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

most of these impacts remain unchecked. With the increase in tourism in the area,
such impacts will only become more severe.
Perhaps the biggest impact of tourism development in the Okavango Delta over the
past decade or so has been the resultant infrastructure that has grown to support
the industry. With this infrastructure, the Okavango Delta has become accessible,
and it is this accessibility that places the very existence of the Okavango Delta under
threat. An increase in the number of people coming into the area means an increase
in the number, and degree, of negative impacts on the Delta. The Okavango has, in
fact, only remained pristine and secure up till now, due to its isolation and low
population densities. With the development of tourism in the region since the late
1980s, and infrastructure improvements, more people are coming into the area
every year, placing increasing strain on this fragile wetland and its resources.
Furthermore, the accessibility of the Delta now allows for the development and
implementation of projects to use the area's resources commercially. For example,
large scale commercial irrigated agricultural ventures in the Delta and the extraction
of Okavango water for urban centres which previously were not possible due to the
area's isolation and inaccessibility can now be carried out. It is, however, also only
through recent tourism development, and its associated economic benefits that the
area has remained preserved and largely unchanged, with no major (and damaging)
resource-use developments (such as water extraction) taking place in the Delta over
the past two decades.
More specifically, the negative impacts of tourism growth on the Delta's environment
and resources include the follOWing sub-sections:
8.3.2.1 Use of Motor Boats and Noise Pollution in the Okavango Delta
With the dramatic increase in tourist numbers and facilities over the past decade or
so in the Okavango Delta, as well as the associated infrastructure developments and
the introduction of Community-Based Tourism ventures in the area, there has been
an alarming increase in the number of both tourist, and local community motor boats
in the Delta and Panhandle areas. Local inhabitants, who traditionally used mekoro's
for travel through the Delta's waterways, are now increasingly relying on motor boats
or 'water taxis' to move between villages, and areas of resource utilization, such as
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