31 Mar 2025

Community Based Organisations (CBOs) have been implored to conduct valuation assessments of their assets to ensure they get maximum benefits from business partnerships.

Giving a keynote address at the Chobe Enclave Conservation Trust (CECT) AGM in Kachikau recently, the Director of Okavango Research Institute, Professor Joseph Mbaiwa underscored the importance of CBOs such as CECT valuing their land, property and wildlife species in their concessions.

He said this would ensure that the community trusts obtained fair market value for all their business endeavors adding that it would also give trusts an upper hand to negotiate suitable business deals.

“Your land and property value are high because you are endowed with natural resources and it is probable that as a trust you are not aware of this value which means you are only getting a small share from the income accrued from your investors,” he said.

Prof Mbaiwa stated that community trusts issuing hunting rights to investors were only getting below 10 per cent of the total value of the elephants sold in international markets.

He revealed that an elephant was worth US$20 000 approximately P200 000 yet community trusts were only paid about P40 000 for an elephant translating that investors issued with wildlife hunting quotas were benefiting more than the owners of resources.

The director proposed that CBOs should venture into sliding scale partnerships where profits and losses were shared equally following which the trust would take complete ownership of the businesses after years stipulated on the contract.

Moreover, he stated that time had come for a formation of a society for licensing of CBOs in order to ensure that they were run professionally to curb poor governance and maladministration that marred most community trusts in Botswana.

Professor Mbaiwa said the impending Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) Act to be tabled in Parliament, would address issues of poor governance, misuse of funds and court litigations and shut all loose ends that attracted corruption in CBOs.

He lauded CECT for being a model in conservation of natural resources and building viable projects that sustained communities adding that the communities should continue exploring more sustainable projects.

CECT board Chairperson Mr Poniso Shamukuni stated that the communities in Chobe Enclave from Mabele to Parakarungu continued to suffer from human wildlife conflict which had taken lives and destabilized some families.

However, he said he believed the National Human Wildlife Conflict Strategy Plan 2025/30 would present mitigations to cushion Batswana from this crisis and further ensure that victims were compensated accordingly.

He briefed that court litigations were taking large sums of money from the trust accounts because of members who constantly took matters to court without seeking mediation from District Commissioners’ Office and the Minister of Environment and Tourism.

Following the adjournment of the AGM, Mr Shamukuni stated that the meeting would be reconvened within 14 days upon which members would be informed of the new date to finish the discussion that were disrupted by time constraints.

 In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Mmualefhe Mmualefhe of Kachikau said it was critical for members of the trust to take heed of the responsibility to conserve natural resources. 

He proposed that an elephant trust fund be set up to help victims of wildlife attacks adding that the fund could also help build sustainable projects such as building durable barrier fences at schools. ENDS