conservancy

It is unfortunate New African has published a one-sided article which downplays the successes of conservancies in Kenya.

Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA), Nairobi, Kenya (via website)

Representatives argued that although the conservancies benefit through the Community Based Tourism programme, they are still faced with challenges which include poor tourism information centers, poor marketing strategies, veld fires and bush encroachment amongst others.

According to conservation official from Ovitoto in the Central region, Marama Kavita, one major challenge experienced by the conservancies in that region is the lack of a community forest policy.

He said the Ministry of Environment and Tourism should do away with the target sites as all conservancies must be sponsored equally.

The game guards are also not offered any training so evidently there is a lack of capacity building in our conservancies," said Kavita.

He said although the conservancies require funding, the ministry should do away with politically inspired donors.

There are 12 conservancies in the North West region which Kangombe said are all understaffed.

Conservancies that have greatly benefited from Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Namibia are those in the North Eastern region, specifically the Caprivi region.