16 Sep 2020

Kgetsi ya Tsie (KyT) Tswapong Hills Womens Resource enterprise in Lerala, Moremi Manonnye in Goo Moremi and Malaka Phothophotho in Malaka are three Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) projects in the Lerala/Maunatlala constituency.

Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng, told Parliament that Kgetsi ya Tsie primary source of income was utilisation of veld products while the other two organisations utilised heritage areas within their vicinity for tourism purposes.

She said KyT’s main project was processing of morula to produce oil for both domestic and export purposes.

The trust, according to Minister Kereng, had a membership of 832 women operating in 26 Tswapong villages. She explained that the trust supplied morula kennels, which were processed into oil.

She said other additional income generating activities from morula was through the selling of morula traditional beer.

She said the Manonnye Trust had signed a partnership with BTO for development of Goo Moremi resort that provided an opportunity for both the community and the rest of the country to engage in tourism value chain actitivities such as  bringing people to view the area and with provision of agriculture supplies to the restaurant. The resort employed 38 staff members.

Ms Kereng  said Malaka Phothophotho Trust engaged in a project to develop tourism actitivities anchored on the Old Palapye ruins.

She noted that the department of museum and national parks was in the process of developing a site museum at Old Palapye with the campsite facilities being developed and would be completed by December this year.

Minister Kereng said the project did not have employees since it was on its infancy stages, but had generated P110 000 through entrance fees to the Old Palapye site.

Some of the activities that the community could engage in included horse safaris, guided tours and provision of traditional food, she said.

The minister was responding to Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Christian Greef, who asked the minister whether there were any CBNRM projctes available in the Lerala/Maunatlala constituency and greater Tswapong region.

He wanted to know how many were running and what had been the impact of the projects in the Tswapong region.

Mr Greef asked the minister to state impact on communities in terms of employment, financial returns and quality of life and state the level of the implementation o the ecotourism strategy plan in the Tswapong region.ENDS