Stinging criticism after 'preventable' week-long fire at Etosha National Park threatens biodiversity, livelihoods

Selling traditional crafts is a lucrative industry for many Namibians. Blankets with bowls, wooden carvings and other trinkets are common in tourist hotspots, but Rosa Kino Kampyaku hasn’t sold anything over the past two weeks. It’s the sole source of income for her and the other 10 or so Herero and Himba women sitting outside the Ombika gate to Namibia’s Etosha National Park.

A fire started on about 22 September and burned through the park and surrounding areas before finally being under control seven days later. It burned around 854,000 hectares of the park, and another 170,00 hectares of the surrounding area. That’s roughly the equivalent of 146 farms.

Worse yet, it’s peak tourism season in Namibia, and Rosa’s group is running low on food. The fire that ravaged 38% of the park over the past two weeks has largely scared off many of the tourists who would be flooding their informal market any other year.

“We are hungry, we don’t even have money now to buy food for the kids,” Rosa translated for one of the mothers sitting at the market who didn’t want to give her name.

“For her, she said that it feels like her house is burning, because we get the customers from [the park], but now they do not really come here because of the fire.”

Rosa added: “We are heartbroken. It’s like we lost someone in our families.”

The local councillor for the Otamanzi constituency that is north of Etosha, Johannes Iiyambo, also told a local newspaper that the fire had affected communities in his constituency after they were not able to contain it. He claimed that a farmer in the area lost 17 sheep. Though photos of the sheep were published, Daily Maverick wasn’t able to verify these claims. 

It’s believed that the fire started due to illegal charcoal production south of Etosha, which is common in the area, that didn’t follow strict safety regulations. Windy conditions and long dry grass that grew after a good rainy season earlier in the year probably carried the fire from a neighbouring farm north into the park. 

“That night [when the fire started] the fire came up to our houses and we had to fetch water to throw on the fire, because we didn’t want it to come into our houses,” Rosa translated from a mother in her group. “Luckily none of the houses burned, but we lost our customers from that day.”

While a handful of tourists are still trickling into the park, many appear to have been frightened off. Some of the lodges in the area have posted videos on their social media accounts to show tourists that the park is safe again in a bid to mitigate their losses. Annually, the park draws about 200,000 visitors, according to the government.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ongava Game Reserve (@ongavagamereserve)

While much of the media attention and government focus is on Etosha and the damage to the ecology of the park, small communities like Rosa’s are unlikely to receive much, if any, aid. Their only hope is if the tourists come back.

But for now, they’re going to bed hungry at night — ensuring that they share what food is left with the children and babies — while the few tourists in the area eat three-course meals a kilometre away at the lodges that line the road to Etosha.

Ecological devastation

Etosha National Park, one of the largest national parks in southern Africa, spans nearly 23,000 square kilometres, and is home to 114 mammal species — like the critically endangered black rhino. 

As of 2 October 2025, the government claims that only one elephant, six springboks and three duikers have been killed, but the number is largely contested. In comparison, a 2011 fire in the park killed about 30 rhinos, 60 giraffes and 11 elephants while only burning about 250,000 to 300,000 hectares.

During a press conference on 1 October, a minister confirmed that an assessment of the situation was under way to determine the extent of the damage, but said it would take several days. 

The ministry says it has also deployed three veterinarians to the park. 

“Fires can have a good impact [on the ecology] if it’s followed by good rains, but the scale of this fire will have a severely negative impact because of habitat loss, and that leads to migration routes that have been wiped out, which can lead to more human-wildlife conflict,” said Rudie van Vuuren, a conservationist and owner of one of Namibia’s largest conservation organisations, N/a’an ku sê. 

He added that Namibia had a lot of biomass due to the previous rainy season, which greatly exacerbated the fire. N/a’an ku sê had also played an instrumental role in working in the field of human-wildlife conflict for the past 22 years.

“We are really worried about the possible increase of human-wildlife conflict, especially with carnivores,” Van Vuuren said. “[It becomes a bigger possibility] when there’s a loss of grazing for herbivores, and then the carnivores start moving out of Etosha National Park — that’s one of the things we think might happen.” 

However, Van Vuuren explained that if the rains came early this year, and the habitat recovered, then that scenario would probably be avoided. However, Namibia’s rainy season is typically between November and April — nearly a month away.

A photo of an elephant that suffered bad burn wounds also made the rounds on social media. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism has previously labelled the photo as “fake”. Daily Maverick has, however, spoken to architect and photographer Koos Reyneke, who took the photo, and was able to confirm the photo’s authenticity by inspecting its metadata.

Reyeneke said that what had happened to the elephant bothered him deeply and kept him up at night. 

Many Namibians are blaming the government for the fire.

Government criticism

Organisations and farmers in the area have criticised the government’s approach to tackling the fire, as well as the mechanisms — or lack thereof — to prevent fires. 

One such farmer, Piet Gouws, spoke to Daily Maverick.

“There was no fire break on Etosha’s side that could have prevented the fire from spreading from the farm [where the fire started]. There are also no maintained fire blocks in the park itself that could have helped to contain it,” Gouws said. 

The lack of maintained fire blocks has been a heated talking point since the fire started in late September.

A lawmaker from the opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party, Likando Rodrick, blamed the spread of the fire on Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism’s alleged unpreparedness.

“The ministry has failed to prioritise disaster readiness, leaving our national parks vulnerable to catastrophic loss.” 

Rodrick also recently tabled a motion in the country’s parliament that calls for a comprehensive strategy to strengthen wildfire preparedness, prevention and response capacity.

Namibia’s Environment Ministry also allegedly only allowed external help to combat the fires days into the blaze. 

“[Only] after four days did they [the ministry] allow in help from the military and farmers to help fight the fire. By then the area was so large that no one really knew where to start,” Gouws claimed. 

He further added that by the time they were allowed to help, “There were no maintained water sources [to use to fight the fire], and it was utter chaos because there was a lack of direction and leadership from the ministry.” 

Sean Naude, who heads a civilian disaster management organisation called the National Emergency Response Unit, also criticised the lack of direction from the ministry.

“If we had acted on day two, pulled together all resources and coordinated with private individuals, this fire could have been contained within three to four days,” he told a local paper.

Daily Maverick attempted to reach out for comment from the Environment Ministry’s spokesperson, but despite saying that they will get back to us after a press conference, Daily Maverick has received no answers to specific questions at the time of publication.

Naude also blamed the government for lacking the capacity to fight the fires, particularly the lack of Bambi Bucket (water droppers on helicopters) systems. 

Many, like Naude, have also criticised the use of soldiers to help combat the fires, due to their lack of training. 

Responding to this criticism from Naude, Namibia’s Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs, Frans Kapofi, confirmed that “soldiers are not trained to fight fires. But they are there to support, and they have put out fires everywhere.”

Namibians are heading to the polls in November for the country’s local authority elections, and the handling of the fire could have an impact on the ruling party’s performance at the polls within the regions that were affected. DM

This article has been corrected to reflect that the fire is believed to be linked to illegal charcoal production rather than coal production.