Budget cuts bite parks
The lack of maintenance at national parks will seriously harm Namibia's reputation and competitiveness as a tourism destination in the long run.
The tourism ministry is experiencing major challenges with the maintenance and the upgrading of infrastructure in protected areas, due to budget cuts.
Deputy tourism minister Bernadette Jagger said during the ministry's recent budget motivation speech in parliament that budget declines were creating a huge challenge for the ministry, in terms of the maintenance and upkeep of park infrastructure, with costs far outweighing the available funds.
Jagger said in the long run this will seriously harm Namibia's reputation and competitiveness as a tourism destination.
According to her there have already been many complaints from tourists in this regard.
“Nevertheless, we are busy devising innovative approaches that will allow us to tackle this challenge in a manner that is both cost-effective and efficient,” Jagger said.
She said this will be an important priority focus area during the 2019/20 financial year and the ministry will strive to implement the second national land conference resolutions on the matter.
With regard to cost-cutting measures, Jagger said the ministry is cognisant of it high wage bill and has made concerted efforts to reassign and reallocate duties among its staff members.
“Many of our vacancies have not been filled, and we have taken steps to spread the workload among the existing staff members. Training programmes have been suspended and we have taken measures to reduce utility costs, such as for telephones.”
Meanwhile, three more communal conservancies were established and gazetted during 2018/19 financial year, bringing the total number to 86.
The ministry also continued its business re-engineering processes to improve service delivery and make efficiency gains.
According to Jagger the online application system for environmental clearance certificates has been opened to external clients on a trial basis and will very shortly be formally launched.
The Wildlife Utilisation Permit Online System, to enable clients to apply for permits online, is also under development with the Office of the Prime Minister. This system will facilitate a greater ease of doing business for the approximately 10 000 stakeholders that apply for these permits per year.
Jagger said the tourism industry continues to show remarkable resistance and is growing its contribution to the economy during the current economic headwinds.
The Tourist Statistical Report for 2017, which was launched in December 2018, showed an increase of tourism arrivals of 2.2% during 2017.
Jagger said further evidence of the strength of the tourism sector is the increasing employment that is being generated. The Namibia Labour Force Survey of 2016 estimated that those employed in accommodation and food service activities increased by about 63%, from 29 265 in 2014 to 47 840 in 2016.
According to Jagger the ministry is continuing to strengthen collaboration and coordination for the protection and conservation of wildlife resources.
“In order to tackle the urgent problem of human-wildlife conflict, the Revised National Policy on Human Wildlife Conflict Management was approved.”
Its implementation has started with elephant and lion conflict mitigation measures being established in the Erongo and Kunene regions.
“In order to strengthen governance practices in communal conservancies, guidelines and standard operating procedures for the management of communal conservancies were developed,” Jagger added.
ELLANIE SMIT
Deputy tourism minister Bernadette Jagger said during the ministry's recent budget motivation speech in parliament that budget declines were creating a huge challenge for the ministry, in terms of the maintenance and upkeep of park infrastructure, with costs far outweighing the available funds.
Jagger said in the long run this will seriously harm Namibia's reputation and competitiveness as a tourism destination.
According to her there have already been many complaints from tourists in this regard.
“Nevertheless, we are busy devising innovative approaches that will allow us to tackle this challenge in a manner that is both cost-effective and efficient,” Jagger said.
She said this will be an important priority focus area during the 2019/20 financial year and the ministry will strive to implement the second national land conference resolutions on the matter.
With regard to cost-cutting measures, Jagger said the ministry is cognisant of it high wage bill and has made concerted efforts to reassign and reallocate duties among its staff members.
“Many of our vacancies have not been filled, and we have taken steps to spread the workload among the existing staff members. Training programmes have been suspended and we have taken measures to reduce utility costs, such as for telephones.”
Meanwhile, three more communal conservancies were established and gazetted during 2018/19 financial year, bringing the total number to 86.
The ministry also continued its business re-engineering processes to improve service delivery and make efficiency gains.
According to Jagger the online application system for environmental clearance certificates has been opened to external clients on a trial basis and will very shortly be formally launched.
The Wildlife Utilisation Permit Online System, to enable clients to apply for permits online, is also under development with the Office of the Prime Minister. This system will facilitate a greater ease of doing business for the approximately 10 000 stakeholders that apply for these permits per year.
Jagger said the tourism industry continues to show remarkable resistance and is growing its contribution to the economy during the current economic headwinds.
The Tourist Statistical Report for 2017, which was launched in December 2018, showed an increase of tourism arrivals of 2.2% during 2017.
Jagger said further evidence of the strength of the tourism sector is the increasing employment that is being generated. The Namibia Labour Force Survey of 2016 estimated that those employed in accommodation and food service activities increased by about 63%, from 29 265 in 2014 to 47 840 in 2016.
According to Jagger the ministry is continuing to strengthen collaboration and coordination for the protection and conservation of wildlife resources.
“In order to tackle the urgent problem of human-wildlife conflict, the Revised National Policy on Human Wildlife Conflict Management was approved.”
Its implementation has started with elephant and lion conflict mitigation measures being established in the Erongo and Kunene regions.
“In order to strengthen governance practices in communal conservancies, guidelines and standard operating procedures for the management of communal conservancies were developed,” Jagger added.
ELLANIE SMIT
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