Hunting is not a white-only industry

Hunting is not a white-only industryGreat efforts at inclusion made The Namibia Professional Hunting Association has gone out of its way over the past 20 years to reverse the perception of hunting as a whites-only business. ELLANIE SMIT



Namibia’s hunting industry is often criticised for being a mainly white industry with only 350 previously disadvantaged Namibians that have been trained as professional hunters since 2001.

This is according to the former president of the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (Napha), Kai Uwe Denker, who was speaking at the association’s annual general meeting.

Referring to the situation in Africa, Denker said that hunting in Africa has been perceived as being a perverted pastime of rich, spoiled white people from the First World.

According to him Napha has taken the recurring appeals made by government to facilitate and speed up the inauguration of previously disadvantaged Namibians in responsible positions of the hunting industry very seriously.

Denker said Napha has gone out of its way over the past 20 years to reverse the perception of a whites-only business.

According to him more than 350 previously disadvantaged Namibians have been trained to become qualified professional hunters in the past 15 years.

He added that Napha has also started an operator course for communal conservancy members to become fully fledged independent hunting operators in 2013, but this has not yet produced the intended results.

Denker said the association cannot accomplish this task alone and needs more assistance.

“As white people in this country, there are times when our hearts are heavy as we sometimes feel that we are not welcome in this place which we love just like any other citizen. But then I realise that our plight is very insignificant in comparison to what others have had to endure in the past and that we should swallow our sadness and not overvalue certain allusions of daily politics…”

Meanwhile Denker urged the environmental and tourism ministry amidst the mounting pressure from anti-hunting groups to introduce a new curriculum for professional hunters that will place priority on conservation.

He said that the ministry and industry should proactively work together on a programme to introduce a new curriculum with the emphasis on aspects like functioning ecosystems, habitat aspects and populations dynamics.

Denker said that this should bring the conservation approach of the hunting professionals on a scientific level while the practical hunting leg should focus on implementing hunting as the purest form of eco-tourism and highlighting the experience of nature.

Volker Grellmann, known as the ‘father of Namibian hunting’ and who developed and still teaches the current professional hunting curriculum and adapted it for Napha to accommodate the first intake of previously disadvantaged Namibians, told Namibian Sun that he is not aware of any pressing need for a new curriculum to be introduced. The curriculum offers training for candidates who cannot read or write in the form of an oral and practical course.

He described the curriculum which he developed as very good, “nearly perfect”, but added that there are changes that he is working on in consultation with the environmental ministry and Napha that will be introduced.

According to him these include the introduction of a proposed business module to be taught to professional hunters.

The current curriculum taught at Eagle Rock Professional Hunting Academy entails all hunting related and environmental subjects. It covers the habits, social behaviour, diet and reproduction of 27 mammal species, 20 snake species and 32 bird species.

Practical preparation of trophies such as skinning, measuring of trophies as well as gun safety and ballistic are part of the programme. All aspects regarding legislation and relevant regulations are explained in detail.

Primary emphasis is placed on ethics in hunting and the conduct thereof.