Botswana

Botswana has received 14 million Euros in the second phase of a European Union funded wildlife conservation and the infrastructural development of game parks and reserve initiative. The project, which commences in July, is expected to strengthen the management of game reserves and support communities engaged in natural resource management activities, Botswana's tourism minister, Pelonomi Venson said last Saturday during a luncheon for visiting EU MP, Glenys Kinnock.

The worldwide campaign for the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana, received a publicity boost on the sidelines of an international diamond conference in Canada on Monday. Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) demonstrated outside the World Diamond Conference because they believe the real reason the Basarwa are being removed is because of the government's mining interest in the reserve.

The Basarwa hunter gatherers may have lost the first round of their court bid to remain in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, but they still have another chance to fight their removal, one of their lawyers said on Monday.

Botswana has been condemned by the United Nations for its 'discrimination' against Bushman tribes. The UN Human Rights Commission heard that the Bushmen have been the victims of 'discriminatory practices', and are being 'dispossessed of their traditional lands'.

The Botswana government this week left Gana and Gwi Bushmen families in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to cope without water in the desert. The government cut off water supplies to the remaining Bushmen communities in its latest attempt to force them off their ancestral lands. Many of the 700 Bushmen still living in the reserve at the start of this month have now been forced to leave.

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