Makwinja said this when addressing Full Council session of the Tutume District Council (TDC) on Wednesday. She said: “As Africans we should sit down and deliberate on how we can address the burning issue of human-wildlife conflict and how we can co-exist with wildlife, especially elephants. This is more so because elephants earn communities around concessions income for their various developmental needs. Elephants also earn the country the revenue that it uses for developments.
However, what is painful is that even though the government continues to roll out agricultural programmes such as Chema Chema, Temo Letlotlo and Thuo Letlotlo, beneficiaries of these programmes will not optimally benefit from them because of the issue of human-wildlife conflict.” Makwinja added: “We are dealing with the issue of human-wildlife conflict at government level and international forums. We therefore, urge councils to also play a meaningful role to address this problem because it is not a problem of the government alone. As councils, you should initiate dialogue about how the government can help to mitigate the problem of human-wildlife conflict. Communities in the Bobirwa District were also facing a challenge of human-wildlife but they sat down and came up with solutions of how to address this issue. As we speak, issues of human-wildlife conflict have drastically reduced in Bobirwa District.”
Makwinja also stated that issues of human-wildlife conflict in the Tutume District were exacerbated by the migration of elephants from neighbouring countries. “Elephants from neighbouring countries emigrate to Botswana because we provide them with water unlike where they come from. However, our generosity is negatively affecting our people,” Makwinja. Makwinja also decried that annually, 20 people are rendered economically unuseful or die because of the human-wildlife conflict. “This year alone, the government has used P30 million to compensate people because of issues of human-wildlife. Most of these cases were caused by elephants. This year alone, the Tutume District recorded a total of 799 cases of human-wildlife conflict from April to August. Close to P1.6 million was used as compensation...,” said Makwinja. Botswana is currently experiencing an economic slowdown due to a fall in diamond production.
As such, Makwinja mentioned that the government intends to increase the number of wild animals that the law does not cover for compensation once the economy improves. Makwinja also pleaded with the civic leaders to inform members of the community to bring all documents required for one to be compensated due to issues of human-wildlife conflict and not procrastinate. “We have discovered that some people don’t submit all the documents required for compensation and that some don’t follow up their cases because the money they are supposed to get may be little. We, however, urge them to follow up their cases because when these issues happen, our officers are unjustly blamed for the delays in compensating people who are affected by issues of human-wildlife conflict. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) will build more offices in the Tutume District in order to respond to issues of human-wildlife conflict on time. Therefore, I urge you to help us to identify places where these offices may be built because you live in this area and are better placed to know the hotspots of human-wildlife conflict,” Makwinja underscored.
