29 Jan 2018

United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Ms Jacinta Barrins has expressed happiness that some of the products supported and funded by UNDP/GEF have generated a lot of interest throughout the country.

The products, she mentioned include the mud stoves, solar stoves, charcoal made from bush encroachment and localised land use plans.

She made the remarks during the official closing ceremony after awarding certificates to participants who successfully completed a three-day training on Conservation Agreement jointly organised by Ngamiland Sustainable Land Management Project and Conservation International in South Africa.

The training was attended by implementers, partners from government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmers associations, parastatal organisations, learning institutions and media practitioners.

“We are very proud of your efforts and I can assure you that UNDP values the opportunity to be part of your journey in whatever you are doing. 

While we support programmes at national level, we are also very committed to support you at community level,” she added.

Ms Barrins said they have teams working at village level to enhance support and efforts made. 

She commended all for having taken a bold step in the development discourse of the district by acquiring yet another skill to employ in addressing conservation and development issues in  their area.

She assured stakeholders that UNDP would continue to work with government departments, farmers associations, community trusts, academia and NGOs to enhance initiatives in conservation and development of Botswana.

She also believed that the training would be beneficial to the Ngamiland community, noting that Conservation Agreement had worked well in some parts of South Africa. 

She thanked facilitators for having agreed to share their experiences and equip participants in the district with a tool that they could use to address some of their challenges.

Ms Barrins also appealed to all to become conservation ambassadors by putting conservation and environment on the high agenda, adding that they should engage youngsters and hear their views on issues related to conservation.

For his part, assistant district commissioner, Mr Ramogaupi Gaborekwe appreciated the training, saying there had been a lot of challenges in achieving a 50/50 beneficiation due to a lot of conflicting land uses.

He cited challenges such as human/wildlife conflict, stating that space was finite, hence competing priorities. 

He also appreciated efforts by UNDP to introduce initiatives aimed to reduce the impact on the communities. Ends