20 Sep 2017

Botswana being a country blessed with an abundance of wildlife is able to generate revenue from tourism, and the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism acknowledges the importance of facilitating good coexistence between humans and wildlife.

Deputy director- operations in the Ministry of Wildlife and National Parks, Mr Rex Mokandla said in an interview that government had worked on creating the requisite policy framework to allow for land usage so as to avoid conflict between wildlife and humans.

“First to be developed in the 1970s was the Tribal Grazing Land Policy, which identified communal grazing areas for livestock.

A National Conservation strategy was also formulated as well as the Tourism Act.

As such, parts of the country were designated for different land uses; national parks, wildlife management areas, as well as farming and grazing land,” Mr Mokandla said.

He said that through the Community Based Natural Resource Management Policy of 2007, rural communities have been able to use wildlife to empower themselves through tourism business ventures.

“But there are parts of the country where wildlife and humans come into conflict, especially where animals stray into people’s farms and destroy crops or kill livestock.

In order to mitigate against this, we educate farmers in such areas about how to prevent such occurrences,” Mr Mokandla said.

He urge farmers to mitigate against animals straying into their land by implementing measures such as erecting fences, adding elements in their farming field that turn away wild animals, such as beehives and adding chili pepper elements to their farms.

“In an area like Bobirwa, we have erected a strategically placed fence that divides the wildlife areas and the communal farming and grazing lands.

At Pandamatenga, where there is commercial farming, we have erected an electric fence to prevent wildlife straying into the farms,” Mr Mokandla said.

He said that in the instances where wildlife had caused damage to crops or livestock, government compensated farmers, and while there is currently a backlog in compensation, more funds were availed over the current financial year in order to step up compensation.

Mr Mokandla said conservation strategies had allowed Botswana to maintain a reasonably good population of wild animals, and in order to protect the different species of wildlife a ban on hunting is periodically instituted.

“Hunting bans are periodically reviewed, as we have to protect wild animals, while at the same time we understand how hunting can assist communities benefit from the game and tourism.

During times where there is a hunting ban, communities trusts can pursue wildlife photography as a means of generating income from the game in their areas,” Mr Mokandla said. Ends