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

the wildlife populations and their utilisation (Thakadu, 1997; DWNP, 1999; Mbaiwa,
1999; Mbaiwa, 2004). Winer (1995) states that CBNRM projects in WMAs seek, as a
principal aim, to return custodianship of natural resources to the local communities in
order for conservation to be linked to rural production systems that generate wealth,
rather than conservation being viewed as being in conflict with such rural production
systems, as has often been the case.
WMAs are further sub-divided into Controlled Hunting Areas (CHAs). CHAs form
smaller management units within WMAs, which become the 'unit of production'
(Rozemeijer and van der Jagt, 2000; Mbaiwa, 2002). Therefore, CHAs are
administrative blocks used by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks to
allocate wildlife quotas, and Botswana is divided into 163 CHAs, which are zoned for
various types of wildlife utilisation (both consumptive and non-consumptive uses),
under commercial or community management. In communal areas, CHAs are zoned
around existing settlements and those under community management are designed
to benefit the local people (Rozemeijer and van der Jagt, 2000; Mbaiwa, 2002;
Mbaiwa, 2004).
Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in the Okavango region are sub-divided into 49
CHAs. By 2001, a total of 12 CHAs were allocated to different communities in the
Okavango for tourism purposes, and 15 CHAs were leased to safari companies by
the Tawana Land Board for both hunting and photographic purposes. The rest of the
CHAs are used for multipurpose activities and are under the control of the Tawana
Land Board (Mbaiwa, 2004).
Even though wildlife and related tourism policies in Botswana give part of the
responsibility for managing and administering wildlife resources to local
communities, they fail to define the objective of government in relation to CBNRM,
nor do they provide firm guidance for its implementation (Rozemeijer and van der
Jagt, 2000). Mbaiwa (2002; 2004) also notes that although local people are given
partial rights to manage land and wildlife resources in the Okavango Delta, much of
it remains centralised as land is only leased to them for a 15 year period and wildlife
resources remain wholly the property of the government, except for the quota
allocated to the community. Cassidy (2001) states that there is very little natural
resource monitoring being undertaken, and few management decisions made, by
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