Botswana’s Minister of Agriculture Development and Food Security, Mr Karabo Gare, has stated that the implementation of community-based natural resources management and community conservancy approach in Ngamiland should work towards addressing challenges of diminished natural resources, livestock and regional beef production.
The Minister disclosed this at a recent launch of a sustainable wildlife management community conservancy project in Habu, urging the community to work towards a model that would improve agriculture and range management to receive greater returns.
“I also urge Habu farmers to support this project as it contributes to the regional efforts to foster co-existence between people and wildlife within the KAZA region,” he said.
Mr. Gare expressed further that the sustainable wildlife management approach could reconcile issues of food security, community wellbeing and biodiversity conservation. According to him, the project would take one step further to support community-led efforts to integrate wildlife, livestock and rangeland management.
The Minister highlighted that the overall objective of the sustainable wildlife management project was to reconcile the challenges of wildlife conservation with those of food security in a set of key socio-ecosystems. He expects that through this the Habu community will contribute to developing sustainable and planned grazing, consistent with wildlife co-existence and wildlife tourism enterprises that will provide additional jobs for income generation.
