11 Nov 2019

Community Management Plan of Protected Areas for Conservation (COMPACT) project is being piloted in the Okavango Delta Panhandle.

The project under the National Museum and Monuments in association Okavango Research Institute (ORI) and UNDP aims to ensure communities around World Heritage sites fully benefit from the management of such.

Speaking at an engagement meeting in Maun recently to give an update on the progress of the project, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Dr Oduetse Koboto said the COMPACT project was taking shape.

Dr Koboto observed that Botswana was adopting COMPACT, which had been piloted in other countries around the world.

He said locally, the COMPACT replica was termed: Engaging Local Communities in the Conservation and Management of the World Heritage Sites in Africa.

Dr Koboto expressed a wish that the COMPACT strategy is completed by end of December for the communities in the Okavango Panhandle to start benefiting from the strategies as intended.

“The intention is that communities should benefit and derive sustainable development from the natural resources in the heritage sites,” he said

ORI’s  Professor Olekae Thakadu said the institution was still engaging stakeholders and the COMPACT project reference group.

He said the next plan was to involve the communities around the Okavango Panhandle through consultations to appreciate their input.

Prof. Thakadu said the communities should identify the projects relevant to them, which would equally benefit their livelihoods.

UNDP representative Ms Abigail Engelton said the COMPACT model was similar to a Community Based Natural Resources Management model within a heritage society.

Ms Engelton said COMPACT was hoped to ensure the conservation of protected areas while successfully benefiting the communities.

“The intention is that communities get involved and benefit and do not only become  spectators in the heritage sites,” she said. ENDS