15 Mar 2018

Parliament has approved the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism budget of P756.1 million for the ministry’s recurrent budget and P449.8 million for the development budget for the financial year 2018/19.

Presenting the budget in Parliament on March 14, Minister Tshekedi Khama said the bulk of the budget in the sum of P280 million had been allocated the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, 60 per cent of which would be used for personal emoluments. 

The ministry headquarters has been allocated P218.6 million, 39 per cent of which goes to Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO). 

The minister said the Department of Tourism had been allocated P17.3 million, 71 per cent of which budget allocation went to personal emoluments. 

Other ministry expenditures include the sum of P54.9 million for meteorological services department and P22 million for Waste Management and Pollution Control. 

The Department of Forestry and Range Resources has been allocated P111 million, while the Department of Environmental Affairs has been allocated P24.9 million and National Museum and Monuments allocated the sum of P27 million.

Under the development budget, he said the ministry headquarters had been allocated the sum of P155.5 million that would be used for several projects, which included ministry computerisation project, environmental protection and infrastructure projects.

In addition, he said, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks had been allocated P90.5 million for various projects under the Wildlife Species Management programme.

“The funds are meant for projects such as construction of Kang Anti-poaching Unit, mechanical workshops, air strips, specialised vehicles, DWNP fence maintenance and development and wildlife borehole drilling and water reticulation, among others. 

The ultimate goal in undertaking these projects is to reduce human wildlife conflict including the incidence of poaching and trafficking of wildlife,” said Mr Khama.

The minister further said during this 2018/19 financial year, the ministry intends to broaden the tourism base, and that the sum of P203.7 million had been requested to expand the tourism sector and make the sector more efficient and profitable. 

He said some of the projects to be undertaken under the programme included, among others, tourism land banks, dam tourism, refurbishment and development of monument sites.

Meanwhile, Mr Khama informed Parliament that budgetary constraints remained one of the main impediments to facilitation of growth in the tourism sector, despite the fact that it had the potential to diversify the economy and improve the quality of life of Batswana by creating employment.

Commenting on the budget proposals debate, most of the legislators decried the human-wildlife conflict, noting that their constituents were battling to contain this conflict, but their efforts were being heavily undermined by shortage of wildlife officers in various constituencies, especially in areas with broad tourism base such as Okavango, Chobe and Ngami regions.

They complained about a high number of elephants in their constituencies, which had resulted in excessive damage to human property and loss of lives.

“Elephants have taken over. They raid ploughing fields and lots of lives have been lost,” lamented Maun East MP, Mr Konstantinos Markus.

For his part, MP for Nata-Gweta, Mr Polson Majaga said the ministry was too protective over animals as compared to human lives, while MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone said his electorate were in a state of despair because nothing was being done to protect them. 

MP for Bobonong, Mr Shaw Kgathi and Nkange legislator, Mr Edwin Batshu said elephants roamed ploughing fields indiscriminately and that their electorate were terrorised.

The two MPs further called for projects aimed at mitigating human/wildlife conflict as the co-existence of the two was not feasible.

Gabane-Mankgodi MP, Maj Gen. Pius Mokgware called for a medical cover for employees at camp sites. He further called the ministry responsible for employment to look into general welfare of the employees, arguing that they were victimised by their employers.

Leader of opposition, Mr Duma Boko blamed government for the problem, saying that animals were under government’s control. He further suggested that hunting should be restored and that the affected communities were entitled to recover their losses.

He further called on the ministry to put in place technology that would enable local communities to market and control packages under the Destination Management Companies, which he said Batswana were deprived of.

Meanwhile, Minister Khama said the ministry had been inadequately resourced for the last 10 years. He said various strategies would be put in place to carry out elephant management, including compensation for loss of property. ENDS