Monitoring of wildlife populations, including elephants and lions, is a crucial aspect of species conservation and management, and a prerequisite for adaptive management. Obtaining longterm population trends and population age structure are priorities for monitoring these species. Monitoring allows us to understand the dynamics of the populations, their seasonal distribution, range, and movement requirements. This information is important for adaptive management decisions that ensure the continued presence of these economically important species. For elephants and lions, it is particularly important to have sufficient scientific information on the current populations and population trends to make the required non-detriment findings for sustainable utilisation.
Annual road-based game counts and line transect counts are undertaken in conservancies, along with regular fixed foot patrols, which are collected in the Event Book by the community game guards. In preparation for annual game counts, the NRWG and the MEFT train community game guards and staff on game count methodology. Game count training is used as an opportunity to review broader wildlife monitoring techniques such as fixed patrols and the Event Book monitoring system.
Wildlife populations in communal conservancies are monitored through annual game counts, waterhole counts and the Event Book monitoring system. Periodically aerial surveys are also conducted in some areas. These multiple methods are used to ensure that a variety of species can be monitored and the results compared. Wildlife populations vary from year to year in response to changes in the environment such as drought, rainfall, diseases, predation, utilisation and poaching.
Game counts
Most conservancies conduct routine game censuses. The biggest of these is the North-West Game Count, conducted annually since 1999. The count includes all the conservancies and tourism concessions outside of national parks in the north-west and is the largest annual, road-based game count in the world. It covers an area of around seven million hectares and is undertaken as a joint exercise between conservancy members and staff, the MEFT and conservation NGOs. Similar methodology has been extended to other parts of the country which also carry out annual game counts, but the application of approach has been adaped to local conditions. Conservancies in the east perform an annual moonlight waterhole count, while conservancies in the north-east undertake counts on foot along fixed transect lines. These counts amount to 2,500 kilometres walked annually. All census methods are intended to contribute to and work synergistically with other existing census methods, such as the aerial censuses conducted by the MEFT, and event book data collected daily and collated every month.
In large open areas where animals are free to roam, determining trends is challenging because animals can move into or out of the areas being monitored. In addition, in certain regions, and in particular in desert conditions, animal numbers are driven to a large extent by good and poor rainfall seasons leading to ‘boom and bust’ cycles in wildlife populations. These two factors make the analysis of trend data extremely challenging, particularly over the short-term, and a long-term view has to be taken.
Namibia’s game counts are scientifically based, and are designed to include conservancy members, NGO workers and MEFT rangers in a joint effort that generates both data and strengthens partnerships. The counts provide an idea of where game occurs, an approximate estimate of how many animals there are, but most importantly, they track changes (or trends) in population numbers over time. Figures for wildlife population estimates, which show long-term trends, are used as a key indicator of success or failure in conservation.
Wildlife movement in and out of game count areas (including trans-boundary movements to and from neighbouring countries, which has been actively recorded for some species through remote tracking) is the main explanation for significant annual fluctuations. The data also underlines the value of using different counting methods to gain a better understanding of wildlife dynamics.
Game count posters and reports can be downloaded from the Resources section of the NACSO website.
Aerial Censuses
Regular aerial censuses have been undertaken by the MEFT in different parts of Namibia. These confirm the long-term trend of wildlife population increases in both the north-west and north-east.
Elephant counts
The African Elephant Status Report for 2016, published by the IUCN using aerial and other census data from Namibia, estimated the population of elephants in Namibia at 22,754 ± 4,305, with a possible further 90 elephants in areas not systematically surveyed. Elephants occur across the north of Namibia, mostly in conservancy and national park areas. Their range of 164,069 km2, which is 20% of the country, includes the extremely arid north-west, the central savannah of Etosha, and the riverine and forested north-east. The report details four main populations, the largest being the transfrontier population moving through the Zambezi Region to and from Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe (the KAZA area). Due to the transfrontier movement of elephants, numbers in this area make up the bulk of the Namibian population. Despite an upsurge in wildlife crime over recent years, the population has continued to grow, bringing increased opportunities for tourism-based income, but also increased human-wildlife conflict. Other populations occur in Khaudum National Park adjacent to Botswana, and in the north-west Kunene Region, sometimes referred to as ‘desert elephants’.
The Event Book
The Event Book is used by community game guards to record suspected poaching incidents, human-wildlife conflict, and wildlife sightings. This highly successful management tool was initiated in 2000 and has been continuously refined ever since. It is used by almost all registered conservancies and is systematically introduced to emerging conservancies during their formation. The simple but rigorous tool promotes conservancy involvement in the design, planning and implementation of natural resource monitoring and management.The Event Book monitoring system is at the heart of natural resource management. This system is often implemented before a conservancy is officially gazetted to allow emerging conservancies to start monitoring their resources as soon as possible. Without a monitoring system, conservancies could not tell if they have enough of any particular species to use it sustainably. Although game counts are done annually, and aerial surveys are completed every few years, there is no replacement for day-to-day monitoring on the ground using Event Books.
