05 Nov 2013

Botswana’s unique natural wonders are a blessing from God that must be taken care of, the President, Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama, has said.

In a State-of-the-Nation Address on November 4, President Khama said government was committed to engaging both domestic and international stakeholders in the private sector and civil society to assist in the conservation and sustainable development of natural heritage.

President Khama said this was evidenced by Botswana’s championing of the Gaborone Declaration, which called for a worldwide recognition of the intrinsic value of ecosystems through natural capital accounting.

He said Botswana was exploring practical measures to ensure that the value of natural capital was integrated into the future national development planning. He said the government has decided to introduce a ban on the hunting of wildlife in all controlled hunting areas with effect from January 2014. The decision, he said, was necessitated by available scientific-based information indicating that several wildlife species were declining.

The suspension of hunting, he said, would allow government and other stakeholders to focus on understanding the causes of these declines and, where possible, to put in place remedial measures to reverse the trend.

“Government is fully cognizant of the effect that the ban will have on community-based organisations that have been benefiting from hunting in the past,” he said. He added that efforts were underway to prepare the affected communities for sustainable non-consumptive use of their resources, through the development of management plans.

He said communities and concessionaires are capacitated to undertake resource monitoring in areas affected to allow them to track the impact of management interventions such as water provision and measures to reduce illegal off take and fire management. On the tourism aspect, President Khama told the nation that government has instituted initiatives aimed at improving the participation of Batswana in the tourism industry.

These initiatives, he said, includes reserving licenses for certain activities for citizens such as mobile operators, tourist guest houses, tourist operators, as well as camps and caravans. He pointed out that as at April 2013, there were 847 licensed tourism enterprises, out of which 473 are wholly owned by citizens. This, he said, was an increase of 67 from the previous year. One hundred and four other tourism enterprises are joint ventures while 220 were non-citizen owned.

“We have also been empowering local communities through the promotion of community based natural resources management projects which now stands at 109 across the country,” he said. President Khama said sport tourism also grew, with the accreditation of the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1 000 km dessert race to the Dakar Rally Challenge. ENDS