23 Jun 2019

 President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi is expected to attend the inaugural AU/UN Wildlife Economy Summit in Zimbabwe today(June 24).

He is attending the summit at the invitation of Zimbabwe president, Mr Emmerson Mnangangwa.

A press release from the Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation states that the summit is an initiative aimed at forging a new deal for tourism, rural communities and wildlife by 2030.

It says the summit hosted by Zimbabwe, in partnership with the African Union and the United Nations Environment Programme, would consider tourism, rural communities and wildlife issues in Africa with a view to securing new investments in tourism based sectors to ensure a sustainable future for the continent’s people and wildlife.

A total of 500 delegates from 30 countries are expected to attend the summit.

 It would focus on how African countries can leverage on wildlife resources to turnaround their economies through sustainable wildlife conservation.

 Topics for discussion at the summit would include the impact of wildlife on ordinary people and how to manage human-wildlife conflict to ensure co-existence.

Botswana and Zimbabwe are part of the five countries that form the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) that hosts over 60 per cent of the world’s elephant population. The other countries are Namibia, Angola and Zambia.

In May, Botswana hosted an Elephant Summit in Kasane to help the KAZA countries come up with a common tone for conserving and managing elephants while ensuring that sustainable benefits were derived from contribution to rural livelihoods and tourism.

Chairperson of the Shakawe based Trust for Okavango Cultural and Development Initiative (TOCADI), Mr Gakemotho Satau said in an interview that he hoped the summit would help Botswana communities on how best to benefit from implementation of the just lifted hunting ban.

He said TOCADI viewed the lift as a positive step towards addressing human/wildlife conflict.

He cited that most of the communities living in the wildlife areas were poor and it was their wish to see proceeds from hunting benefiting people from such areas. ENDS