The animals set to be culled include 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 100 blue wildebeest and 300 zebras, the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism announced Monday.
They will come from national parks and communal areas with “sustainable game numbers” and will be killed by professional hunters, the ministry said in a press release.
The aim of the program is to help alleviate the impacts of drought in the southwest African country, the ministry said.
Namibia declared a state of emergency in May as the impacts of drought worsened. An estimated 1.4 million people — around half the population — are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity.
The culling program will take pressure off water resources by reducing wildlife in areas where their numbers “exceed available grazing and water,” the ministry said.
