Namibia is planning to kill more than 700 wild animals, including elephants, zebras and hippos, and distribute the meat to the people struggling with food insecurity as the country grapples with its worst drought in 100 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The animals set to be culled include 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 100 blue wildebeest and 300 zebras, the country\u2019s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism announced Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They will come from national parks and communal areas with \u201csustainable game numbers\u201d and will be killed by professional hunters, the ministry said in a\u00a0press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The aim of the program is to help alleviate the impacts of drought in the southwest African country, the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Namibia\u00a0declared a state of emergency\u00a0in May as the impacts of drought worsened. An estimated 1.4 million people \u2014 around half the population \u2014 are expected to face\u00a0high levels of acute food insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The culling program will take pressure off water resources by reducing wildlife in areas where their numbers \u201cexceed available grazing and water,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also aims to reduce the potential for conflicts between elephants and humans, which can increase during drought when animals\u2019 search for food and water can bring them into contact with people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo this effect, 83 elephants from identified conflict areas will be culled, (and) meat will be allocated to the drought relief programme,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Southern Africa is a stronghold for elephants, home to\u00a0more than 200,000. These animals have also been negatively affected by drought, with\u00a0hundreds believed to have died\u00a0across the region last year as their water sources dried up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meat from other animals set to be killed will also be distributed to those struggling with hunger, according to the ministry, which pointed to people living in rural areas as being particularly affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 150 animals have already been killed, providing more than 125,000 pounds of meat, the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are happy that we can assist the country in this very difficult time and when its absolutely needed,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Namibia is one of several countries across southern Africa struggling with devastating drought driven by El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 a natural climate pattern which has led to sharply reduced rainfall in the region \u2014 and exacerbated\u00a0by the human-caused climate crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A dearth of rain combined with scorching temperatures has led to shriveled crops and soaring levels of hunger for tens of millions of people in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Namibia is planning to kill more than 700 wild animals, including elephants, zebras and hippos, and distribute the meat to the people struggling with food insecurity as the country grapples with its worst drought in 100 years. The animals set to be culled include 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 100 blue wildebeest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2,16],"tags":[7,29,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-39549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deforestation","8":"category-featured","9":"category-news","10":"tag-apie-project","11":"tag-deforestation","12":"tag-news"},"yoast_head":"\n