UN, govt partner to crush poaching, sexanana
Boniface Keakabetse | Thursday April 7, 2016 15:11
The project is referred to as “Managing the Human-Wildlife Interface to Sustain the Flow of Agro-Ecosystem Services and Prevent Illegal Wildlife Trafficking in Kgalagadi and Gantsi Drylands”. It will be implemented over a five-year period beginning in 2017.
According to UNDP Environment and Climate Change specialist, Oduetse Koboto the project will cost P60 million and is part of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) projects implemented by UNDP and government in various districts.
Similar projects are ongoing in Ngamiland, Makgadikgadi and Chobe.
“The Kgalagadi SLM aims to solve issues of cross border wildlife trafficking in the Kgalagadi district and Gantsi,” Koboto said. “The two areas are affected by trafficking of endangered wildlife species such as lions. The project aims to strengthen systems at district level and improve law enforcement operations including at a community level to prevent illegal wildlife trade.” Koboto further explained that the second component of the Kgalagadi SLM entails providing solutions to prosopis encroachment, the invasion of a flowering shrub that has been called the greatest threat to the country’s biodiversity.
Prosopis also referred to as ‘sexanana’ locally, originates from tropical America and was introduced in Kgalagadi and Gantsi in the 1980s to curb desertification. The noble initiative has since become an environment time bomb as the shrub spread uncontrollably in the two areas, overwhelming other species. Sexanana is currently estimated to occupy 5,109 hectares in the two areas threatening biodiversity.
“The aim of this component of the SLM is to reverse sexanana encroachment and help communities with ways of utilising the plant to stop its uncontrollable growth,” he said. Koboto explained that the implementing partners who include the UNDP, the departments of Environmental Affairs and Forestry and Range Resources, are undertaking a baseline study and stakeholder consultations in the project areas to find district specific interventions.
The UNDP will also undertake another SLM project in the Southern District aimed at promoting utilisation of biofuels. The project will target schools and communities in the southern areas who will be encouraged to produce biofuel from agro waste that could be used for cooking.
Koboto said the idea is to pilot biofuels in the district, then replicate the success countrywide.