Thursday, September 11, 2008 - Web posted at 7:45:36 AM GMT

Mangetti Game Camp declared a park

STAFF REPORTER

CABINET has approved the proclamation of the Mangetti Game Camp along the Grootfontein-Rundu road as a national park and authorised the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to conclude the consultations and planning process with local stakeholders.




The Mangetti Game Camp is a large and relatively unknown conservation area - covering 41 990 hectares - with no legal status, where a lot of large antelope, especially eland, are roaming the lush bush and forests.

The camp was fenced off in 1973 with the aim of generating cash income through game farming, trophy hunting, and live game sales.

The revenue was supposed to go to the then Administration for the Kavango.

According to the latest Cabinet briefing paper, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism accepted full responsibility for the management of the Mangetti Game Camp after Independence in close collaboration with the Ukwangali Traditional Authority, on whose traditional land the Mangetti Game Camp is situated.

In 1992 and again in 2002, the Ukwangali authority requested the Ministry to proclaim the Mangetti Game Camp as a conservation area to be jointly managed for the benefit of that traditional authority and the community.

Cabinet has now granted approval for the Ministry, the Kavango Regional Council and the Ukwangali Traditional Authority to manage the park in such a way that it generates income from tourism.

After consultations between all parties, it was decided that the area should be managed as a contractual park between the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, the Kavango Regional Council and the Ukwangali Traditional Authority.

The Mangetti Game Camp has a suitable habitat and size for big game.

The Ministry's vision for the Game Camp is to create a world-class big-game destination that is managed together with rural communities to contribute to the economic development of the Kavango Region in particular and the country in general, while also supporting biodiversity and habitat conservation.

The Ministry has acquired N$3,5 million in funding from the European Union's Rural Poverty Reduction Programme in Namibia for management and infrastructure development for the Mangetti Game Camp.

"Income generated from the park will fund conservation and wildlife management activities, as well as activities aimed at improving local people's livelihoods," the Cabinet paper stated.

Namibia's national parks, conservancies and other protected areas now cover almost 40 per cent of the country's surface, according to the latest annual report on communal conservancies, which was published last week.