22 Jul 2014

Government has been requested to annul the decision to stop hunting pending further discussions with relevant stakeholders.

In a motion he presented to Parliament on Friday July 18 by Member of Parliament for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone said the Ngami community was of the strong view that the decision by government to ban hunting was not done in good faith.

Mr Arone said the community was not consulted and did not agree with the assertion by government that trophy hunting has led to the decline of different wildlife species.

“Hunting has been controlled by the issuance of quotas from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP). They advise on the number of different species and determine the type of animals on offer. Botswana Wildlife Management Association also is in disagreement with government over the ban of hunting,” he said.

Mr Arone said trophy hunting was part of the Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) policy or one of the programmes that supported the policy.

He said the decision to suspend hunting activities led to a collapse of many development Trusts in the area.

In his recent visit to Mababe community Trust, Mr Arone said he was asked about the decision by government to stop hunting.

He said over 4 000 young people were now without jobs as companies have closed shop.

“Government’s assertion that species are declining is not true. Botswana has the largest number of elephants in the entire continent growing at four percent every year. The other problem we are facing is the human elephant conflict which results in casualties. Over the last two months we recorded four deaths as a result of these jumbos,” he said.

Contributing to the debate Maun West MP, Mr Tawana Moremi said he was expecting the CBNRM Act to be instituted to assist with the challenge put forward by Mr Arone.

Mr Moremi said the CBNRM Status Report compiled by Dr Mbaiwa of the Okavango Research Institute noted that the decision by government was not done based on any scientific proof but only a political decision.

He said the hunting quotas issued where not fair to those in community areas and were favouring those on farms in contrast with section 15 of the Constitution.

For his part the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama said two years ago government began consulting with the Ngami community and did a holistic approach.

Mr Khama said the population of Ngami was about 155 000 and out of that at least 45 000 livelihood depended on tourism.

“We couldn’t continue with hunting without taking into account the population of species. We do have scientific proof. In the south western part there was a decline in wildebeest and springbok due to various factors, of course some settlements were populated,” he added.

The minister conceded that they were faced with challenges of elephant’s impact on the flora and fauna and needed to come up with a methodology that would provide a better sustainable solution.

He said he had banned the export of animals from privately owned farms which had a lucrative market in neighbouring South Africa.

He said they were setting up opportunities for mixed use in the non-consumptive and consumptive tourism. ENDS