30 Aug 2023

The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) will today release results of the KAZA-wide elephant survey, which aims at estimate the population size of elephants and other large herbivores.

The survey, which was  conducted last year, involved counting elephants across all the five KAZA member states of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In his remarks during the Chobe District Full Council session on Tuesday, council chairperson Mr Chimney Mululwani stated that the survey was also intended to direct conservation efforts in the KAZA area.

He thanked all the KAZA countries and stakeholders who played a part in ensuring that the survey was a success.

Moreover, he said since April 2023, KAZA had been hosting travel agencies from across the world on the familiarisation of the attractions endowed in the tourism zone, of which Chobe National Park was visited.

He indicated that the endeavour was meant to improve the branding of the tourism products and attract more tourists to visit Botswana.

Through the familiarisation and interaction tours, we were able to pitch our country and the region as tourist destination of note,’’ he said.

The chairperson said the KAZA TFCA continued to provide support towards community livelihood development in the entire KAZA area, adding that to date, nine contracts had been signed to facilitate implementation of community livelihood projects.

These projects he said, included fisheries-related livelihood options in Chobe and supported community engagement in the tourism value chain, horticulture and poultry projects in Chobe East coordinated by Birdlife Botswana.

Mr Mululwani stated that another project was the human-wildlife conflict mitigation measures against crop raiding and livestock depredation through the construction of kraals as well as support towards herding for health programme in Chobe West, which was implemented by WildCru.

Moreover, he said tender preparations were ongoing for the construction of a 17km game-proof electric fence around the subsistence farms in the Pandamatenga as implemented by the Department of Crop Production.

Mr Mululwani briefed councillors that Botswana and Namibia were collaborating on the development of the Kwando-Linyanti-Chobe River Trans boundary Tourism Code of Conduct, which would be a guiding document for users of the shared Chobe River between the two countries.

This, he said, would improve and reduce conflicts in tourism activities in the river and ensure that a proper number of boats were allowed in the river to allow for coexistence with wildlife. ENDS