the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

is reserved as conservation areas (about 98 percent). These areas consist of
national parks, game reserves, forest reserves and Wildlife Management Areas
(WMAs), which comprise about eight percent, ten percent, one percent and twenty­
two percent of total land area, respectively (Table 5.1). The area covered by villages,
towns, cities and BLOC quarantine ranches makes up only around one percent of
the total national land area (Republic of Botswana Environmental Statistics, 2000).
5.2.5 Changes in Land Use at National Level
The amount of land allocated under the three major land uses in Botswana changed
during the period of 1974 to 1995 (Table 5.2). The most significant changes took
place to communal and state land as a result of the re-allocation of areas of
communal land to state land. This was generally due to the creation of Wildlife
Management Areas (WMAs) which did not exist in 1974, but took up 23 percent of
national land area by 1995, and the creation of additional forest reserves during the
same period. WMAs are natural areas reserved predominantly for wildlife utilisation.
WMAs provide corridors of land for the long-term conservation of wildlife through the
provision of extended wildlife habitats. The WMAs provide migratory corridors for the
free and unhindered passage of wildlife between major parks and game reserves
(Republic of Botswana Environmental Statistics, 2000).
As a result of the re-allocation of land, the share of total land area that fell under the
Communal Land Tenure system dropped from 459 601 square kilometres (79
percent) to 318 997 square kilometres (54,8 percent), while that of state land
increased from 103 170 square kilometres (17,7 percent) to 243 304 square
kilometres (41,8 percent) by the end of 1995 (Table 5.2) (Republic of Botswana
Environmental Statistics, 2000).
It is, however, important to note that 99,6 percent of the total re-allocated land was a
result of the re-designation of communal land to land reserved for conservation uses
(Table 5.2) (Republic of Botswana Environmental Statistics, 2000).
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