WINDHOEK: Namibia’s tourism industry is expected to suffer over the next three years after a week-long wildfire ravaged over a third of its largest game reserve, Etosha National Park, a senior government official said.
Established as a national park in 1907 during German colonization, Etosha is home to diverse wildlife, including lions, elephants, leopards, giraffes, and zebras, and is one of the top tourist attractions in the southern African country.
Latest official estimates show the fire damaged 38 percent of the roughly 20,000 square-kilometer park, but unofficial assessments suggest the damage may be worse.
Satellite images showed vast swaths of blackened land and authorities said an unknown number of animals had been killed.
“It’s a hit we’ve taken in terms of damage to both fauna and flora. Recovery is possible, but it will take a little bit of time,” said Sikongo Haihambo, executive director of Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.
“Insofar as tourism is concerned, I don’t think that we are going to have an extended dip but rather a recovery in a period of two to three years,” he said in an interview on Tuesday evening.
Namibia’s tourism sector had only just recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with hotel occupancy reaching 67.55 percent in August — the highest since 2019, a recent report by financial services firm Simonis Storm Securities showed.
The tourism sector contributed 6.9 percent to Namibia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022.
The fire inside the park was extinguished on Monday night after the government deployed hundreds of soldiers to fight the blaze, but crews continued to battle fires that had spread beyond it in the Omusati and Oshana regions.
Namibia projects tourism decline after wildfire in game reserve
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Namibia projects tourism decline after wildfire in game reserve
- Latest official estimates show the fire damaged 38 percent of the roughly 20,000 square-kilometer park
British navy says it tracked Russian sub for three days in Channel
- The Russian ships had arrived from the North Sea and entered the Channel.
- “Expert aircrew were prepared to pivot to anti-submarine operations if Krasnodar had dived below the surface,” the statement said
LONDON: The British navy said Thursday it tracked a Russian submarine navigating through the Channel for three days, as it steps up efforts to police its seas against such threats.
A British naval supply ship with an on-board helicopter was deployed to track the stealthy Kilo-class submarine Krasnodar and the tug Altay, the Royal Navy said in a statement.
The Russian ships had arrived from the North Sea and entered the Channel.
“Expert aircrew were prepared to pivot to anti-submarine operations if Krasnodar had dived below the surface,” the statement said.
But it sailed on the surface throughout the operation, despite unfavorable weather conditions.
Near the island of Ouessant, off northwest France, the British said they handed over monitoring of the vessels to a NATO ally, without saying which one.
The British military carried out a similar shadowing operation in July, after spotting the Russian sub Novorossiysk in its territorial waters.
Defense minister John Healey announced on Monday the launch of a multi-million pound program to improve the Royal Navy’s capabilities in the face of Moscow’s “underwater threats.”
According to London, Russian submarine activity in British waters has increased by about a third over the past two years.
In early December, the UK and Norway signed a cooperation agreement to jointly operate a fleet of frigates to “hunt down” these submarines in the North Atlantic.
