In the writing of my last post on my visit to the AfriCat Foundation in 2009 I found that my memory wasn't as good as I might hope and I found myself wondering if I might be able to get some more up to date, first hand information about AfriCat and how their work there has been progressing. It's just as well I did as there have been significant changes in that small amount of time as Donna Hannsen, co-owner of the Okonjima-based reserve, was good enough to explain.
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Namibia is a vast, very empty country. Imagine one quarter of the population of London spread out over an area more than twice the size of Germany; Namibia's old colonial occupier. You can travel for hour after hour without coming close to another soul. This, for me, lends it a tranquillity and beauty that is difficult to match. But not many people seem to know about it; they may have just about heard of Namibia but very few could point it out on a world map. Whilst this may be an awkward situation for the Namibian tourist industry the main reason behind this ignorance is actually a good one: Namibia is a very safe, stable and democratic country. We don't hear about Namibia on the news in the West because it hasn't been ravaged by a civil war like it's northern neighbour Angola; there doesn't seem to be the hang over of apartheid looming over the country like there can be in South Africa, from which Namibia gained independence in the early 1990s; the Government doesn't brutally suppress citizens that speak out against it like in Zimbabwe and they also do a better job than most of looking after their environment and the creatures that live in it. They just quietly go about their business.
At the cutting edge of these conservational efforts for the past 18 years has been the AfriCat Foundation. Created and now maintained by the next generation of the Hanssen family, who themselves were cattle farmers that used to consider the big cats pests, they realised that there are ways to go about farming that both increase survival rates of cattle and allow large predators to co-exist on the same land.
At the time of my visit all talk was of the imminent completion of an electrified fence that would encircle the 20,000 hectares of land that had been acquired by the Foundation. This had been a major expense for many years costing N$7m (over £600,000 at today's rate) and I was curious to know if it's completion meant that there was more money around to spend on other projects. Donna explained, "The fence being finished is a major step for AfriCat. Healthy cats that don't need any care can now go into the reserve in a wild and free manner". But that doesn't mean the expenses are declining. "There are over 300km of roads within the reserve and after the last rains many of them became unusable, we were getting stuck a lot. So a big future step is to get all of them weatherproofed". Another expense will be to de-bush the land within the reserve, "Bush encroachment means that the reserve isn't perfect cheetah territory yet, they prefer the plains to hunt on. The grass is too long and there aren't any impala, hartebeest or springbok, their preferred prey, so the cheetahs are being forced to hunt in the more mountainous areas of the reserve which is bringing them into conflict with the leopards. We need to make the reserve look like it did 100 years ago before the farmers arrived".
But new expenses aside money is still problematic. Most of AfriCat's funding comes from the Okonjima Camps - which include Main Camp, Bush Camp, the Bush Suite and Villa and the Omboroko campsite - where the tourists stay. Okonjima provides all the land, facilities and staff to AfriCat for free, and AfriCat provides a unique selling point for Okonjima, but Okonjima has to be financially viable for the symbiotic relationship to work. "Low season has been nearly non-existent, barely covering costs. People are still coming but they're downgrading the level of accommodation they stay in. They're also not spending much when they get here; they're not buying curios or fancy drinks or expensive wine. Donations are down too, enormously".
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| An example of good cheetah country in Etosha National park, north of Okonjima |
AfriCat can proudly boast of rescuing over 1,000 cheetahs and leopards over their history but, I asked, have you noticed a decrease in the number of cats that are getting injured or trapped and having to be rescued in the first place? "The issue of human-wildlife conflict is enormous," a frustrated tone in her voice now. Apparently there are 3 main types of farmer in Namibia and they all have their own problems. There are the game farmers that allow hunters to come onto their land to make kills. "These are worse than the traditional cattle farmers. Their zebras and other exotics cost far more than a cow. They erect huge fences that stop the natural migration patterns of the game and they set lots and lots of traps because they want their clients to kill the game, not the big cats. But the predators are attracted because of all the game and the absence of established, local, territorial predators." There are the hobby farmers that can't really make farming pay and so work in the towns during the week, then when they come back on the weekend they see that they have lost some cattle and assume it is because of cats when it could just as well be due to poachers, disease, puff adders or black mambas. Thirdly, there are the Affirmative Action farmers. These are people who have been given land by the government at preferential rates but don't actually have the skills or knowledge to use it properly. "They don't know how to farm for the long term. They don't know which are the good grasses and which are the bad, they don't know what a good cattle density is, they don't know about moving the cattle on through the land to spread the impact more thinly. Because they can't farm properly they end up hunting more intensively. Good farmers don't have the time to hunt."
