The Ministry of Environment and Tourism this weekend hosted Journalists from various media houses on a three day media tour on selected hunting CBO’s. The tour was meant to raise awareness on community beneficiation through hunting.

The team visited Mababe Zokotshama Community Trust which operates in NG 41.The trust was given a total number of 15 elephants in this year’s hunting quota. For the past years since the hunting ban was lifted Mababe trust has been able to offer tertiary education sponsorship to students for its beneficiary communities, monthly allowances to the less privileged and the elderly.

The media team also got to visit Sankoyo Tshwaragano Management Trust which operates in NG33.The trust is currently in the process of changing its management plan to cater for hunting after it initially changed its management plan to photographic tourism following the hunting ban which was imposed in 2014.

Since the trust does not do hunting, villagers have revealed that elephant-human conflict has increased with farmers being unable to plough as elephants raid their crops.

The villagers believe that once they start participating in controlled hunting they will be able to control the elephants and keep them away from their fields like it has been when their trust was hunting.