By Joe-Chintha Garises
KEETMANSHOOP, 3 June 2022 – The Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism hosted its annual Conservancy Forum for the southern regions at the Schutzenhaus Lodge at Keetmashoop, in //Kharas on Friday.
Minister of Environment, Tourism, and Forestry (MEFT), Pohamba Shifeta, opened the event by saying this is one of the most important events on the MEFT calendar as it provides a platform to assess and review achievements, challenges, and opportunities faced by our communal conservancies.
“In the ministry, our consistent and unequivocal belief is that there will be no successful wildlife conservation without the involvement of the local communities and an incentive mechanism to offset the cost of living with such wildlife,” Shifeta pointed out.
The southern regions were among those that had had the brown locust invasion.
“The aim of the facility is to provide relief to enable communal conservancies and community forests to pay salaries for game guards, forest monitors, and staff to continue with wildlife monitoring activities such as patrols, anti-poaching, and to respond to human-wildlife conflict,” he added.
The ministry, he said, is aware that communal conservancies rely on hunting, tourism, and other natural resources for their income which has been severely affected by Covid-19, but urges that the members receive benefits.
“Our emphasis should be continuing to enhance good governance, distribute benefits, fight to poach, reduce human-wildlife conflict, as well to make the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programmes sustainable,” he concluded. – Namibia Daily News