Their lack of sympathy and understanding of elephant dynamics and tourism economics is both frightening and revealing.

Beytell claims "elephants are elephants" and that there are 17 000 in the country, regardless of whether they are in the Huab or in the Caprivi.

Many different figures are bandied around and no one really knows how many elephants there are in the country.

But what we do know is that there are no breeding bulls left in the upper Huab River.

I would like to add my voice to the many clamouring for the conservation of the desert-adapted elephants, particularly in the Huab River.

As co-owner of Huab Lodge I have 16 years of personal experience to draw upon and my statements are based on truth and I have no ulterior motive.

We founded Huab Lodge in 1993 as a means to improve the plight of the elephants of the Huab area.

In those days commercial farmers were complaining to the MET that elephants were damaging their water installations and breaking the cattle fences.

For this reason they were declared problem animals and shot.

We thought it a worthwhile project to foster awareness of the desert-adapted elephant and to offer employment to the people of the area.

In 1992 Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Rudi Loutit conducted an aerial survey of the elephants of the whole of the northwest and arrived at the figure of 366 elephants in total.

In the first couple of years we could only guess that the elephants had been close by when we saw their dust as they hightailed it away from the sound of our vehicle or when we saw their tracks.

They had become conditioned to run from the sound of a vehicle as they were used to being chased and shot at by the farmers and MET to get them off the commercial land.

These desert-adapted elephants are special in the way their name already suggests.

They know how to survive under extreme conditions, they have learned over the years where to find food and water and sanctuary.

They are not to be compared with their eastern counterparts.

They are unique and there are very few of them.

They need to be protected.

Infant mortalities are high.

"Problem animals" are killed randomly: an elephant cow killed a woman, so two elephant bulls were shot.

I am not aware of the private sector being invited to MET meetings where quotas are decided.

Elephants are a resource whose fate should be shared in the name of democracy.

During March 1995 nine elephant bulls frequented the "gorras" (waterholes dug by elephants and other wild animals in the river) for 28 days and they would arrive at 15h00 and stay for at least an hour, drinking water the way only elephants can.

We could set our watch by them.

This was the highest number of elephant bulls we ever saw together.

We got to know them individually, they became very relaxed in our vicinity and would often approach us without fear or signs of aggression.

We knew 12 bulls in the area close to Huab Lodge and would often see them.

Particularly when the fruits of the Ana trees (Faidherbia albida) ripened in September they would wander from tree to tree and shake down the seed pods, feeding on them as they went.

Doetab, the collared elephant whose name meant 'He Who Wanders Far', would feed in front of the lodge for days at a time, often with a companion or two.

He was shot as a trophy animal in October 2003 despite the fact that he was wearing a collar and was a monitored animal.

The professional hunter claimed at the time not to have seen the collar.

Today the story is very different: the last sighting we had was at the end of January 2008 when an elephant bull died in the riverbed just upstream of the lodge.

He had an "askari" (guard) with him at the time.

Since then we have not seen an elephant.

From a tourism point of view this lack of elephant sightings at our lodge and its vicinity is detrimental to put it mildly.

We have between 20 and 25 people in our employ.

They sustain an average of five family members each.

And this has been the case for 15 years.

It is embarrassing to answer a tourist truthfully that the last elephant was seen in January (at least it was still this year!) and even worse to admit to the fact that they are being shot by permit of the MET supposedly with all the background studies in place to substantiate such slaughter.

But the official figures show very different facts.

Four bulls recorded in the 2007 aerial survey in the Huab.

The Huab elephants are no longer sustainable.

There are no breeding bulls left.

If the shooting (one cannot call it hunting) is put to an end immediately, there may be a chance of a breeding bull coming across from one of the other river systems to fill the vacuum.

But he is not fully knowledgeable of the whole range, he does not have the ancient memory of those bulls who grew up here.

In the meantime there are no adult bulls to teach the adolescents how to behave - an important factor in the development of elephants.

Much like humans… Enormous assistance to the local communities has gone out from NGOs such as EHRA and Desert Elephant Project and IRDNC and SRT in many different forms including protection walls around water installations and valuable funds which went to the Gariseb Primary School at Sorris-Sorris and education of game guards and tourist guides.

What assistance has been given to communities by the receivers of the apparently huge earnings from elephant shooting? Where are the true and audited figures? All claims that the communities and villagers make great profits from the elephant killings are not founded on the truth.

We have never seen researchers in this area counting animals or collecting any data to give them the knowledge they require to make the high handed comments issued in press releases: "1 000 elephants in the Kunene and Erongo Regions" claimed by H Denker in his statement of 20 August 2008 is an example.

The number of elephants that have been counted are exactly FOUR elephant bulls in the Huab River in 2007 by the MET aerial survey.

In 2006 Keith Leggett published a count of 16 adult bulls in the Hoanib and Hoarusib Rivers.

There IS no increase in breeding bulls, just a steady, undeniable decline.

What do we do? Tell our employees there are no elephants left, so one of our reasons for starting the lodge is gone? If community members earn on average only N$40 per shot elephant and have to pay for the elephant meat - but only if it is brought to them and not left to rot in the sand - then how can elephant shooting be a viable, let alone sustainable, proposition? We would like to see a detailed and complete census carried out on the elephant population of Kunene - published and commented upon by experts on elephant populations and dynamics - which will bring an end to the slaughter.

Suzi van de Reep Huab Lodge

Letters Of The Last 48 Hours

•  SMS Of The Day : Wednesday
•  SMS Of The Day : Tuesday