Okongo to get wild animals

A TOTAL number of sixty wild animals will soon be given to Okongo Community Forest and Conservancy in Ohangwena region, the Minister of Environment and Tourism said on Saturday.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said the animals will include thirty springboks and thirty oryx. She made this announcement when she officially opened Namibia national second Biodiversity Action Day held at Omauni in Okongo constituency over the weekend.’Some of you may say we can see the forest but where’s the wildlife? Your Majesty Queen Mwadinomo, I want to assure you that when I will invite you to Okongo Conservancy in June or July this year, you will see some springbok or oryx off-loaded into Okongo Conservancy,’ said Nandi-Ndaitwah.But she was quick to remind the community that with wild animals comes responsibility.’These animals are not for hunting. You must conserve them. You must expect 30 springboks and 30 oryx,’ she said. She also called on the Okongo community to protect their traditional knowledge.’Equally important is the protection of the traditional knowledge our communities have about their natural resources.These skills and techniques and extensive knowledge of local communities, make communities the best stakeholders to be most directly involved with conservation and sustainable use,’ she said.Nandi-Ndaitwah said the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefits Sharing is aimed at helping rural communities to receive benefits from the use of genetic resources found in their environment.Namibia, she said, was in the process of drafting laws that will help the country’s rural people benefit from this. Okongo Community Forest and Conservancy, is one of the 13 gazetted community forests in Namibia, covering an area of almost half a million hectares of land.At the same event, Nandi-Ndaitwah responded to a request to the to build a lodge in the Okongo Forest and Conservancy.The request by Ohangwena Governor, Usko Nghaamwa, at the event. Nandi-Ndaitwah said her Ministry was simply there to facilitate and not to build such facilities for communities, adding that, a lodge should be the initiative of the community itself and it is the community that should own it and run it.’A lodge is a business and if it is imposed on you, it will not succeed. It must come from you,’ she said. Namibia’s second Biodiversity Action Day was held under the theme ‘Forests for the People.’