NAMBIA – A total of 59 new fishing rights will be granted for various fish species with a total of 156 companies set to benefit from these rights. The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Bernard Esau, announced the new fishing rights to harvest marine resources last week in Windhoek.

According to the New Era, no single company or applicant will be granted an individual right mostly in the main commercial species like hake, horse-mackerel, large pelagic and monk.

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Commercial game ranching and conservation are two sides of a coin and if properly managed can provide huge benefits, according to Dr Gert Dry, deputy president of Wildlife Ranching South Africa.

Dr Dry will be one of more than 100 international speakers at the International Wildlife Ranching Symposium (IWRS) in Kimberley, South Africa, from 10 to 13 October. This four-day gathering of game farmers, academics and conservationists is the seventh international symposium on this issue and the third to be held in South Africa.

“Conservation agencies and the commercial wildlife industry will both be seriously impaired if we fail to convince all stakeholders that while commercial game ranching and conservation are different, they are in fact two sides of the same coin,” he said.

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A US$21,45 million fund has been launched to support micro-finance for rural households and to finance small-scale investment in agriculture across Africa.

According to The East African, the European Solidarity Financing Fund for Africa (Fefisol), a specialist rural micro-finance fund, is expected to fund micro-finance institutions and producer organisations across the continent in local currency.

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THE process continues for the implementation of biosafety legislation, under which genetically modified organisisms (GMOs) are covered, the Namibia Agriculture Union (NAU) said in its latest newsletter. The United Nations’ Global Environmental Fund has given money to Namibia to help with the process for the next three years, the NAU said on Friday.

The Bio Safety Act was promulgated in 2006, and regulations to implement and administer the legislation are already drafted and must now be finalised, the union said.

The porcess will be tackled in various stages, namely to establish and strengthen the regulatory and administrative systems, as well as to beef up institutional capacity to handle the administering and decision-taking of live modified organisms.

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COMMERCIAL farmers in the Karas Region have joined forces with the Police to suppress stock theft in the region. The farmers’ spokesperson, Edward Foster, said farmers formed neighbourhood policing teams in November last year, mainly to monitor the illegal movement of livestock.

According to Foster, since the implementation of the policing teams, 1 100 vehicles were searched during five special operations and at 46 roadblocks. He added that plans were afoot to involve communal farmers in the campaign too. Foster said apart from stock theft, the teams also help to curb poaching and drug smuggling. At present the policing teams consist of 46 active members, said Foster.

On the sidelines of a Police and Farmers’ Forum meeting held at Keetmanshoop on Friday, Chief Inspector Sidney Philander said stock theft had declined in the region. This, he said, could be attributed to the visibility of the farmers’ policing teams.

Philander said the aim of the forum, expected to meet four times a year, is to work out new strategies to curb stock theft and to exchange information. According to Philander, the revival of a Police stock-theft unit is on cards. He said a submission in this regard had been forwarded to the Police Inspector General for approval. Philander sent a strong warning to stock thieves, saying the Police would oppose their bail.

“I must also warn them that the vehicles used in stock theft would be impounded,” Philander added.