17 Jul 2018

The Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama has acknowledged the challenges posed by human wildlife conflict to livelihoods of rural communities.

He told Parliament on Thursday that  in order to address the immediate challenges posed by wildlife, particularly elephants, his ministry had developed and implemented an operational plan which sought to drive away elephants from human settled areas.

Mr Tshekedi said in relation to the elimination of human/wildlife conflict, “people must be realistic because  the fact that the two share the same space,  the problem can not be eradicated.”

Therefore, he said the aim was to reduce it to levels that would not have a negative impact on either animals or humans.He said there was a detailed roll out plan for control and management of elephants that would be provided to Parliament.

MP for Nkange, Mr Edwin Batshu had asked the minster to apprise parliament on a detailed plan on how the ministry intended to eliminate human\wildlife conflict which currently threatened the future of both arable and pastoral farming, thus posing a serious national economic threat. ENDS