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Directorate of Parks and Wildlife Management
Private Bag 13306
Namibia

info@span.org.na

Inauguration of Bwabwata Technical Committee

A Technical Committee to advise on the management and development of Bwabwata National Park in north eastern Namibia was officially inaugurated by Hon Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, on Saturday, February 14.

The Bwabwata National Park's Technical Committee is a multi-stakeholder committee that MET has been established to advise the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) on important issues such as the management and development of settlements and infrastructure in the park, as well as livestock, veterinary matters, and tourism development. The Committee will focus on the multiple use area, where there are communities living, as well as other line ministries and NGOs working. The coordination of these stakeholders has been a short-coming in the past, as there was never a structure in place to enable regular communication and joint planning.  One of the main purposes of the technical committee will therefore be to ensure better coordination of services to the resident community to ensure development is done in a sustainable way.

The inauguration ceremony was held at Namushasha Lodge in the Caprivi Region. The event was attended by the, German Ambassador to Namibia, His Excellency Egon Kochanke, KfW's Senior Vice President for Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Bruno Wenn, Acting Governor of Caprivi Region, Honourable Silazi, Chief Executive Officer WWF Germany, Mr.Eberhard Brandes, several traditional leaders, councilors and conservancy representatives from the Caprivi and Kavango regions.

The Caprivi Game Park was re-proclaimed as Bwabwata National Park in 2007. Under the re-proclamation, Mahango and Caprivi Game Parks were merged to form Bwabwata National Park, while the eastern boundary was extended to the middle of the Kwando River, thus including the Kwando Triangle into the Bwabwata National Park.
The proclamation was done in line with a Cabinet Decision of 1999, which also recommended that:

• Three core areas (Kwando, Buffalo and Mahango) be zoned for special protection and controlled tourism;
• The central area of the Bwabwata National Park be zoned to provide for a multiple-use area of community-based tourism, trophy hunting, human settlement and development;
• Cattle movement be controlled to prevent the spread of diseases such as bovine lung sickness, anthrax, and foot and mouth disease, as the agriculture sector is of extreme importance to Namibia's economy;
• Communities neighbouring or living in Bwabwata be given conditional tourism rights in this park such that they can establish, either on their own or through a joint venture, tourism facilities in this Park; and
• Tender proposals be invited for developing a tourism lodge in the Buffalo Core Area and to allocate the right to the best tender on the basis of their development and design vision, community involvement vision, environmental vision, and overall investment vision. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism will introduce the tender conditions and process to ensure visions are achieved for the purpose of the socio-economic advancement of the local communities.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism will also negotiate specific benefit opportunities for park residents and neighbours that are in line with an agreed park management plan and tourism development plan.

The strategies that will be agreed upon will then be implemented in partnership with the park residents and neighbours and other stakeholders.

 

 

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