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.”