But there is another way. If you allow the predators and game to make their own way a natural equilibrium establishes itself. "AfriCat has shown on our 4,000 hectare reserve that game numbers have gone up by 14-17% every year. If you allow cats to settle then they become territorial and fight off any random roamers that come by. This ultimately leads to less cats on the land and the game can thrive."
Before the interview I looked through the AfriCat website and saw that they do lots of work with local children to try to educate them as to the benefits of working with the predators and not against them. I asked Donna if she felt they were making progress in this area presumably with a goal to long term solutions. "Education is the only way to succeed," she says passionately. "The rescue and release programme has essentially been put on hold." This is quite a bombshell. Rescue and release is what AfriCat is known for, but it would appear that times have changed and AfriCat has had to change with them.
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"Last year the poaching of rhino in South Africa got totally out of hand. A new syndicate of poachers arrived that didn't use guns and bullets to kill the rhino which would give away their position. They used darts to silently knock out the animal and then cut off it's horn, and often half of it's face, and then let the poor thing just bleed to death. You may have seen the terrible footage of it coming out of South Africa." I hadn't, but I have subsequently. There is an example here but it is not pleasant viewing. A police investigation revealed that the poachers were getting the sedatives used from a group of vets. She goes on to explain that this led to a severe crackdown by the South African and then Namibian governments on the practices of organisations that work with large mammals. All of a sudden every last millilitre of ketamine or M99 had to be accounted for and only registered vets were allowed to dart an animal. Vets, however, are in very short supply in Namibia and they don't come cheap. The consequence of this was that every time an AfriCat team went to a farm to pick up an animal they had to pay the wage of a vet for the whole day, a huge cost that wasn't sustainable. There seems to be a clear need to refine the law so that organisations like AfriCat, the Cheetah Conservation Fund, N/A an ku se, HARNAS, and BIOSPHERE can continue to help these animals.
Then earlier this year at a meeting of the Large Carnivore Management Association of Namibia, a consortium of like minded NGO's, the government announced that there must now be highly detailed audits of the work done. Where are the animals released? Do they survive? Do they stay in the area or move on? The charities involved don't have the money to collar and track the animals that they release and so no one had any answers to these questions. Donna's tone now changes to that of someone who has had to do a lot of solemn soul searching. "We sat down as a group and asked ourselves: what would happen if we all died tomorrow? What have we left behind? Where is the hope? After 18 years of work we might only be able to point to 10 farmers that have completely changed their ways and don't kill cats anymore. The only light at the end of the tunnel recently has been when we speak to a farmer and says he kills cheetahs, he kills leopards, he kills anything that threatens his livestock. But then his daughter went for a weekend away with AfriCat or the CCF and now she says that they mustn't do that anymore. The next generation is the only hope for the predator."
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| A cheetah rescued and soon to be released by AfriCat |
Educating children has now become the main thrust of AfriCat, and it is a multi-pronged strategy. Speaking with enthusiasm now, "We have run lots of environmentally themed camps where the children come to learn but you only get them for one weekend of the year if you're lucky. Now we're planning to pick out the children that have shown the most interest in conservation, take down their contact details and invite them back during their holidays for a week or 10 days to really try and reinforce the message."
Apparently it is not uncommon for Namibian children to throw stones at horses and kill dogs; they're often set a very poor example by their parents. With this in mind AfriCat has set up a mainstream education centre with room for about 40 students ranging from kindergarten to grade 3. There is a dog in the classroom and horses on the grounds for the children to ride and the school motto is Conservation Through Education. Next year there are plans to open a farm school where children will feed and milk goats, take eggs from chickens. It's all about changing attitudes. There is also a substantial project in the works for an adult education programme. This would involve grouping a local conservation student of university age, a local communal farmer or herdsman who doesn't need to be educated but is keen to learn and a foreign volunteer from their PAWS volunteer programme. "The group will work together based at Okonjima using the 20,000 hectares as a university; the student teaches the other two the theory of conservation; the farmer teaches them practical skills, survival, tracking; and the foreigner explains how things are done in their own country and international impact." This is a massive change of direction but it really does sound like the sort of plan that could bear fruit down the road.
