This elephant conservation and management plan will for the next ten years guide the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism in its conservation management of the elephant population of Namibia. This plan is based on extensive consultation with all key stakeholders, and their rich input is much appreciated. The Directorate of Scientific Services in cooperation with the Directorate of Parks and Wildlife Management coordinated this process, and their work is commended. The elephant conservation and management plan for 2020/2021-2030/2031 provides a comprehensive review of the recent history of the elephant population and its management and all of the core issues and challenges that we as a Ministry and our conservation partners including rural communities that take part in our community based natural resource management programme have to face to sustain the elephant population amidst many challenges. Not least of which is the risk of climate change which is expected to have a severe impact on Namibia and its natural resources and the people dependent on these resources. In this regard, it is critically important to maintain and strengthen landscape connectivity and prevent the fragmentation of elephant habitat and the obstruction of their movements. After many years of absence of illegal killing of elephants, Namibia saw a flare-up in illegal killing of elephants in 2014, but the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies notably the Namibian Defence Force, the Namibian Police and the judiciary were able to reduce the incidence of illegal killing and cross-border trafficking of elephant products to the current low level. At no stage did these illegal practices pose a significant threat to the status of elephants in Namibia. However, the effort to combat illegal killing and trafficking of elephants (and rhinoceros) has consumed much of the Ministry’s resources. I want to thank the development and conservation partners of the Ministry who have contributed so much to this effort. Namibia takes part in major international conservation initiatives, including transfrontier conservation. The core of our elephant population forms part of the larger Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area elephant population and we are proud to present this elephant conservation and management plan as our contribution to cross-border collaboration in the conservation of shared elephant populations. This National Elephant Conservation and Management Plan departs from our previous species conservation plans by including regional action plans in recognition that challenges and opportunities vary from region to region. The Ministry will, in addition to establishing Park Advisory Committees that will consist of all key stakeholders, also establish regional elephant management structures that will oversee the implementation of the regional action plans. These regional elephant management structures will create a platform for all stakeholders to decide on priorities jointly and to coordinate interventions. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism would like to thank all its staff members, partners and stakeholders who participated in developing this management plan, specifically the GOPA consultancy firm that was appointed to help implement the NamParks IV Project which is co-funded by the Government of the Republic of Namibia and the German Government through KfW, who facilitated the compilation of this plan by the Agra ProVision consultancy team.