09 Dec 2014

Hunting was suspended following evidence that several wildlife species particularly in the Okavango delta were declining, says the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama.

Responding to a question in Parliament on December 8, Mr Khama said there was need to understand the causes of the declines and to put in place measures to address such.

He said the review of the order would be undertaken by his ministry and will be informed by the results of monitoring of the status of the affected wildlife species and the impact of the remedial measures.

He said the suspension was instituted through Statutory Instrument No. 2 of 2014, by way of background statistics in September this year, when CNN reported on the world wildlife Fund’s findings highlighting a 52 per cent overall decline in the global wildlife population.

MP for Ghanzi North, Mr Noah Salakae had asked the minister to state the order that introduced the hunting ban in 2014, when the review will be undertaken, if public participation will be involved in the reviewing of the Order and who will be carrying out the review and if the findings of this review will be published for public consumption. ENDS