
Ideal venue for adventure travel
Dear Sir
The “founders” of animal rights activist organisations such as: “The Seals of Nam (TSON), “Seal Alert South Africa (SASA) and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) have for the past few years accused the government of illegal, inhumane and unsustainable practices in respect of our fur seals as a natural resource.
In the absence of a public forum to counter these allegations, Namibia Seal Conservation (NSC) was founded by Namibian citizens during February 2012. Since it came into being the NSC studied the allegations made by these organisations in order to determine the facts behind the issue. It was shortly discovered that these organisations based their allegations on the emotive and not factual side of the matter.
Despite requesting the Ombudsman to investigate the matter, it was established from the onset that these organisations had an uncompromising and biased stance towards the harvesting of our seals as a renewable resource, and as such, it soon became clear that no matter what the Ombudsman’s decision would be, these organisations would not accept the outcome of the report should it be in favor of the harvest.
Since independence Namibia has shown considerable growth in its conservation practices, and is in fact a true conservation success story as we have received numerous awards and commendations in this regard, which includes the most prestigious “Markhor Award” for conservation.
These deceptive and underhanded organisations have launched an onslaught against Namibia, with international boycotts against our tourism and sport industries. Their main aim is to cause this respected democratic country which has no enemies, severe economic damage. NSC has also noted that these organisations are currently busy with a petition to be forwarded to your good office. This petition is not creditable and should be investigated on receipt as we have noted frequent repetitions of the same names.
Namibia has worked hard under extremely difficult circumstances and NSC believes that this proud country deserves a justifiable opportunity to be considered as a host for the Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS).
Oswald Rall Theart
On behalf of Namibia Seal Conservation (NSC)