04 Nov 2015

Ambassador Earl Miller of the United States has commended Botswana for opening the Chobe forest reserves.

Speaking at Forest Conservation Botswana's (FCB) annual general meeting on Tuesday (November 3), Ambassador Miller said FCB's approval of a P10.8 million project for development of the Chobe forest reserves management plan was commendable.

In the next two years, he said, the plan would guide management of the reserves to ensure environmental sustainability and improvement of livelihoods by job creation from ecotourism activities.

If effectively accomplished, he said the plan would have a significant impact on the nation’s economic trajectory.

In his statement, on behalf of Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism and also FCB chairperson, Mr Felix Monggae said the government was committed to ensuring sustainability of its natural resources and biodiversity in order to allow the future generations to enjoy the same, if not better, standards of living.

In line with this assurance, he said “we have adopted the UN 2030 Development agenda and we pay particular attention to Goal 15, which calls on nations to; “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.”

The Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Monggae said was also strongly committed to ensuring implementation of appropriate plans, so that the set goals and objectives were accomplished in an efficient and effective manner.

As a country, he said, Botswana was fully aware of the importance of forests as carbon sinks as well as their contribution to curbing climate change. 

As such, he said FCB would continue to support projects meant to combat issues of deforestation and land degradation and those that would improve livelihoods. 

Therefore, he also stressed that the decision by government to open the Chobe Forest Reserves should be fully supported by FCB.

The opening of these reserves for future sustainable resource utilisation and eco-tourism entrepreneurship, Mr Monggae said was anticipated to create 500 jobs. 

In order to realise this target, he said there should be close collaboration mainly amongst; FCB, Department of Forestry and Range Resources, Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Department of Tourism and Botswana Tourism Organisation.

Presenting FCB's 2014/15 Annual Report, FCB chief executive officer, Mr Joshua Moloi said FCB was still faced with challenges of; low quality proposals, low utilization of grant funds by grantees an few incidents of financial mismanagement by awarded grantees. 

However, despite these challenges, he said this was a successful year for FCB, as the company continued to do well in terms of its financial management.

To address these challenges, Mr Moloi said FCB had come up with potential solutions, such as soliciting support from field based government extension workers for development of fundable project proposal, intensifying project and financial management training, engaging consultants for technical backstopping and facilitating setting up of structured support mechanism by associated technical department. Ends