'Not unheard of': Why this African country plans to slaughter elephants for meat

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Namibia, a southern African nation, is planning to slaughter hundreds of its gigantic wild elephants to address a severe hunger crisis affecting nearly half of its 1.4 million population due to the worst drought in a century, according to a report by The New York Times.

Under this plan, 723 wild animals, including 83 elephants, will be killed to provide food for those in need. Namibia's Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism justified the plan as “necessary” and aligned with their constitutional mandate to utilize natural resources for the benefit of its citizens, as reported by the NYT.

Rose Mwebaza, director of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Africa Office, shared with The New York Times that the “well-managed, sustainable harvesting of healthy wild animal populations can be a valuable source of food for communities.”

Droughts are a recurring issue in the region, particularly between 2018 and 2021. However, the current drought in Southern Africa is far more extensive and severe than previous ones. Juliane Zeidler, the country director of the World Wildlife Fund in Namibia, was quoted, “There is no food for people, and there is no food for animals.”

Turning to wild game for food is not new for Namibia. According to a recent Namibian government report on the country's game meat industry, many of the animals listed in the ministry's cull plan, such as zebra, blue wildebeest, and impala, are already part of the local diet.