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

exclusion of wildlife, which, if seen as a nuisance, was exterminated (Campbell,
1997).
Rey, who was Resident Commissioner of Bechuanaland from 1929 to 1937, initiated
the Pim Inquiry and attempted to implement its recommendation for the cattle
industry. At the same time however, he saw the potential of wildlife as a tourist
attraction and looked for funds to establish a National Park in the Chobe area. This
failed, but he still tried to give some protection to wildlife (Campbell, 1997).
It was not until 1961 however, that a comprehensive law, the Fauna Conservation
Proclamation, was enforced. Unlike previous legislation, the 1961 Proclamation was
designed to both protect and exploit Botswana's wildlife asset, and contained
provisions for the creation of game reserves. Even so, for the most part local people
living on tribal land were exempt from its provisions, and it was not until 1967 that
District Councils began to implement for their districts, regulations to protect and
control the local utilisation of wildlife (Campbell, 1997).
5.4.1.15 Protected Areas
The first major problem faced by the Protectorate Administration in seeking to create
game reserves was that a large percentage of the land, including some of the best
wildlife areas, was tribally owned. Hence, the consent of the tribe concerned was
required before any reserve could be established on their land. It appeared that such
an agreement was unlikely to be granted and for this precise reason, the first
reserves were established on Crown (State) Land (Campbell, 1997).
In 1932, Resident Commissioner Rey refused a request by South Africa to declare
land along the Nosop River and opposite the South African Kalahari Gemsbok
National Park as game reserve land, to help protect the Park. However, opinion
changed in 1938, after residents along the Botswana side were prosecuted for
poaching. A survey was conducted and 280 people, supposedly with their consent
and some compensation, were removed from the Nosop area north of Tweerivieren.
In 1940, the Nosop River Game Reserve, an area of 9 700 square kilometres, was
established, and later patrolled by South African Parks Board staff (Campbell, 1997).
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