Photo taken on April 5, 2021 shows elephants in Omaruru, Namibia.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

File photo taken on Aug. 26, 2016 shows elephants at the Etosha National Park, northwestern Namibia. (Photo: Xinhua)

 
Namibia on Friday launched a national elephant conservation and management plan for the next 10 years.

Speaking at the launch, Environment Minister Pohamba Shifeta said elephants have not just increased in numbers, but have also expanded in range and are now found in areas where they went locally extinct more than 70 years ago.

"We are devolving... management of elephants to the local level structures headed by regional managers," he said. "These structures will be empowered to come up with innovative, locally accepted measures and actions to manage elephants occurring in those specific areas."

Shifeta also launched the Wildlife Corridors Strategy, which provides for the management and protection of wildlife movement routes or corridors that need to be kept open but limit direct contact between people and wildlife in order to reduce human-wildlife conflict and promote biodiversity conservation and wildlife economy.

Five wildlife corridors or wildlife dispersal areas in the northeast Zambezi region have been identified.