By Kandjengo kaMkwaanyoka
My girlfriend called me a coward after I refused to kill a spider she found in the shower early in the morning. I told her that I cannot kill it because it is part of the ecosystem. Then I went back to sleep.
She has since been mad at me. On the other side, I am scared of spiders and every other bug out there. I cannot kill them. I believe they are part of the ecosystem and I have to find a way to coexist with them.
According to this beautiful explanation I found in the 2017 report by the ministry of environment and tourism detailing the state of community conservation in Namibia.
Community conservation means striving for balanced land use and a healthy environment. Moreover, it is about managing natural resources sustainably to generate returns for the rural people and the whole economy. This has a component of living with/coexisting with wildlife.
Anyway, why am I bringing up this issue? It is because one of the sectors that bring us foreign currency that we need is tourism. This sector benefits multiple industries, especially accommodation, aviation, tour guide, art and the food industry.
The benefit of a tourist visiting Namibia starts at the airport, buying a sim card, converting currency, buying snacks then being transported to their respective accommodation.
As a result, the country’s policymakers and business owners, especially those in the accommodation and tourism business, have been vocal about the importance of the tourism sector.
The total number of passengers arriving from other countries at Namibia’s airport rose to 78,642 during the second quarter of 2022 from 33,306 passengers registered during the same quarter of 2021.
As the tourism sector continued to regain lost ground, as reflected in increased tourist arrivals as more travel restrictions were lifted, activity remained below the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
The latest GDP contribution for the sectors amounted to about N$974 million, at current prices in the second quarter of 2022.
CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION
Despite all these talks of the importance of tourism and the value the country derives through such activities, why are we not conserving and preserving more of the natural wonders, wildlife, and cultural heritage that we have?
I am of the idea that not all our tourism riches are renewable and even those that are renewable take decades to replenish at a level that can be worth exploiting, tourism-wise.
We are losing more rhinos every month, we cannot even finish fencing off Etosha. We struggle to manage human-wildlife conflict and various cultural treasures are being destroyed.
We are now sharing our unique animals with the rest of the world, elephants and cheetahs- in other words, losing our uniqueness that attracts the world to us. Will we have tourism in the future?
If any official from MET, especially my friend Romeo Muyunda reads this, he will say that the country has 86 registered community conservancies, covering 19.6% of the country.
Despite these community conservancies, have we taught (created awareness) people to conserve and preserve these treasures though?
By this I mean do they know the value of that traditional house/palace of their kingdom, the value of different birds in their surroundings, and why they shouldnot kill? Or all snakes just because they are nearby their houses? Or clearing bushes for agriculture, cutting precious trees to supply raw material for timber, and all the destructive practices?
This is because rounding up animals or declaring a place a conservancy while the people within or surrounding the conservancy do not know the value of what they have is quite worthless.
That is why the country is losing more rhinos, we are even going to the extent of dehorning them, while vultures die of eating poisoned carcasses.
The sad reality is this: It takes some western women to come to teach us about the value of various wildlife that we possess, to preserve certain cultural norms, and buildings that we have as treasures for future tourism.
I find that absurd a bit since we as a country have been enjoying the fruit of tourism. Why do we need someone from somewhere to come to tell us the value of rabbits, snakes, and preserving cultural heritages?
If we have the energy to trace people who visit our country, then we should go big on teaching our people the value of that owl in a nearby tree.
The reason that many of the lucrative lodges in this country are owned by previously advantaged groups is not that they grabbed them from the other category. No, they just understood the value of tourism.
The rest of you just own B&Bs not even close to conservation, or they barely see a tourist.
From where am I from.? We barely see those cool tourist cars passing through or going into our villages to see what we have. This I mean from Oshakati to Eenhana.
I think the main reason that the central northern regions (excluding the Etosha side) barely receive valuable visitors is that they have lost quite more biodiversity than any part of Namibia- birds, insects, trees, and small animals like rabbits are a rare sight.
We failed to conserve and preserve what we had and were blessed abundantly with. This is because of a lack of awareness at a national level.
In my simple analysis,but thisis debatable, Ohangwena and Oshana, Omusati are losing more of their biodiversity at a faster rate and I blame this on the lack of awareness of the value of conserving and preserving the environment.
According to the MET statistics, Omusati and Ohangwena have only one community conservancy – where people are made aware of the value of the biodiversity in the surrounding area. The rest of the people exploit nature as they wish and this is dangerous because, firstly, it is not sustainable in terms of food production. Secondly, they will not benefit from tourism now or in the future. And lastly, their exploitation worsens climate change.
I am of the view that the country enhances its awareness on conservation of its biodiversity and preservation of its cultural heritage in all forms among all its citizens or declare the whole country a conservancy.
I find it funny that urban growing kids are more kind to nature than us village champions who depend on it for survival. For me, this is because when we see a bird, it is food or something we just hunt for fun. This is because few of us were taught to conserve for tomorrow and the importance of bird songs in the morning.
In my conclusion, conservation and preservation must be topics on their own from kindergarten to grade 12. Nature (wildlife and plants) needs us to restore itself, and we need it for food and tourism. Email: gerastus16@gmail.com.na
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