30 Mar 2026

Chobe Enclave Conservation Trust (CECT) has generated a total income of P20. 3 million in 2025 accrued from several key investments and operational avenues.

Presenting the manager’s report at the CECT 2025 Annual General Meeting in Kavimba on Saturday, the general manager, Mr Moses Sinchembe said P7.4 million was raised from CH2 hunting quota, P5.1 from CH1 hunting quota, P4.1 from Linyanti Bush camps, P2.4 million from Ngoma Lodge and the rest from tractors, general dealer and brick moulding businesses.

Mr Sinchembe said of the total income generated, P10.5 million would be allocated to the community of which each village being Mabele, Kavimba, Kachikau, Satau and Parakarungu would each get P2.1 million.

He stated that each village contributed P300 000 to make a total of P1.5 million toward Liswaani Junior Secondary School for maintenance of 12 hostel blocks.

Mr Sinchembe said every village undertook projects financed through the CECT income as per their respective needs and priorities.

Giving a keynote address, Chobe District Commissioner, Mr Tshepo Mophuting said CECT amassed over three decades of history as a model of natural resources conservation. 

This antecedent, he said had positioned CECT into a globally recognised standard for natural resource conservation becoming a benchmark admired by conservationists worldwide.

Mr Mophuting noted that the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) had fuelled growth and expanded opportunities for citizens, hence encouraged organisations like CECT to take the lead in exploring new investment ventures.

He thanked the forefathers for championing community-led conservation through Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRNM) initiative. 

He noted that local communities understood their resources best hence they were uniquely positioned to manage and benefit from their own natural resources.

Kgosi Lawrence Liswaani Sinvula III said CECT’s success was a testament that unity could achieve greatness. 

He said the trust was a gift from their forefathers who had championed CBNRM together with government with dikgosi at the centre of the initiative, advocating for resources to be conserved by communities so that the same communities would benefit from the resources.

“It is imperative that we carry, nurture this legacy and build as beneficiaries of CECT so that we optimally gain from the strong economic avenues in our enclave,” he said. ENDS