07 Dec 2015

Botswana remains committed to conservation efforts even in the face of minimal international funding. 

Speaking at this year’s Botswana Travel and Tour Expo (BTTE) recently, Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism,  Tshekedi Khama decried that since being declared a middle income country, Botswana receives little funding for anti-poaching and conservation innitiatives. 

“We are not afraid to ask for assistance, this is the one country in Africa that will commit to doing something even when we do not have funding,” he said. 

He however noted that in the last three years, Botswana had been fortunate enough got some assistance worth 800 000 Euros from Holland and 10 million Yuan from China. 

That notwithstanding, he emphasised that the country remained resolute in its conservation strategy. 

“The best thing we ever did, although I am sure the hunters would differ, was to ban hunting in this country and this was because certain species were decreasing, hence we needed to take stock of where we are to ensure that our decisions going forward are well informed, and most importantly that we do not use hunting as a form of culling,” he added. 

“Hunting ban means just that with Botswana,” he said, emphasising that hunting and conservation are two diferent things that cannot be used comfortably in the same sentence.

Khama noted that government has a programme to drill 25 boreholes around the country in order to manage the movement of animals and keep them away from causing trouble for the communities. 

“We have what could possibly be the biggest sanctuary in the whole world,” he said, adding that Botswana has been the best-kept secret and it was not time to unlock that secret. 

The high value/low impact tourism model in Botswana, he said, is due to the fact that the country has to have an ecologically stable system to maintain what is being done, which tends to be very difficult. He added that the country continues to learn every day to polish this model into being the best model that it can possibly be.

Khama encouraged the visiting international tour operators to provide feedback on what they would like to see offered by Botswana and feel free to critique the current model. 

Meanwhile, he condemned the shooting of a black rhino in Namibia earlier this year after the rhino was deemed to be ‘too aggressive.’ ENDS