ALL 59 communal conservancies have been given N$60 000 each by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism as compensation for losses caused by wild animals.<\/p>\n
The ministry channelled the funds, N$3,5 million in total, through its Game Product Trust Fund.<\/p>\n
This was announced by Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah at the end of a two-day meeting of conservancy chairpersons and their managers last Friday.<\/p>\n
There has been a number of complains from conservancies about wild animals such as lions and elephants killing livestock and people and destroying crops.<\/p>\n
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the ministry had made N$1,9 million available to settle 2 295 claims for incidents that occurred outside conservancies.<\/p>\n
"The implementation of the scheme should commence on December 1," she said.<\/p>\n
Nandi-Ndaitwah reminded conservancies that the National Policy on Human Wildlife Conflict Management requires each conservancy to have a committee to recommend and approve compensation payments to their members.<\/p>\n
These committees must be formed by representatives from the ministry, regional councils, NGOs, the conservancy committee and the local traditional authority.<\/p>\n
Conservancies‘ financial records will be checked by the ministry on a quarterly basis. Should a conservancy misuse its allocated funds, no further allocation will be made until the case has been resolved to the satisfaction of the ministry.<\/p>\n
The minister said there are a number of ways to address human-wildlife conflicts, such as building stone walls around water points and the use of ‚chilli pepper bombs‘ to deter elephants.<\/p>\n
She said it was recently discovered that vuvuzelas can also be used for scaring away elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n ALL 59 communal conservancies have been given N$60 000 each by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism as compensation for losses caused by wild animals. The ministry channelled the funds, N$3,5 million in total, through its Game Product Trust Fund. This was announced by Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah at the end of a … <\/p>\n