research

History of Livestock Ownership in NW Namibia

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Late 19th century colonial map of northwest Namibia. Namibia National Archives.

Environment and History has just published an article by Lion Rangers Program founder Dr. John Heydinger on the history of livestock ownership in northwest Namibia. This and other research emanating from the Lion Rangers program undergirds our historically-informed perspective . This includes our commitment to addressing human-lion conflict and lion conservation in northwest Namibia as a series of challenges taking place within a human landscape. Please read and circulate any and all of our research to those who may find it interesting.

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New Paper: The History of Lions in Etosha

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Lioness near Ombonde Research Area, 2021.

Historical lion information from northwest Namibia is scattered across a variety of sources. This provides an often incomplete picture of the history of lions and human-lion interactions in the region. As part of our ongoing research to better understand the past, present, and possible future(s) of humans and lions living alongside one another, Lion Ranger co-founder John Heydinger recently partnered with eminent lion researchers Craig Packer and Paul Funston, to write the history of lions in Etosha National Park. This article has recently been published by the Namibian Journal of Environment.

(The full article is available here)

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New Paper: Communities Living with Lions

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Desert-adapted lioness near Hoanib riverbed, April 2019.

One of the challenges for communities living alongside lions is to quantify the costs lions impose. There are many programs that account for the monetary costs of livestock losses, but how does one account for the other costs? If the goal is to proactively limit human-lion conflict, rather than simply compensate people after livestock death, conservationists need to innovate ways to account for the day-to-day costs of living with lions, even during the best of circumstances.

A new paper, in partnership with the University of Minnesota Lion Center and WWF-Namibia, looks at the potential opportunity costs of living alongside the desert-adapted lions.

(See full paper here)

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