02 Aug 2020

 Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism is in the process of reviewing compensation rates with the view to increase the current rates to be commensurate with the current economic and social needs.

This was revealed by Minister Philda Kereng, when answering a question in Parliament on Friday.

She said the review of the compensation rates would include consideration of the inclusion of species that were currently not compensated.

Also, she noted that the turnaround time to compensate affected farmers remained a challenge.

Minister Kereng said time taken to undertake an assessment was affected by transport constraints owing to the remoteness and the rough terrain where cases occurred.

“My ministry is working on resourcing DWNP with adequate vehicles to respond quickly to conflict cases,” she said.

Furthermore, she said the ministry was exploring means to involve communities in the assessments of wildlife damage and that consideration was also being given to disburse funds through BotswanaPost to facilitate ease of compensation to farmers.

Ms Kereng was answering a question from Nkange MP, Dr Never Tshabang, who had asked why the current compensation rates were low, saying they impoverished farmers. 

He also wanted to know when the ministry would review the list of wild animals that farmers could be compensated for.

Dr Tshabang had also asked why the turnaround time for  farmers’ compensation was long and if it could be shortened to enable farmers to recoup their losses. Ends