A perusal of the foundation website reveals that they have recently won Best Wildlife Organisation in Africa at the Safari Awards. Results are ultimately based on feedback from people who have visited the places involved and so are a good indicator of first hand experience. I ask Donna if this has excited the team and if she thinks it will give a boost to their profile and result in more funding and/or tourists. Her reply is modest to say the least, "I forgot about that! Obviously it's nice to be able to put the logo on your website and it's a wonderful compliment, but there are 20, maybe 50, other organisations out there that do just as good work but don't get the recognition in this instance because they don't get involved in tourism."
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I feel that AfriCat and other organisations like it have been through a tough time of late, but this new direction brings with it a new sense of hope and so I ask the big question: What does the future hold for big cats in Namibia? Will numbers begin to stabilise and grow again or is it a losing battle? She pauses now to collect her thoughts. "We are very lucky in Namibia to have a new minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, an amazing woman who understands the environment, understands the balance required." It has been a long time since I've heard anyone speak so positively about a politician, but then there haven't been many shining lights in British politics of late. "She wants to encourage the philosophy started by Nelson Mandela. The reserves and parks of the country have to be loved by the people of the country and they have to provide benefits to the people of the country otherwise they won't work. The people must want to protect them."
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| The desert elephants of Damaraland |
"In Damaraland, where they have the desert elephants, there is an incredible amount of income being developed for the local community. There are also now jobs in the local area. For the first time, people don't have to up and move to the towns if they want to work. This makes a big difference. They can see the value of tourism and therefore the value of encouraging an increase in the numbers of these larger animals. It is things like this that the new minister is really trying to get behind."
Recent surveys have discovered reserves of a different kind in Namibia. At least 4 billion barrels of oil have been discovered off of the coast and production is expected to develop rapidly. Other African countries that have exploited such reserves have often struggled. All of a sudden it becomes much more profitable to be a corrupt politician, people start to argue over land, massive wealth can lead to rivalries and war; not to mention the potential environmental impact. Is this cause for concern? "Namibia is very lucky in that the government is very stable. Namibia has benefited from international donations and funding and to be eligible for these it has had to be stable and democratic. But then Zimbabwe was a very wealthy, educated and stable country until Mugabe came along and now it is a mess. Namibia is one of very few African countries, though, where conservation is still very high on the agenda."
Conditions remain tough, however; farmers still don't like predators. With a note of incredulity Donna tells of one area where farmers have even started shooting aardvarks. Why? Because they are exceptional diggers and when they encounter a fence they simply burrow right under it leaving a convenient access tunnel for predators to get through. But does this solve the problem? No. This has led to an increase in termites which have eaten through the fence posts of the farmer and the ruin of his fence. A perfect example of the harmony of nature that is as comic as it is tragic.
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| Termite mounds are very common. This one was just outside our villa |
Conditions remain tough, however; farmers still don't like predators. With a note of incredulity Donna tells of one area where farmers have even started shooting aardvarks. Why? Because they are exceptional diggers and when they encounter a fence they simply burrow right under it leaving a convenient access tunnel for predators to get through. But does this solve the problem? No. This has led to an increase in termites which have eaten through the fence posts of the farmer and the ruin of his fence. A perfect example of the harmony of nature that is as comic as it is tragic.
As our conversation draws to a close Donna is very keen to stress that the farmers should not be painted as monsters in this story; recriminations won't help. "It is important to tell both sides of the story. I point out to farmers that we do understand the hardships, my family was a farming family. My father used to lose a lot of stock to predators but then we changed the way we farmed and that helped. But the farmers ask, 'Why must I have a leopard on my farm?' the only real answer is that to be successful you must keep the balance. Nature is about balance. Research and rehabilitation are still important but education is really the only hope for the future."
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