Selective Breeding and the Intensive Management of Wildlife: A Legal Challenge for Namibian Conservation

The Republic of Namibia recently lost a High Court case preventing the sale of antelope that were selectively bred and intensively managed to produce traits that are uncommon in the wild. This paper looks at the foundations that the Namibian government may draw on to develop a policy context which would enable the country to redraft and amend existing legislation. The Namibian Nature Conservation Ordinance has exceeded its usefulness, in that it is ill-equipped to maintain and protect the countrys' wildlife and its traditional enclosed extensive wildlife systems on private farms - and the Ordinance should be replaced. It is further concluded that the provisions of the Maputo Convention and the Nagoya Protocol apply to selective breeding and intensive management of wildlife. Caution is raised that provisions of these agreements, when read in isolation with the definition of biodiversity in the Namibian Environmental Management Act, may be interpreted in a manner contrary to the conservation of this resource. It is concluded that a formal inclusion of the public trust doctrine into the Namibian environmental jurisprudence, as has occurred in many African and countries elsewhere, would provide the necessary omnibus to address current and future challenges to the country's wildlife and other components of the environment.