18 Oct 2022

Stakeholders have vowed to support the newly formed The Simmon Phuthego Organisation (TSPO).

The organisation aims to mitigate human/wildlife conflict and better serve victims in local communities of Southern Africa’s Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region.

It also aims to change lives in Botswana’s elephant range as well as in the KAZA Transfontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA).

It will raise funds for targeted adaptation and mitigation of human wildlife conflict through an annual KAZA co-existence charity bushwalk, which will be held on a revolving basis in the KAZA states of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola.

The proceeds will benefit profiled victims injured by wild animals in each country.

Speaking during its launch in Maun on Monday, stakeholders said the organisation was a welcome development as it would help to promote co-existence and minimise incidents of human/wildlife conflict in the region.

They said as local communities relied on subsistence farming for their livelihoods, their agricultural activities end up encroaching on wildlife habitat, resulting in conflict, adding that as elephant populations increased they left their habit and moved into human settled areas.

Former MP for Maun East, Mr Konstantinos Markos pledged his support to the organisation, noting that it would impact positively on the lives of the victims and the community.

“I will support the organisation to ensure the founder achieves his dream of making a difference in the lives of the victims,” he added.

Mr Markos also pledged to assist the Disana victims, a mother and her daughter who were attacked and mauled by a crocodile while harvesting tswii (water lily).

They each lost a hand and they were reportedly struggling to make ends meet.

He volunteered to provide them with food hampers for 12 months.

Sharing some challenges of human/wildlife co-existence, a board member of TSPO, Mr Gosiame Mahupele said as human populations and demand for space continued to grow, people and wildlife were increasingly interacting and competing for resources, which led to increased human/wildlife conflicts.

He said communities residing along the wetlands were prone to the problem with elephants, lions and hyenas being the most problematic animals.

Mr Mahupele said communities had to make informed decisions to co-exist with animals, which encroached into their spaces in search of water.

Some members of the community, he said, ended up poisoning the predators, which posed a risk to extinction of other species, such as vultures.

He also noted that clearance of land for agricultural activities did not only result in loss of habitat for wildlife, but forced them into close quarters with humans.

Meanwhile, Mr Simmon Phuthego, the founder, expressed concern over lack of psycho-social support for those who were injured or had loved ones killed by wildlife as they suffered trauma.

He explained that the organisation would actively promote human/ wildlife co-existence and develop marginalised youth through sport within the KAZA region.

“Helping them to adapt to and mitigate against human/wildlife conflict is an effective co-existence strategy, which thus far had not been explored in any significant way in all KAZA states,” he added.

Mr Phuthego, an amateur mountaineer, said he would also raise funds through his corporate sponsored mountaineering expeditions to conquer the last five highest continental mountain peaks.

He has so far conquered Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro in 2014 and Europe’s Mount Elbrus in 2018. ENDS