13 Jun 2023

Habu community has been urged to play a key role in the Sustainable Wildlife Management project of their village. The call was made by Member of Parliament for Ngami, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama at the Habu field day recently.

Habu village co-existence project supported by partners such as Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and Pro Nature Enterprises project for Southern Africa is funded by French Development Agency. The project is aimed to create a balance between wildlife and farming while providing a source of livelihood to the community.

Mr Hikuama advised the community to take lead in the project and learn from the partners to ensure continuity.

“Community members should do the work themselves, some should be engaged in the livestock management themselves for the project to continue when the partners leave,” he said.

Mr Hikuama further applauded Habu Elephant Development Trust for being visionary and committed.

He however said the community trust should strive to be transparent for the community members to be part of their vision. Mr Hikuama said conserving with consideration of community livelihood at heart brought positive results.

“Conservation is only important if it contributes to the life of community members hence should not conserve at the expense of the people,” he said.

He therefore said the Habu trust coexistence project was ideal as it recognized farming especially livestock farming which was a mainstay of Habu people.

One of community members who trained in the Herding for Health programme, Mr Lefetamang Ditiho said the programme had been in place since 2018 and it allowed cattle from community members to be kept in predator proof kraals for safety and proper management.

He observed that farmers were not charged for the upkeep of their cattle. He said the cattle were kept for about two weeks in the kraals before being taken to mobile quarantine in preparation for the abattoir.

The programme,, he said, helped improve the environment as the kraals were rotated from one place to the other.

Mr Ditiho said Habu project had about four clusters which were Habu cluster, Gweedao, Boajankwe and Nxwiri. All boast a total of about 377 cattle.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Mokadi Masedi of Habu said the co-existence project was founded around 2016 with an aim to address poaching and minimize human wildlife conflict.

The traditional leader said 30 scouts have been trained therefore creating 30 jobs for Habu community.

He said the plan was to form a conservancy which would include the communities of Habu, Nokaneng, Tubu and Gumare. ENDS