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

The growth of tourism in the Okavango Delta on communal land areas such as
wildlife management areas has resulted in the Tawana Land Board also being
responsible for the allocation of land to both safari operators and local communities
for the development of tourism ventures, in the form of concession areas, in
controlled hunting areas and wildlife management areas. Concession areas are
large pieces of land located within controlled hunting and wildlife management areas
which are leased out by the Tawana Land Board to commercial tourist and hunting
operators for the specific development of hunting or photographic safaris. Therefore,
all tourist ventures developed on communal land in the Ngamiland district are under
the authority of the Tawana Land Board, while all ventures developed on state land
are under the authority of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks or the
central government (Mbaiwa, 1999; Mbaiwa, 2002).
The Tawana Land Board presently controls 15 concession areas in and around the
Okavango Delta, which are leased out to commercial operators for the development
of hunting or tourism ventures. There are also several other areas under the
authority of the central government which are located within stateland areas in the
Okavango Delta and are leased out to operators for tourism development (Mbaiwa,
2002).
There are two main types of lease agreements/contracts available from the Tawana
Land Board in the Okavango Delta for the development of tourism or commercial
hunting ventures. Firstly, the Tawana Land Board offers a 15-year lease on
concession areas or smaller pieces of land within wildlife management areas and
communal areas in the Ngamiland district, with on-going inspections and reviews
carried out by the Tawana Land Board every five years. Secondly, a 50-year lease
for pieces of land within wildlife management areas and communal areas, for the
development of tourism ventures, does exist, but is now very rarely awarded to
tourism operators. As such, most of the areas of land that are presently used for
tourism/hunting ventures, under the authority of the Tawana Land Board in the
Okavango, are held under 15-year contracts. As all the land held under the Tawana
Land Board is communal land, none of the land can be bought or sold. The Tawana
Land Board receives royalties and lease fees from the operators/companies that
lease land from it (Mbaiwa, 2002).
202