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

Presently in the Ngamiland district, pastoral, arable and residential areas, which fall
under communal land make up 60 072 square kilometres or 55 percent of total land
area. National parks make up 3 900 square kilometres or 3,5 percent, and game
reserves make up a further 5 560 square kilometres or 5,1 percent of total land area
in the district. Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) make up 32 867 square
kilometres or 30,1 percent of total district land area. All three of these land uses fall
under state land tenure (Republic of Botswana Environmental Statistics, 2000).
There are three major uses of land in the Ngamiland District. These include wildlife
utilisation and management, livestock production and subsistence crop production.
Most of the livestock in this district is kept under communal grazing systems, which
generally utilises the land around villages, most of which lies to the north-west of the
Okavango Delta. Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) take up most of the land
within the Delta itself, which is both a major hunting and tourism area in the region.
There are also game reserves and national parks, such as the Moremi Game
Reserve. Subsistence crop production in the Ngamiland District takes the form of
rainfed or dryland crop production, and Molapo or floodplain agriculture. Molapo crop
production is practised mainly along the Okavango River in the Panhandle area and
the Thamalakane River near Maun. This system combines the use of flood moisture
left behind in the alluvial deposits in river beds once the annual flood has subsided,
and rainfall during the summer months. Most crop lands under the molapo system
are smaller than those under dryland or rainfed production, with most farmers having
fields in both the dryland and molapo systems. Dryland or rainfed agriculture relies
solely on rainfall and is practised away from the river banks and floodplains
(Makhwaje et aI, 1995).
5.3.5 Socio-Economic Profile of Ngamiland District
5.3.5.1 Population
According to the 2001 National Population and Housing Census, the population of
the Ngamiland District increased by 24 percent from an estimated 92 192 people in
1991 to 122 024 persons in 2001. Some 35,8 percent (43 776) of this population
lives in Maun, whose population increased by 38,9 percent from 26 768 in 1991 to
its present size. Maun has an annual growth rate of approximately six percent. In the
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