17 Mar 2022

 The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Conservation is in the process of transforming the tourism sector by enhancing various products. 

Minister Philda Kereng said this on Wednesday when presenting the ministry’s budget estimates for the 2022/2023 financial year which comprised over P832million of recurrent expenditure and over P382 million of development expenditure. 

Ms Kereng said transformation of the tourism sector from wildlife would assist the nation to derive full value from opportunities offered by the sector. 

To that effect, she said the ministry had completed the Tourism Master plan for Kasane and Kazungula, aimed at availing 41 tourism concessions in both areas. She added that the ministry would avail three sites each at Gaborone and Shashe dams for citizens owned companies operating dam tourism. 

“Letsibogo and Thune dams would be availed for communities around those areas to operate tourism business,” she said. 

She said although the uptake of Agro Tourism was still low, with only 10 licenses issued for enterprises, the ministry had continued promoting the product. 

Ms Kereng said the ministry had availed resources for development of a predator park in Mokoboxane and started development of a tourism park in Khuis in the Kgalagadi district to diversify tourism.

 “We are also working on developing another nature reserve at Motlhware in Letlhakeng which we have already been able to resource with wildlife and we expect that the tourism product in the area is going to be enhanced as well as job creation,” she said. 

Further, she said the ministry would continue to promote the charcoal project in Kgalagadi as a new income generation and employment creation stream. 

She added that utilization of wild products such as morula, motshikhiri and others, and events tourism presented opportunities for income generation. 

“We expect more opportunities for jobs and income to come through our events calendar as we improve the nature of our events to bring in a whole circle of value chains and also to ensure that the communities that host these events will benefit on a long term basis from these activities,” she said. 

She said income amounting to P37 million was generated through harvesting wild products such as mophane worms, fire wood and fetching grass in this financial year. 

She added that P24.1 million was generated through the sale of hunting quotas for 70 elephants. 

On other issues, she said human wildlife conflict remained a challenge. 

She however said there was a decrease in the number of reported cases last year and associated compensation. 

Ms Kereng said the ministry had developed a strategy to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, constructed a 60-kilometre fence on the western side of the Makgadikgadi and Nxai National Park, and drilled some boreholes to mitigate human wildlife conflicts. 

She said poaching was another problem the ministry was battling with. 

She said there were 184 poaching incidents recorded in 2021 and 220 in 2020. 

“We have enhanced our strategies for anti-poaching. Our national anti-poaching strategy has been developed and we believe that we are going to be able to increase our capacity in this regard,” she said. 

On climate change mitigation, the minister said a National Climate Change Policy was developed and adopted by Parliament last year. 

She said the policy was already being implemented through establishment of a Climate Change Unit and appointment of a coordinator for the programme. 

“We continue to develop our nationally determined contribution to determine the economic impacts of climate change on Botswana’s development. 

We have also signed a treaty on the Southern African Science Service Centre in Climate Change which is availing support for us in terms of research and constructing the office,” she said. 

Ms Kereng further said the ministry continued its tree planting programme as a strategy of mitigating effects of climate change on Batswana. 

She said 52 700 trees had been planted against a target of 150 000. 

Regarding the 2022/2023 budget, the minister said the money would be use d for broadening the tourism base, enhancement of wildlife species management, ministry infrastructure, completion of projects, as well as advance interventions and initiatives around environmental protection. 

Parliament approved the ministry’s budget estimates for the next financial year. BOPA