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

and water, but fortunately the Botswana Government refused, and for once the
fences served the interests of the wildlife (Bailey, 1998).
Prior to the fences being erected, the Okavango region had been protected from
cattle largely by the presence of tsetse fly. After the tsetse fly population plummeted
during the rinderpest epidemic in 1894, the entire region was opened up to cattle
farmers: cattle posts and trails spread across the area, especially in areas close to
waterways like the Khwai River. However, the fly population recovered before the
cattle had become too entrenched here, and humans and their herds were once
again driven to the periphery of the Delta - where, with the help of the fences (which
today virtually surround the Delta) they have remained (Figure 5.12). Today, thanks
to the use of chemical poisons, tsetse fly populations no longer protect the Delta,
and it is solely the veterinary fences, which initially so enraged conservationists and
environmentalists, that protect the area from large-scale cattle ranching activities. In
effect the fences have created a protected wilderness area far larger than any of the
ones formally in existence. Together with Moremi Game Reserve, the Chobe
National Park to the northeast, and the buffer zones of the peripheral wildlife
management areas and controlled hunting areas, the Okavango is one of the largest
wilderness areas left in the world today. With the enclosing fences, it is probably one
of the more secure (Bailey, 1998).
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