said, “As we tackle the many challenges of the new millennium, the focus is increasingly on the most effective utilization of land for the direct use of humans beings, and it is therefore that Napha and the NAU have taken the initiative to introduce trophy hunting to emerging commercial farmers.”
Speakers for the workshop include the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Governor of the Bank of Namibia, Tom Alweendo, local veterinarian, Dr Ulf Tubbesing, and Namibia Breweries Limited Corporate Affairs Manager, Gideon Shilongo.
Hunting quotas given to communal area conservancies in the past two years earned the conservancies around N$11 million per year, recent reports show.
According to a strategic plan document issued by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in March this year, trophy hunting is estimated to generate around N$500 million per year.
Lamprecht further said in his statement that Namibia is a pro-wildlife utilisation country, and that the progressive constitution is the first in the world to enshrine the sustainable utilisation of living natural resources.
“Due to our excellent hunting opportunities, variety and quality of game species, outstanding hunting professionalism, political stability, our developed infrastructure and the focus of fair chase ethical hunting, Namibia is now firmly established as one of Africa’s most popular trophy hunting destinations,” she stated.
“We are a hunter friendly nation with a proud hunting heritage and our hunting fraternity is well respected by our Government and fellow countrymen, as an essential and integral part of Namibia’s wildlife conservation, tourism, farming and business sectors,” she said.
It is planned and arranged amongst Napha members to offer interested participants the opportunity to spend a few days with established trophy hunting operations in order to gain practical insight after the workshop.