By Awan Achiek
South Sudan’s Minister of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, Rizik Zacharia Hassan has revealed plans to rehabilitate national parks and game reserves in a bid to generate revenues from tourism.
Hassan echoed these remarks on Monday during the reception ceremony of his ministry’s new undersecretary Gen. Peter Loro, Director General Gen. Khamis Adieng and Deputy Director General, Gen. Paul Thac in Juba.
“We are working to revive all the national parks and gamereserves, we made some deployment last year and the deployment is moving on well,” said Hassan.
He said that they are organizing structures in order to protect wildlife.
“We are facing challenges in deployment of NCOS and men, butthis is the responsibility of the Director General of Wildlife Conservation and his Deputy Director-General,” said Hassan.
The decades old conflicts with neighboring Sudan caused immigration of many wildlife species in various game reserves.
In addition, illegal poaching has also affected wildlife conservation efforts since independence of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011.
“I want to leave a legacy behind by completing construction of the ministry’s headquarters, and erecting some infrastructure in game reserves,” added Hassan.
South Sudan is home to wildlife species such as elephants, cheetah, ostrich, Nile crocodile, and pangolins among others, but all these species are at risk of extinction.
The population of wildlife in South Sudan is regarded as the second largest in the world with an important migratory route.
Boma National Park and Southern National Park are only a few of the wildlife zones in South Sudan.
The best wildlife zones in the young nation, include the Nile River floodplain, wetlands, high plateau regions, open savannah grasslands and escarpments.
