diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 8fcae0069e0..d3d0abed612 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ Release 0.19.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-961   Delete multiple columns by regular expression
                (Samuel Guo via Stack)
    HBASE-722   Shutdown and Compactions
+   HBASE-983   Declare Perl namespace in Hbase.thrift
         
   NEW FEATURES
    HBASE-875   Use MurmurHash instead of JenkinsHash [in bloomfilters]
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift
index e9e2f89f66d..052e5633ed3 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ namespace java org.apache.hadoop.hbase.thrift.generated
 namespace cpp  apache.hadoop.hbase.thrift
 namespace rb Apache.Hadoop.Hbase.Thrift
 namespace py hbase
+namespace perl Hbase
 
 // note: other language namespaces tbd...