Namibia loses bid to fast-track elephant trophy permits

ELLANIE SMIT

WINDHOEK



A federal judge in the United States last week dismissed an application by trophy hunters and the Namibian government to expedite the process of importing elephant trophies from Namibia.

It would be “unwise and not in the public interest” to grant the application amid the coronavirus pandemic, read a judgment delivered last Thursday by US District Court judge Amit Mehta.

While arguments were made of “extreme financial losses” and “emotional losses”, the court dismissed these and said the plaintiffs failed to show they had been irreparably harmed.

The plaintiffs included the Dallas Safari Club, a group of trophy hunters, the Namibian Association of Community-Based Natural Resource Management and the Namibian tourism ministry.

The applicants had asked the US department of the interior to process all pending applications for elephant import permits within 90 days.

Mehta said the plaintiffs brought the lawsuit to challenge the US Fish and Wildlife Service's failure to act on pending applications because the agency's resources were stressed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“In light of the unprecedented disruptions by the coronavirus pandemic and the service's likely diminished capacity to process permit applications during this period, particularly given the defendant's representation that rendering enhancement and non-detriment findings on a case-by-case basis is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, this court finds it particularly unwise and not in the public interest to order the expeditious processing of sport trophy permit applications during this time,” Mehta ruled.

Mehta said the court could not ignore the current pandemic and the particular hardship a mandatory injunction would impose on the present situation.