Forums.NitroExpress.com

Namibia: San Group Pays a Healthy Hunting Dividend to Govt

The Namibian (Windhoek)
November 30, 2006
Absalom Shigwedha

AN association representing Namibia's most disadvantaged minority group yesterday gave money to the Government's Game Products Trust Fund (GPTF).

The Kyaramacan Association of the San people living inside the Caprivi National Park, which will in future form part of the Bwabwata National Park, gave N$1,2 million to the GPTF.

The fund finances conservation projects and compensates the families of people killed by wild animals in communal conservancies.

Since Government does not allow communities to create communal conservancies in parks, the San people living in the Caprivi National Park formed the Kyaramacan Association with the help of conservation groups and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

NGOs such as the Namibia Nature Foundation, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, World Wildlife Fund and the Legal Assistance Centre lent a helping hand to establish the Kyaramacan Association.

The Ministry granted the association certain land-use rights in an effort to improve their living standards.

The ultimate aim is to replace the association with a registered trust and to enter into a memorandum of understanding that will set out the terms and conditions of the collaboration between the Ministry and the trust with regard to land and natural resource management, benefits sharing and tourism infrastructure development in the envisaged Bwabwata National Park in the Caprivi Region.

The association's game guards have worked with the residents since 1992 to create awareness of the value of wildlife and curb poaching, while community resources monitors have worked with women to protect and map natural resources, The Ministry granted two trophy-hunting concessions within the Caprivi Game Park to the association, which was formed in March this year.

According to the agreement signed between the Government and the association, 50 per cent of the income generated from trophy hunting should be handed to the GPTF.

Speaking at the handover in Windhoek yesterday, Environment and Tourism Minister Willem Konjore said the Ministry was finalising the memorandum of understanding with the association to ensure the co-operative management of the park and its natural resources.

San people living in the Caprivi National Park have established a campsite called N//goabaca Community Campsite, which Konjore said was increasingly attracting tourists who make use of the Trans-Caprivi Highway, while the sale of locally produced crafts has also increased.

The N$1,2 million cheque was handed over to Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila and Minister Konjore by the Chairperson of the Kyaramacan Association, Bosta Mautu.

Amathila called on communities living inside State parks to emulate the good example set by the San people of the Caprivi National Park.

"Lodges and national parks should open their doors for the benefit of our people," she said.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200611301087.html

--------------------
________________________________________________________________

African News Headlines at a glance daily

Post Extras