The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism’s conservation relief recovery and the resilient fund has spent N.dollars 73 million to date on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) entities that are associated with tourism.

This was revealed by Environment, Forestry, and Tourism Minister, Pohamba Shifeta at an annual Conservancy Forum held at Keetmanshoop, in the Kharas Region on Friday.

Shifeta in his speech availed to Nampa on Saturday said N.dollars 44.7 million was given to communal conservancies and community forests countrywide while the rest (N.dollars 82 million) was given to tourism business support.

The aim of the fund he said is to provide relief to enable communal conservancies to pay salaries for game guards, forest monitoring and staff to continue with wildlife monitoring activities.

Shifeta also said the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted rural livelihoods estimating that close to 3000 people in this sector were at risk.

“In the ministry, our consistent and unequivocal belief is that there will be no successful wildlife conservation without the involvement of the local communities and an incentive mechanism to offset the cost of living with such wildlife,” Shifeta pointed out.

The ministry, he said, is aware that communal conservancies rely on hunting, tourism, and other natural resources for their income which has been severely affected by Covid-19, but urges that the members receive benefits.

“Our emphasis should be continuing to enhance good governance, distribute benefits, fight poaching, reduce human-wildlife conflict, as well to make the CBNRM programmes sustainable,” he said.

The forum provides a platform to assess and review achievements, challenges, and opportunities faced by our communal conservancies.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency