Inaccurate wildlife conflict reports cost ministry
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has been inundated with inaccurate reports of human-wildlife conflict.
The minister of environment and tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, says inaccurate reports of human-wildlife conflicts are unnecessarily diverting the ministry's already limited resources.
Shifeta said the ministry viewed human-wildlife conflict in a very serious light and with the limited resources at its disposal it had been trying its best to respond to these cases as fast as possible.
He added, however, that the ministry had been inundated with inaccurate reports of conflicts but also some agricultural developments which have been done despite local knowledge about wildlife routes and movements and in the absence of environmental impact assessments.
“We now have a situation that where such a development has taken place without any mitigation of wildlife conflicts, as required by the Environmental Management Act, Act 7 of 2007, the expectation is placed on the ministry to respond to each and every conflict, a situation that could have been avoided in the first place.”
Shifeta said this when he responded to a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources – Motion on Human Wildlife Conflict (23 April – 14 May 2016).
One of the recommendations in the report was that the ministry should respond promptly to human-wildlife conflict.
Shifeta said the ministry was facing major challenges of poaching and inadequate personnel.
“The new structure of the ministry has been approved and recruitment is under way where the budget allows.”
According to Shifeta the ministry has been experiencing budgetary constraints and its budget for this financial year has been cut significantly.
“Consequently, the ministry will not be able to fill all its vacancies and no new vehicles will be purchased. We will however try our level best to address this issue as resources allow.”
Meanwhile Shifeta said that he has issued a directive that at least 30% of the total revenue generated by conservancies in Namibia must be spent on member benefits rather than just operating costs.
He has further directed that a survey should be done of all social development projects within conservancies and when this information is available further directive to conservancies may follow.
Shifeta said that the ministry did not make any lofty promises to the communities during the implementation of the Community Based Natural Resources Management programme.
According to Shifeta some of the findings of the parliamentary report were factually incorrect and consequently the recommendations that have been arrived at have been based on information that is not accurate.
He said the committee in its report indicated that there is an overly positive narrative about the CBNRM programme as reflected in the 2014/15 conservancy report.
The committee requesting the ministry to conduct a genuine review of the community–based natural resources programme and its “lofty promises” to conservancies.
Shifeta however said that the state of community conservation report is based on factual information and the figures reflected in that are accurate.
“Conservancies are at various levels of development. While some conservancies are doing very well in terms of income generation, others are struggling either due to suitability of an area to implement conservancy activities or there is lack of champions to carry the work forward or both.”
ELLANIE SMIT
Shifeta said the ministry viewed human-wildlife conflict in a very serious light and with the limited resources at its disposal it had been trying its best to respond to these cases as fast as possible.
He added, however, that the ministry had been inundated with inaccurate reports of conflicts but also some agricultural developments which have been done despite local knowledge about wildlife routes and movements and in the absence of environmental impact assessments.
“We now have a situation that where such a development has taken place without any mitigation of wildlife conflicts, as required by the Environmental Management Act, Act 7 of 2007, the expectation is placed on the ministry to respond to each and every conflict, a situation that could have been avoided in the first place.”
Shifeta said this when he responded to a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources – Motion on Human Wildlife Conflict (23 April – 14 May 2016).
One of the recommendations in the report was that the ministry should respond promptly to human-wildlife conflict.
Shifeta said the ministry was facing major challenges of poaching and inadequate personnel.
“The new structure of the ministry has been approved and recruitment is under way where the budget allows.”
According to Shifeta the ministry has been experiencing budgetary constraints and its budget for this financial year has been cut significantly.
“Consequently, the ministry will not be able to fill all its vacancies and no new vehicles will be purchased. We will however try our level best to address this issue as resources allow.”
Meanwhile Shifeta said that he has issued a directive that at least 30% of the total revenue generated by conservancies in Namibia must be spent on member benefits rather than just operating costs.
He has further directed that a survey should be done of all social development projects within conservancies and when this information is available further directive to conservancies may follow.
Shifeta said that the ministry did not make any lofty promises to the communities during the implementation of the Community Based Natural Resources Management programme.
According to Shifeta some of the findings of the parliamentary report were factually incorrect and consequently the recommendations that have been arrived at have been based on information that is not accurate.
He said the committee in its report indicated that there is an overly positive narrative about the CBNRM programme as reflected in the 2014/15 conservancy report.
The committee requesting the ministry to conduct a genuine review of the community–based natural resources programme and its “lofty promises” to conservancies.
Shifeta however said that the state of community conservation report is based on factual information and the figures reflected in that are accurate.
“Conservancies are at various levels of development. While some conservancies are doing very well in terms of income generation, others are struggling either due to suitability of an area to implement conservancy activities or there is lack of champions to carry the work forward or both.”
ELLANIE SMIT
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