Trust injects P10m into Tsodilo

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Correspondent | Wednesday August 22, 2007 00:00

 

The announcement was made on Tuesday at the Grand Palm in Gaborone by the two companies when they launched a new joint project, the Diamond Trust, a non-profit entity to boost tourism and support community-based projects for the area's estimated 13,000 people.  'The Trust will be a vehicle for both Debswana and De Beers to support the communities they operate in and to also support Botswana in her vision for a healthy, proud and educated nation,' the world's top-flight diamond mining companies said in a joint statement.

The donation was received by Nxisa Nxao, on behalf of Letloa Trust, an NGO that runs a number of community projects at Tsodilo in the North West District or Ngamiland. Some of the money will be used to implement the Tsodilo Hills Integrated Management Plan, which was adopted in 2001 to enhance the value of Tsodilo, a World Heritage Site.   The plan seeks to integrate Tsodilo communities into the management process to ensure suitable and complementary activities in a buffer zone so that the area may become an important component of the Ngamiland economy.  Said Stephen Lussier, the Chairman of Diamond Trust: 'Traditionally, De Beers' social investment in Botswana has been channeled through Debswana alone. Now in recognition of Botswana's central role to the global De Beers brand, we have come to a time when the worldwide De Beers Group has come together with Debswana to jointly fund an initiative through the Diamond Trust.'
Lussier, who was speaking through audiovisuals, said the launch of the Trust was the culmination of three years of hard work that began with the visits of the De Beers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer and former Debswana MD Louis Nchindo to see the work of the Letloa Trust and the Kuru family of organisations in Shakawe.  'Both were impressed and moved in equal measure by what they saw there. (They decided) to work in partnership with the Letloa Trust on an ambitious programme that combines natural resource management with community development and sustainable tourism in an area that lies in the shadow of the iconic Tsodilo Hills.'

The incumbent Debswana MD Blackie Marole said this is not the only nature related project Debswana is involved in, citing his company's contribution in funding the Okavango Research Project and the Cheetah Conservation Project as some of the projects that Debswana had put money into 'to benefit the entire world.'  'It is a noble task. We do these things as part of mankind to benefit the entire world.'

For her part, the Vice Chairperson of Letloa Board of Trustees Nxisa Nxao described the day of the launch as a special one. 'Tsodilo Hills is Botswana's only World Heritage Site,' she said. 'Those of you who have been there will know why. It is a truly magnificent natural gallery of over 4,000 rock paintings drawn thousands and thousands of years ago.
'When we talk of Tsodilo, we are referring to the 4,800 hectares core area, home to the famous male, female, and child hills and a surrounding buffer area of 70, 400 hectares where Ju/'hoansi and Hambukushu communities live off subsistence agriculture.  'We want to ensure that the community becomes integral in the management of the area by becoming part of the decision making process. The spiritual connection of past and present communities to Tsodilo is to be recognised and integrated into the visitor experience.

'Career opportunities shall be improved. The plan recognises the broader cultural tourism attributes and provides opportunities for cultural information and traditional knowledge to be shared with visitors'.  The MoSarwa woman said their vision is to develop an internationally recognised and comprehensive quality visitor experience through the provision of archaeological, cultural and wildlife tourism components.