Community benefits from hunting concessions

07 Dec, 2014 - 00:12 0 Views
Community benefits from hunting concessions

The Sunday News

huntingLungile Tshuma Business Reporter
TEMPERATURES are moderate and the breeze from the Zambezi cools the place. The view from a house built on a hilly area affords one a chance to marvel at the view of the equatorial vegetation look-alike place.Twenty kilometres from Victoria Falls on the road to Bulawayo is Matetsi resettlement area which gives people an experience equated to the biblical “Garden of Eden”.

The Matetsi community benefited from the country’s successful land reform programme. As a bonus, their place is endowed with wildlife resources. If one wants to see the “Big Five”— lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and white/black rhinoceros — Matetsi is the place to be.

However, in cases where resources are abundant, conflict usually erupts so is the case where resources are scarce too. The Save Valley Conservancy in Chiredzi is one case in point as the area dominated the media for some time when everyone — the community, politicians, as well the business community wanted to own the area.

The area (Save Valley) is blessed with wild life which has however, not been properly utilised. The Matetsi community on the other hand offers a solution to many people and answers the doubting Thomases who thought land reform was not real and tourism was a just a preserve of the elite.

Tourists from across the country, continent and the globe at large visit Matetsi which consists of two hunting safaris namely the Woodlands and Sibakelo, where both hunting safaris are owned and run by the community.

After wining and dining in Victoria Falls some tourists proceed to see the well marketed area. The majority however comes in for hunting and this has proven to be profitable to the community.

A lion on its own costs close to US$25 000 and when it is a full package that is including impalas and kudus; the community gets more than $100 000.

Sikabelo Hunting Safaris secretary Mrs Lungile Mathe said as a community they understood the benefit of tourism more than anyone else in Zimbabwe.

“People choose a committee which is managing resources on their behalf. There is no way a person can suffer and children cannot go to school when we are endowed with such expensive animals in our community.

We always send someone to go and market the place abroad and most people who come here are from Germany, France as well as Czech Republic.  As the community we have learnt a lot especially from how the Government is marketing Victoria Falls,” said Mrs Mathe.

Mrs Siphiwe Mpala who is a committee member said the community was no longer concerned about employment because revenue generated from tourism had opened up projects that are a source of income.

“Tourism is paying. Tourists can come and we take them for a tour but our main area of focus is hunting safari. At first we did not know how best to manage these resources but now we are on top of our game,” said the ever smiling Mrs Mpala.

Sikabelo community covers 4 830 hectares. Boreholes have been drilled so that animals can get water. With part of their money realised from tourist activities, they have managed to build camps where clients sleep.

These camps are built on a hilly area which gives clients the opportunity to view the whole geographical area and at the same time, the client is privileged to see all kinds of animals drinking water at a nearby well.

The co-hosting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly by Zimbabwe and Zambia left an indelible impression on the minds of ordinary Zimbabweans and, no doubt, of other ordinary men and women in the street about what these people also stand to harvest from a boom in tourism.

The message was crystal clear that the nation must wake up and experience the importance of tourism. At the moment the tourism sector is contributing $1 billion to the country’s revenue and the target is that the sector generates $5 billion by 2020.

“The community is slowly developing. We do not want to burden the Government with developmental issues. We have the resources and these resources are benefiting us.

During the UNWTO, the committee attended the meeting and learnt a lot of things that are today benefiting the community,” said Mr Joseph Moyo, another committee member.

He also challenged other communities to work together and benefit from resources in their respective areas.

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