New wildlife policy to be presented to Cabinet

GASABO - A new policy to govern wildlife conservation and management has been drafted and will by latest September be presented to Cabinet for approval. The revelation was made by Rosette Rugamba, Rwanda Development Board’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer in Charge of Tourism and Conservation. Rugamba revealed the move while reacting to a question concerning the delayed compensation for residents residing around national parks. “The compensation issue is being addressed in the new wildlife policy,” Rugamba told reporters. “Our wildlife policy will not only look at compensation issues but the whole wildlife sector.” “It is in the last stages and we hope that by September it will have been approved by the Cabinet,” she said. Once finalized, the policy is expected to tackle the challenges facing the sector, highlight strategies of protecting the country’s wildlife and streamline the sharing of benefits from the sector. Rugamba acknowledged the problem saying that the human and wildlife issue is a worldwide problem not unique to Rwanda which can only be addressed through mitigation. “The first thing that we are working on is to create a real boundary, one of the things that park is lacking.” “What we have now is a temporary boundary that we are using in terms of a buffer wall and the buffer wall is mainly to stop the critical animals which are the buffalos and the elephants that were coming to raid crops.” Rwanda’s tourism industry emerged a top foreign currency earner, as it generating more revenue, overtaking other key sectors. Rwanda has prioritised the agriculture and tourism sectors, as key economic contributors to boost her exports by earning a reasonable amount of foreign currency. RDB says that tourism has been ranked the fastest growing sector. Ends

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New wildlife policy to be presented to Cabinet