Farmers to Benefit from Game Translocation
By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK
More than 20 farms from seven regions have been selected as first beneficiaries of the Wildlife Breeding Stock Loan Scheme.
The farms were selected out of 190 applications that the Ministry of Environment and Tourism received from Omaheke, Hardap, Otjozondjupa, Karas, Kunene, Erongo and Kavango regions. None of the farms are from the Kavango.
A statement from the ministry said yesterday the recipients of the game would soon be contacted for final inspections of their farms, contract signing and date of delivery of the wildlife before the actual translocations can be done.
Fanuel Demas, acting director: scientific services, told New Era yesterday that some of the game would be translocated this year although the bulk would be done in 2008 because the current rise in daytime temperatures is unfavourable for catching game.
“The ministry will retain the list of applicants, and future translocations to qualifying farms will take place as game becomes available and as logistics allow,” he said in the statement.
Demas said the availability of game in protected areas, the drought spell in the country, farm size versus current game present on the farms, fencing and water provision, regional representation and prior commitments of the game capture team of the ministry were some of the factors considered when selecting the farms.
Five species of game, namely, zebra, springbok, oryx, ostrich and eland will be translocated to the farms.
The ministry advertised for people to participate in the scheme in October last year, saying it recognised there were emerging commercial, resettled and communal farmers within the freehold land tenure system who were interested in developing a wildlife-based land use but did not have the capital to restock.
Through the scheme, the ministry will provide recipients with viable founder populations with an agreement that within a number of years, the equivalent number of animals would be removed, leaving the recipient with access to the balance of the population.
The objectives of the scheme are to promote diversification of economic activities on farmland, support the ministry’s rare species management programme and promote the maintenance and restoration of biodiversity for sustainable utilisation.
Beneficiaries placed on the highest priority category of the scheme are those who are historically disadvantaged, those who have land suitable for the programme, acquired through Agribank’s affirmative action loan scheme, and those that have been resettled on land suitable for the programme by the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, among others.
Demas said the ministry wants to partner with game farmers and game dealers for them to contribute to the programme by donating additional wildlife that can be translocated through the scheme.
“Such contributions will enable the ministry to accelerate the implementation of the scheme,” he said.