04 May 2023

Kgosi Kebonyetsala Fish of Nokaneng has welcomed the Enhanced livelihoods and natural resource management under accelerated climate change (ELNAC) project. 

The project focuses on enhancing the human and wildlife relationship, natural resources management and conservation in the Okavango delta by Okavango Research Institute (ORI). 

According to ORI, the project is an effort to address human-wildlife conflict and failing conservation and development objectives in the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area.

Funded by the Southern African Service Center for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL), it would be implemented in Nokaneng and surrounding areas in the Okavango district.

In an interview after an introductory workshop to sensitise the communities on the project at Gumare on Wednesday, Kgosi Fish said he was delighted that the project would run for three years, adding that they were pinning their hopes on it to bring positive results and benefit the community.

He said he believed that the project would develop more effective and sustainable conservation models that would better integrate livelihoods of local communities, who lived in poverty in the midst of rich natural resources.

 Kgosi Fish said he was hopeful that recommendations of some economic strategies/schemes that could benefit the community would be made.

He said a lot of research had been undertaken in the area, but they had failed to improve the livelihoods of the communities. 

He said he believed that the new project would also help community trusts come up with income generating projects to create employment opportunities for members of the community.

When launching the project, acting ORI director, Dr Mangaliso Gondwe appealed to the community to fully support and collaborate with them to ensure smooth implementation of the project.

Dr Gondwe assured the gathering that the project would benefit the communities in and around the delta, citing that it would enhance the social, economic and cultural value of resources in order to create an incentive for good governance.

Outlining some key objectives of the project, Professor Richard Fynn emphasised that the project would identify pertinent issues of natural resources, tourism and climate change among others.

He said the project would improve governance of natural resource use and wildlife conservation and promoting access to functional heterogeneity of natural resources across large landscapes for local communities, livestock and wildlife.

Prof. Fynn said other objectives included integration of local communities into conservation management and decision making and quantification of the availability and diversity of natural resources and wildlife across large landscapes.

He said through the workshop, they sought to not only to consult communities but also seek suggestions for some components of research that would need further improvement as well as to create a platform for the establishment of a collaborative, working relationship. Ends