The environmental commissioner has turned down a request to cancel an environmental clearance certificate allowing a mining claims holder to carry out mining activities in a black rhinoceros habitat in the Kunene region.
The environmental commissioner in the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Timoteus Mufeti, decided on Thursday not to cancel the environmental clearance certificate issued to mining claims holder Ottilie Ndimulunde in October last year.
In a report compiled by Mufeti, he stated that an inspection in the area where Ndimulunde has mining claims showed the establishment of mining activities is “generally compliant” with the conditions set out in the environmental clearance certificate granted to her.
The inspection was carried out after the Doro !Nawas and Ûibasen Twyfelfontein conservancies and the tourism company Ultimate Safaris asked the environmental commissioner to suspend or cancel Ndimulunde’s environmental clearance certificate.
The two conservancies and Ultimate Safaris claimed Ndimulunde has not complied with conditions attached to the certificate, which allows her to carry out mining operations on her claims.
The claims are situated in a part of the Kunene region south-west of Khorixas and north-west of Uis that is part of the habitat of highly endangered black rhinoceroses.
The two conservancies and Ultimate Safaris, which has a tourist lodge and a tented camp in the area near the mining claims, alleged that Ndimulunde breached one of the conditions of her environmental clearance certificate by constructing a new road to give access to her claims.
However, Mufeti found that no new roads were constructed by in the area.
He stated in his report that Ndimulunde and fellow mining claims holder Timoteus Mashuna had an existing two-track road “rehabilitated and widened” to accommodate lorries and heavy equipment that are to be used for mining at their claims.
“Whereas the approved [environmental management plan] indicated specifically that no new roads will be constructed, there is no way the mining claim owners would have accessed their mining claims with the mining equipment they have without widening it,” Mufeti stated in his report.
He continued: “It was also observed that during the widening of the road, several corners of the road were straightened to make the manoeuvring of trucks and other equipment used by mining claims holders possible. Equally, few pieces of vegetation were observed to have been removed in the process of road widening.”
The two conservancies, Ultimate Safaris and the ≠Aodaman Traditional Authority are claiming that mining activities would disturb the habitat of black rhinos and set back tourism in the area.
In his report, Mufeti said the “rehabilitation, widening and minimum modifications” of the access road carried out by the mining claims holders are reasonable and justified and will have minimal impact on the environment.
He added that he found “no serious non-compliance” with Ndimulunde’s environmental clearance certificate, but decided to recommend actions to ensure full compliance with the certificate.
Mufeti ordered that the upgrading of the access road “must be done with maximum care”, the width of the road may not exceed seven metres, and the upgrading of the road must be done strictly on the existing road.
He also ordered that the removal of vegetation for road upgrading “must be prevented at all costs”.
The two conservancies, the traditional authority and Ultimate Safaris have also filed an application in which they are asking the High Court to review and set aside decisions to register the mining claims of Ndimulunde and Mashuna and to issue environmental clearance certificates to them.
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