Outside of the Caprivi, hippo are unlikely to be important in the wildlife industry in Namibia. The absence of perennial water in the main body of the country precludes the establishment of hippo populations. The arid conditions along those rivers which are international boundaries will always limit the numbers of hippo which can survive. Hippo might make a small contribution to tourism values on the Cunene but there is some uncertainty about the permanence of hippo downstream of the Ruacana Falls. If hippo were re-introduced to the Orange River they would probably add to the value of the growing tourism industry in the arid south - where few other land uses offer any competitive advantage.

Hippo could make a significant financial and economic contribution to the wildlife industry in the Caprivi through any or all of the following uses:

• Harvesting for skin and meat;
• International sport hunting for trophies;
• Control of problem animals.

The value of hippo to non-hunting tourism in the Caprivi is difficult to assess and has not been attempted in this study. It seems doubtful that the presence or absence of hippo would greatly influence the number of visitors to the Caprivi and their rôle in this aspect of the wildlife industry is unlikely to be as important as are the consumptive uses. It would nevertheless be prudent to minimise the disturbances which arise from killing hippo for aesthetic reasons.

The highest valued use for an adult male hippo lies in the sport hunting industry. The net value of a single trophy bull is about US$8,000 including skin and meat values.This assumes a trophy fee of US$5,000, two hunter days worth US$1,000/day, and skin, meat and tusks valued at US$2,400. Safari op erating costs would be about US$400 for the two days allocated. However, as with elephant, quotas exceeding about 0.5% of the total population result in the elimination of most of the older adult males (Analysis 8). This puts an upper limit on the number of hippo which can be allocated to sport hunting and, in a population of 1,000, this limit is about 6 animals.

Based solely on size, the average gross value of a hippo carcase is about US$2,000 for trophy males, US$1,500 for problem animals and US$1,000 for harvested animals.

The financial values of a management regime based on the three activities listed above has been costed in Analysis 7. The management strategy is to allocate the maximum quota for sport hunting, limit the number of problem animals to the minimum and implement a hippo harvesting programme which is sustainable and which will not reduce present hippo numbers. The hippo population estimate of 1,387 animals for the Caprivi (Stander 2004) has been adjusted downwards to 900 animals to allow for population subunits which are shared with neighbouring countries.

The quotas for the three types of management are:

In calculating gross and net incomes for this quota of animals it is convenient to put the various stakeholders into two groups: the first group includes all safari operators engaged in hunting hippo and the second group includes the land occupiers of State protected areas, established conservancies and communal land in the Caprivi. This second group is referred to as the "Project". It is simple to calculate the total returns to the 'project' and to be aware that these returns have to be parcelled out amongst the various actors in the 'project' (Table 9 of Analysis 7). The budgets for the two stakeholder groups are calculated in Analysis 7 and summarised below

.

The combined net income is close to US$100,000 (N$630,000). Applying this to the area of 3,181km2 of suitable hippo habitat in the Caprivi it translates to a land use return of US$0.31/ha (N$2/ha). If the hippo population could be increased to 'carrying capacity' (5,000 animals, page 32), the net return would rise to US$1.71/ha (N$11/ha). At this level it would amount to more than half of the potential land use value of elephant (US$3.3/ha calculated in Martin 2005). The potential combined net income from hippo and elephants is about US$5/ha and this exceeds the net land use values of US$1.08 - US$4.86 for northern cattle/wildlife farms found by Barnes & de Jager (1995). The same authors found that the 'net value added' in economic terms to the land use values was in all cases more than double the financial value and it is reasonable to expect that this would hold true for the income obtained from hippos.

The numbers of hippos (N), management quotas (Q) and distribution of income amongst the various categories of land in the Caprivi is summarised below.