ALL 59 communal conservancies have been given N$60 000 each by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism as compensation for losses caused by wild animals.
The ministry channelled the funds, N$3,5 million in total, through its Game Product Trust Fund.
This was announced by Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah at the end of a two-day meeting of conservancy chairpersons and their managers last Friday.
There has been a number of complains from conservancies about wild animals such as lions and elephants killing livestock and people and destroying crops.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the ministry had made N$1,9 million available to settle 2 295 claims for incidents that occurred outside conservancies.
"The implementation of the scheme should commence on December 1," she said.
Nandi-Ndaitwah reminded conservancies that the National Policy on Human Wildlife Conflict Management requires each conservancy to have a committee to recommend and approve compensation payments to their members.
These committees must be formed by representatives from the ministry, regional councils, NGOs, the conservancy committee and the local traditional authority.
Conservancies‘ financial records will be checked by the ministry on a quarterly basis. Should a conservancy misuse its allocated funds, no further allocation will be made until the case has been resolved to the satisfaction of the ministry.
The minister said there are a number of ways to address human-wildlife conflicts, such as building stone walls around water points and the use of ‚chilli pepper bombs‘ to deter elephants.
She said it was recently discovered that vuvuzelas can also be used for scaring away elephants.