One of the greatest tragedies in Namibian conservation is playing out on the Kavango River east of Rundu in the Shamvura area where poachers operating from the Angolan side of the river have wiped out 75% of the local hippo population over the past year. Eyewitnesses report seeing Angolan individuals indiscriminately and in open daylight shooting at the hippo pod on the Namibian side of the river in what appears to be a thriving illegal trade in hippo meat across the river. It's not just Angolans: last week, I was told of how an illegal logger who injured himself with a chainsaw somehow managed to convince the MEFT wardens in Rundu that this was the result of a hippo attack, with one pregnant hippo cow then shot as "a problem animal." The problem here is not any animal but a creature called greed: from the last wetland count along this 30 km stretch of the Kavango River of 187 hippos, the count this year could only find 47 hippos - but plenty of evidence of poaching camps on the Angolan side of the river, a dead croc and a hippo that may have been killed in the incident referred to above. And, needless to say, plenty of illegal nets spanning the width of the river used by the nocturnal poachers to strip the river of any fish they can sell for cash at local markets. The lack of enforcement by the MEFT is blamed by their wardens on the usual host of excuses: no transport available, no boats with which to control the river (a problem to large extent caused by the low bridge at Calais, I guess) and just a general unwillingness to go after the individuals known to be involved. This past weekend, the hippos got a break when the Namibian police and their Angolan counterparts arrested two individuals well known to be the main poachers after they fled across the river initially to escape arrest. Now, I know there will be people who say that the Kavango River and its resources belongs to all the people and they should be allowed to make use of those resources to feed themselves. This is the age-old tragedy of the commons: when a resource belongs to everyone, there is no shared sense of responsibility in carefully managing that resource to ensure sustainable off-takes by the locals. There will always be one or more individuals who will abuse this resource for personal financial gain if there is a lack of oversight and enforcement. But the Kavango River is not just a local resource: it is one shared by everyone, from the local people living on its banks to the tourism sector that is the single largest local employer here, making it a national resource.