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Help us make poaching a thing of the past

Some of the poorest people in the world live in the Kunene and Caprivi regions of Namibia. Scratching out a living in harsh and challenging conditions, it's little surprise that some turned to poaching to earn a living or put food on the table.

View our PDF about our work in Namibia

WWF has been working here for over a decade with the IRDNC (Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation), and has helped set up community-managed wildlife conservation systems – known as conservancies. 

These are run by local people for the benefit of local communities. Today, some of Namibia’s poorest communities are benefitting from the wildlife around them. People who were once poachers have retrained as guards, helping protect the animals they once killed.  

And local people are now making sustainable use of their natural resources and profitting from new businesses such as eco-tourism and craft markets.

Black rhino under 24-hour armed guard because of threat of poaching

Namibia’s conservancies are proof that people and wildlife can thrive side by side. Wildlife is now recognised as a valuable asset, worth more alive than dead.

But living alongside wildlife puts many pressures on people. Poaching may be limited inside the conservancies, but remains a very real threat around the region. We need to keep helping to reduce human-wildlife conflict and eliminate poaching.

How your donation could help:

Preparing a

  • £50 could help experienced game guards like Oom Piet (above right) train younger recruits in rhino monitoring, passing on invaluable specialist techniques and tips.
  • £75 could pay a trainee ranger's salary for a month.
  • £100 could help to train women as conservancy resource monitors – an important link between craft markets and the women who make the products.
  • £250 could help pay for the annual game count, helping us identify whether species numbers are increasing or decreasing.
  • £500 could help provide the Himba women with transport, equipment, food and water during the Omumbiri harvesting season

A recent surge in black rhino poaching in Africa means we must act now to ensure it does not reach Namibia’s conservancies.

Every new conservancy we establish, every local man who retrains as a game guard, and every day that passes without an animal being poached, is living proof that your support does make a difference.

We need your help – please make a donation today.


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From poacher to protector

Oom Piet (Uncle Peter) made his living from wildlife. But for many years that involved poaching rhino, selling the horn to feed his family.

Oom Piet

Piet killed over 48 rhinos before being caught. He was given the chance to put his past behind him when in 1987, he became a community game guard for the IRDNC.

Garth Owen-Smith, Co-Director of IRDNC, recalls being a bit concerned when headman, Joshua Kongombe, nominated Piet for the post. But  Piet was a man who loved being in the bush – and he now had a legal reason to be there.

Piet lived up to the IRDNC’s trust. As well as preventing poaching, he also provided valuable information on wildlife numbers. He retired in 2008, but is still passing on his skills so the wild animals in Kunene’s community-managed conservancies thrive.

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