Trophy hunting in Namibia remains a deeply polarising practice, praised for its economic benefits but condemned by critics for undermining conservation and ethics.
The number of trophy hunting permits issued by the environment ministry rose to about 3,000 in 2023 and was expected to reach 5,000 in 2024 (0.2% of the national wildlife herd).
Namibia Professional Hunting Association president Axel Cramer says trophy hunters account for only 3%-5% of tourists, but the practice generates up to 20% of tourism revenue. This shows the value of trophy hunting in conservation and its economic advantages for local communities and farmers, he says.
Cramer says the entire value chain is relevant: everything from professional hunters’ outfits to support for supermarkets in remote areas, transfer shuttles and taxidermists brings in much-needed foreign exchange. Hunters also support lodge transfers, car rentals and activity tourism.
This trend is similar in South Africa, as shown by a recent report by North-West University’s School of Tourism. The report says hunting tourism’s contribution to the South African economy is about $2.5bn annually. It has a production multiplier of 2.97, meaning that for every $1 spent by hunting tourists, total production increases by an additional $1.97.
The total spending by an average international hunter in South Africa amounts to $27,170, according to the report. Though comparable data is not available for Namibia, it is documented that the country’s wildlife economy generates more than N$580m.
Cramer says Namibia is a prime hunting destination for plains game. “The majority of the game is found on private land. Dangerous game is limited to the Zambezi region and other northern concession areas,” he says.
Many private farmers in Namibia now earn more from wildlife activities such as hunting than from traditional cattle farming, especially as climate-related droughts make farming harder.
Diversifying into wildlife helps farmers adapt, since wild animals cope better with drought. This shift is driven by a lack of government grants and the high profitability of hunting, which can make up to 70% of a farm’s income.
Legal hunting in Namibia is strictly regulated based on game counts, which determine the quotas allocated. More than 80% of Namibia’s wildlife exists outside national parks, on freehold farmland and communal land. “Illegal hunting equals poaching,” Cramer says.
Kudu is the most sought-after trophy, with an average asking price of N$44,400. The price for dangerous game is higher, with an elephant going for about N$400,300, a white rhino for N$350,000 and a lion for N$310,000.
Still, many experts are opposed to trophy hunting on humane grounds and instead support photographic tourism. Some anti-hunting lobbyists argue that no endangered species should be included on any trophy list, whether they are problem animals or not.
South African activist Smaragda Louw, the director of Ban Animal Trading, says: “Hunters are not natural predators, and killing the strongest, largest and often rarest members of any animal community for trophies does not aid conservation. It endangers entire animal families and threatens the overall population of the species.”
Namibian Chamber of Environment CEO Chris Brown disagrees. “Elephants, rhinos, giraffes and antelopes have large, stable or increasing populations in Southern African countries where legal hunting is permitted. In contrast, countries in other parts of Africa that prohibit hunting have locally extinct, small or declining populations of these species,” he says.
A fixed position on hunting doesn’t make sense — it depends on the setting
— Chris Brown
Louw says trophy hunting conflicts with the aims of ecotourism. “Ecotourism and trophy hunting cannot coexist. Ecotourists prefer destinations where wildlife is protected, not killed.”
She adds that very little of what the elite spend on hunting trips makes a difference to the lives of poor people, who are often responsible for facilitating hunts.
Not so, says Brown. “In Namibia, all the trophy contract fees are paid directly to communities, and the meat is distributed to the villages in the area. Similar arrangements are in place in most Southern African countries with community-based wildlife management programmes.”
Brown says one of the problems with hunting is that it creates pro- and anti-lobbies that “strenuously and blindly” defend their positions and are not above manipulating information to support their views.
“A fixed position on hunting doesn’t make sense — it depends on the setting,” he says. “Namibia is unique, with the highest wildlife numbers in a century, including the world’s largest free-roaming black rhino population and part of the largest regional savannah elephant population in Africa in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.”
As a conservation biologist, Brown says he focuses on the maintenance and sustainable growth of wildlife populations, protection of habitats, biodiversity conservation and landscape approaches to wildlife management at a large scale. This creates ecological links, builds resilience and helps mitigate climate change impacts, he says.
“I also see wildlife as a cost-effective land use that benefits the economy by generating wealth, jobs and foreign exchange.
“Under the correct policy settings, in some parts of the world, with the right governance frameworks effectively implemented, trophy and other forms of hunting are significant contributors to those objectives. If these conditions are not in place — as in most of Africa north of the Southern African Development Community [SADC] — then hunting does not contribute to desired conservation outcomes and will be damaging,” he says.
Brown says Namibia has largely established the right enabling conditions. “That is why our wildlife numbers have increased from 500,000 to about 3-million over the past 50 years, and the area under wildlife has expanded significantly under an open market wildlife economy. Several other SADC countries have adopted similar conducive conditions.”
But Louw argues trophy hunting favours the wealthy, who see animals as personal property and use hunting to display status, often at the expense of national heritage.
Brown says this is not true in Namibia, where wildlife benefits not just the elite.
“The bottom line is that most wildlife breeds at 25%-35% per year. To keep wildlife numbers ecologically balanced with their habitat, this proportion of animals needs to be removed each year,” he says.
He says most harvested wildlife enters the game meat sector. The average price of game meat to the farmer is about $2.80/kg. An animal with about 80kg of meat (excluding bones and offal) would earn about $220. As a trophy, that same animal, together with the hospitality and professional hunter fees, would earn between $1,800 and $10,200 depending on the species; in other words, between 800% and 4,600% more for the same animal.
“Put another way, it would take between eight and 46 animals, depending on the species, harvested for their meat to equal the same income as a single trophy-hunted animal. As a wildlife rancher, trophy hunting is a significant and essential part of the business model, resulting in reinvestment, job creation and sustainable wildlife population management. In the process, it removes less than 1% of the national wildlife herd per year, with the meat also going into the game meat sector.”
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