The Event Book system starts with small yellow books that community game guards keep with them at all times while on duty. They use their books to record incidents relating to wildlife (Events) during their daily activities. Incidents or events include cases of human-wildlife conflict (e.g. crops damaged or livestock killed), suspected poaching or wildlife deaths from unknown causes, sightings of locally rare species, wild fires, or any unusual observations. Which species sightings are monitored and what constitutes an Event that should be recorded is defined by the conservancies themselves, rather than externally, to increase ownership over the data collection process.
Once a month, the game guards report to their conservancy office and transfer the information from their yellow booklets to a blue monthly reporting chart. The chart is a simple bar graph that is filled in based on the number of Events recorded for that month (e.g. animals seen). This blue book contains monthly records from all game guards for that conservancy. Records from the blue book are transferred into a red book on an annual basis during an Event Book audit. These books are all kept at conservancy offices, such that interested conservancy members can access them.
Members of the NRWG transfer the information from the paper books at the conservancy offices to a computer each year as part of an Event Book audit, which allows further analysis at a national level. These audits provide opportunities for examining the quality of the data and speaking directly with game guards and conservancy managers to clarify any unusual records.
Piloting of SMART in Conservancies
The Event Book has been the foundation of CBNRM in Namibia for natural resource management. It is the tool which provides a system to record and monitor multiple activities within conservancies, collect data, support the sustainable use of natural resources and feedback into adaptive management processes. The Event Book is a hard-copy, handwritten method, undertaken by conservancy staff and management which gathers data from and for each conservancy, which is then consolidated into a programme-wide database.
To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of community monitoring, the introduction of the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) is being piloted in three conservancies for patrolling and conservation hunting activities.
The SMART mobile application, installed on Android smartphones, is specifically designed to help conservationists manage and protect wildlife. SMART offers the most cost-effective, systematic reporting tool that collects, stores, communicates and evaluates range-based data for conservation management. SMART can record information such as wildlife observations, human activities (both legal and illegal), the condition of natural features, and the movements and activities of patrol teams. One of the most useful aspects of SMART is that is it geo-referenced and can provide information such as the spatial distribution of species and distances walked on patrols.
SMART provides real-time data on species distribution which can be accessed and processed quickly to produce reports and maps. The ability to take pictures of observations is another benefit of SMART and can support the verification of data, particularly in anti-poaching efforts.
SMART has been in use since 2016 in Namibia’s National Parks, mainly for anti-poaching efforts and park management. SMART is also currently in use by Rhino and Lion Rangers in conservancy areas and is being applied in MEFT Regional Offices to support the management and mitigation of human wildlife conflict.
With locally developed modules, specifically tailored for conservancy use and needs, the Nyae Nyae, Mashi and Salambala conservancies piloted this new technology for the first time for their fixed foot patrols and conservation hunting activities. SMART was introduced in Nyae Nyae Conservancy in the Otjozondjupa Region in late 2021, with some training and testing of the conservancy-specific modules. In early 2022, the two conservancies in the Zambezi Region, Mashi and Salambala, were then trained and started applying SMART in the field.
The aim of SMART in conservancies is to help improve their adaptive management strategies and the MEFT’s monitoring and evaluation procedures. The data gathered from conservation hunting activities will help conservancies manage hunting contracts and inform decisions on hunting quota settings.
As with the application of any new method, there have been successes and challenges throughout the pilot phase. The biggest success is the spatial data which SMART collects. It essentially maps each fixed foot patrol undertaken, providing specific data on the route walked, wildlife sightings or other observations, and distances covered. It has allowed a better understanding of the coverage and frequency of fixed foot patrols and effort, which enables better data analysis. The conservation hunting module works in a similar way, collecting spatial, biological and ecological data during hunting activities in the conservancy.
Another success is that, while SMART is designed to support conservation efforts, it can also provide insight into performance for staff management purposes.
The challenges experienced during the pilot phase are varied. Although SMART is being piloted, the Event Book remains the main monitoring system. In Zambezi, during flooding, monitoring of wildlife is difficult and game guards are not able to conduct their foot patrols. The interest in and uptake of SMART depends on each individual game guard and sometimes devices are forgotten on patrols, with a result of no data being collected. Initially, SMART in the pilot conservancies was supported by staff in Windhoek, which limits the amount of technical engagement available to a quarterly or bi-annual basis. This will change as the Natural Resources Working Group trains implementing partner staff to be able to support SMART in the field.
Ideally, SMART could overtake the Event Book as the main data collection tool, however, given the constraints of internet access in remote areas and funding for devices, that is still far in the future for the CBNRM programme. In the meantime, SMART is slowly being rolled-out to other conservancies, and in the process, will continue to be adapted for conservancy specific needs and other components of natural resource monitoring.
New in 2021: Community Game Guard Unit Standards
Community Game Guards (CGGs) play a crucial role in monitoring and protecting wildlife and other natural resources in communities. In 2021, a set of standardised core competencies or Unit Standards were used to train CGGs, helping to optimise and professionalise their role. Posttraining assessments showed an increase in morale and commitment among CGGs who received this training. While the CGGs were the primary target for the training events, the Natural Resource Working Group (NRWG) has expanded the scope of the training to include the induction training of conservancy management committees, which encompasses all the components of resource management and protection in the conservancy. This ensures that conservancy management and CGGs have clarity on their roles and responsibilities in managing natural resources.
