Since the implementation of the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) programme in the communal livestock grazing areas of western Ngamiland back in 2018, the monitoring of wildlife, cattle and the addressing of human wildlife conflict issues have greatly improved.
The programme is an ambitious global partnership initiative which was launched in 2017 with the aim to improve the conservation and sustainable wildlife in forest, savannah and wetland ecosystems. Its projects are being piloted and tested with governments and communities in 16 participating countries and it is led by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In the KAZA TFCA, the SWM programme is actively working in four countries (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe). In Botswana, the programme is currently being implemented by Wild Entrust Africa (WEA) in the western part of Ngamiland around the Habu, Tubu and Nokaneng communities.
WEA project coordinator Montshiwa Montshiwa said the program has played a very important role in addressing human wildlife conflict and wildlife/ livestock management issues in the western part of Ngamiland.
Montshiwa told this publication on the side-line of the SWM Programme Knowledge Exchange workshop that was held in Kasane this week.
According to him, in their effort to address human-wildlife conflict in the area they drilled boreholes separately for both the livestock and wild animals. Montshiwa added that they have also implemented the Herding for Health program that was meant to capacitate farmers so that they can know and understand how they can look after their livestock to reduce the chances of them being killed by predators.
‘‘We have been implementing the Herding for Health program since 2018 to date and ever since then we have been seeing some developments. Before then we used to have an average of 38 cattle being killed by predators but after implementing the program we have only recorded around three incidents,’’ he said.
Montshiwa stated that they have also introduced a mobile quarantine in order to address the issue of market assess by western Ngamiland farmers to desist them from incurring costs of travelling to Makalamabedi quarantine and keeping their livestock for monitoring for 21 days.
He further revealed that they have also noticed an increase of wildlife in their area-among them being giraffes, wild dogs, lions, impalas and kudus.
Meanwhile, Montshiwa appreciated the importance of the SWM Programme Knowledge Exchange workshop is very important noting that all the issues that were discussed including wildlife and livestock management affect people. He noted that through the workshop they learned how best to deal with certain challenges when assisting their communities and to bring everyone on board to come up with solutions.
SWM Program’s social safeguards coordinator, Mauro Bottaro also said the event gives an opportunity for participants to engage in interactive and participatory discussions on integrating Community Rights Based Approach (CRBA) and social safeguards into the conservation sectors, with a specific focus on their work in the SWM Program. By the end of the sessions, Bottaro said they aimed at developing concrete action plans tailored to each SWM site’s work plans and resources, with a strong emphasis on gender mainstreaming, ensuring that these plans are practical, context-sensitive, and actionable.
