20 May 2013

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT) says government’s decision to ban hunting in Botswana by 2014 was taken with the best intentions at heart.

Officially opening the Ngamiland District Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) forum in Maun, Mr Neil Fitt said he believes the decision was made looking at the information presented at the time.

“The decision is there and we will have to work with it. We will be assessing the situation as we go forward and the more information we get the more we will be able to say if it was the right decision or needs modifying or whether it needs total overhaul,” he said.

He indicated that until government has put the ban in place and operated for some time, they really cannot say if the decision is good or bad. Furthermore, he said his ministry will do annual air surveys to get a trend of wildlife species and available developments. 

“I have been getting calls from stakeholders and even people from outside on why we are banning hunting.

The information we got at the time showed a great decline in some of our species,” he said. He indicated that Botswana has always been precautionary when it comes to such decisions and government was aware that people in Ngamiland and Chobe are in the frontline of problem animals.

“We have seen an increase of human-wildlife conflicts, especially with elephants and we are talking with the Ministry of Lands and Housing on how best to allocate plots in highly populated areas,” said Mr Fitt.

He further said they were in discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture on the rates and crop yields to be paid to farmers, as they look into moving to 100 per cent compensation when wildlife has done damage to either crops or livestock.

“As the president has said, the 100 per cent compensation will be retrospective from April 1, this year once it is implemented. We are hoping to get this finalized by the end of the month,” he said. 

Mr Fitt further informed delegates that his ministry is in talks with Hotel and Tourism Association of Botswana to see if they cannot persuade lease holders of concessions to maintain buffalo fences that they operate next to. On CBNRM, Mr Fitt said it was established in 1999 and has been running ever since.

He indicated that tourism has always been considered an elitist field but CBNRMs are proving otherwise as they showed that communities can be hands on and benefit directly as well as help government drive poverty eradication. 

Delegates from community based organizations informed Mr Fitt that they were not consulted regarding the ban on hunting.

They felt that government was not addressing poaching problem but rather punishing those that hunt legally.

Delegates also felt that government should consider giving locals leases of land for up to 50 years instead of foreign nationals. ENDS