Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! All support for wildlife conservation in Namibia’s community conservation areas is welcome. Read more about how you can help.

Living with large, dangerous game is very difficult. This is why elephants and lions were eradicated from private farmland in Namibia a long time ago. Through effective management and mitigation measures – especially land use zoning – conflicts with such wildlife can be minimised and a coexistence is possible. But this requires funding and technical support.

Namibia already protects wildlife in large national parks that cover about 17 percent of the country. Conserving wildlife outside national parks is based on very clear policies and systems of creating benefits from wildlife for the people who live with it.

While conflicts with wildlife can be significantly reduced through effective management mechanisms, such as better kraals and measures to deter elephants and predators, a few conflicts will always happen. Read the case studies in The Human Story to learn how some of these conflicts are being reduced and mitigated.

All income generated, and all expenditures, are made through designated bank accounts and each transaction is fully documented and accounted for at every stage. The Wildlife Credit Funds are administered by registered financial institutions and are subject to a full independent financial audit each year. 

The generated funds go directly to the place where the wildlife is monitored and the funds are generated. The funds are used for four things:

• Wildlife management and protection: Activities focus on reducing conflicts between people and wildlife, protecting wildlife, and preventing poaching.
• Household damage offset claims: Damage caused by wildlife can have severe effects on rural households, such as damage to water infrastructure, loss of income from crops due to crop raiders, loss of livestock to predators, injuries and loss of life.
• Wildlife monitoring and research: Activities provide estimates of wildlife population trends and movements, with targeted research providing additional and specific information that can prevent human wildlife conflict.
• Tolerance of wildlife on communal land: There are opportunity costs of living with wildlife too. For example, wildlife occupies land and grazing that people could otherwise use solely for agriculture, and predators hunt wildlife that would otherwise provide food and income.

Read more on our How we work page.

You can get involved in several ways: make a donation to support a Local Conservation Area Fund of your choice. Visit one of the participating Joint Venture Lodges which is actively supporting the scheme, or find another way such as sponsoring mitigation measures or initiating a fund-raising project in your home town.

Read more about how you can help here.

Local Conservation Area Funds are set up for all conservancies and other local conservation areas participating in Wildlife Credits. The aim is for the funds to fully cover human-wildlife conflict costs through income generated from the Wildlife Credit scheme and related funding mechanisms. This will enable communal farmers to live with wildlife.

Read more about Local Conservation Area Funds here.

The species which cause most problems vary across the country.

In the arid western and north-western areas, the species with the highest number of conflict incidents recorded in 2015 were hyaenas, cheetah, leopard, jackal, followed by elephant, caracal, lion, crocodile, baboon and genet.

In the wetter north-east of the country the most problematic species were elephant, crocodile and hippo, followed by antelope, hyena, pigs (bushpigs and warthogs), lion, baboon, leopard, porcupine and jackal.

Across the country, around three-quarters of all incidents recorded in 2015 were livestock attacks. The remainder are mostly incidents resulting in crop damage, a small number of incidents where other damage was caused and a handful of human attacks.

Read The Human Story to learn how some of these conflicts are being reduced and mitigated.