The Ministry of Environment and Tourism intends to spend almost half of its total budget to combat poaching and protect its wildlife.
Minister Pohamba Shifeta said he aims to table new legislation this year in order for Namibia to deal with the scourge of poaching. The budget has been cut by 15%.
Shifeta made these remarks during his budget motivation in parliament last week. He said the ministry will also introduce amendments to existing legislation to combat poaching in the country and introduce stricter fines and penalties to deal with poachers.
The minister said combatting poaching and the illegal trafficking of wildlife products have become the most important activities of the ministry and it consumes the lion’s share of its resources.
Shifeta appealed for strengthened collaboration and coordination and said Namibia needs to be well prepared to deal with threats to its rhino, elephant, and other wildlife species populations in the light of recent trends elsewhere in Africa and particularly, in neighbouring countries.
Last year, 86 rhino were killed in Namibia and this year at least 34 rhino carcasses have been discovered.
According to Shifeta, N$213 million will be allocated to the Wildlife and Protected Area Management Programme. This programme is intended to conserve natural resources and wildlife habitat in Namibia, manage the protected areas such as national parks, support community-based natural resource management and to ensure the sustainable use of wildlife resources.
The programme’s main activities are to manage the protected areas by implementing park management plans, as well as to safeguard wildlife by combatting poaching and illegal trade in wildlife products.
According to the Shifeta, N$581 million has been allocated in total for the ministry’s budget.
This is a decrease of N$104 million or 15% of its overall allocation in the previous year.
The environment ministry has been allocated N$442 million for the operational budget which is a decrease of N$112 million or 20% cut of the previous allocation. Shifeta said his ministry was allocated N$139 million for its development budget and an increase of N$7.7 million or 5.54% compared to the previous allocation.