17 Nov 2019

Communal farmers in the South East District have been encouraged to exercise care for the environment and keep adequate livestock.

Department of Forestry and Natural Resources district coordinator, Mr Major Sindisa made the plea during the taking services to the people event organised by his department and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks at Mogobane recently.

He said keeping a large number of animals against a reduced grazing land contributed to soil erosion hence it was upon farmers to ensure that the environment they lived in could sustain the number of their livestock they kept.

Mr Sindisa said it was disheartening to see the loss suffered by farmers who continued to keep numbers not consist with the holding capacity.

He regretted that over years, grazing land had been reduced due to population expansion and other developments which needed land. 

He however, said the department was there to assist with reviving the environment through tree planting among other measures, an initiative which saw them distributing about 800 seedlings to the South East District community.

Senior wildlife warden, Ms Dolly Maseko informed the community that numbers of the Otse Cape Vultures were declining. 

At some point, 300 pairs were said to be remaining but currently, only 79 are noticeable at Manyelanong Hill.

Ms Maseko attributed the decline to intentional killings for use in rituals as well as food poisoning.

She said vultures as scavengers, ate dead animal hence were likely to eat animals killed by farmers through poisoning.

She appealed to farmers not to use poison to kill predators as they could unintentionally kill the rare species of vultures in the country.

The community was encouraged to take advantage of the economic empowerment programmmes under the two departments such as nursery and game farming. Ends