Cheetah Kaminjab Cheetah Preserve, Namibia Africa - photo by Susan Renee (Flickr)
Lack of governmental regulation is not the cause of the dwindling numbers of cheetahs in Namibia. Namibia is a HUGE and sparsely populated country; therefore it is incredibly difficult for the government to regulate absolutely everything.
The reason farmers kill cheetahs is because they believe that cheetahs kill their livestock. In fact, cheetahs live almost solely on wild antelope, and do not pose a threat to livestock.
A cheetah will only kill livestock if the cheetah is incredibly injured and unable to hunt. Farmers see cheetahs as much more of a threat than they actually are - and so whenever they see a cheetah, they are likely to shoot it.
For more information on this subject, and on how CCF is raising Angolian shepherd dogs to create harmony between farmers and cheetahs, see:
Isn't this about education then rather than regulating behavior? And farmers should be involved in the conservation of the cheetah and be rewarded for it. I wonder whether the Snow Leopard Trust's ideas are useful. I am very impressed by the intelligence of the Snow Leopard Trust's work.
I'll read about the Angolian shepherd dogs project. It sounds very interesting.
For an earlier post on the same subject please see:
Why are farmers still killing cheetahs in Namibia?
