Legislative changes during the 1960s-1970s granted user rights over wildlife to landowners in southern Africa, resulting in a shift from livestock farming to wildlife based land uses. Few comprehensive assessments of such land uses on private land in southern Africa have been conducted and the associated benefits are not always acknowledged by politicians. Nonetheless, wildlife-based land uses are growing in prevalence on private land. In Namibia wildlife-based land use occurs over c. 287,000 km2. Employment is positively related to income from ecotourism and negatively related to income from livestock. Keywords: Ecotourism, fencing, Namibia, private land, transfrontier, trophy hunting, wildlife.