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

grazing and fuel, but care should be taken in promoting policies and practices that
lead to the unsustainable use of these resources. It is often argued that social and
economic conditions can be improved by rural development, especially through
small-scale farming. However, farming can only be profitable in the Basin as a whole
under exceptional circumstances, and most small-scale farming practices are
damaging to the environment. More importantly, most people will remain poor as
small-scale farmers because farming conditions in the Basin are so limited and the
lack of markets restricts the selling of surplus produce. It is of little surprise then that
so many people turn their backs on farming and rural livelihoods and poverty by
moving to the larger towns (Bailey, 1998; Mendelsohn and el Obeid, 2004).
Taken individually, most of these different pressures have, presently, only a minimal
effect on the Okavango. However, the cumulative impacts may be considerable,
especially along the Namibian section. Densities of people and cattle are highest
here, most natural vegetation has been lost, and soil erosion is greatest. There are
also several agricultural schemes that draw off water and from which pollutant
chemicals and nutrients may be washed into the Okavango. All indications are that
such pressures will grow as Namibia increasingly aims to use the river for irrigation,
urban water supplies and hydroelectric power. It is also ironic that it is the Okavango
Delta and Botswana that will bear the brunt of the impacts of Namibia's actions
(Mendelsohn and el Obeid, 2004).
A positive development in the future management ofthe Okavango Delta, and the
Okavango River Basin as a whole, was the creation of the Permanent Okavango
River Basin Water Commission, or OKACOM, in 1994.
8.5 OKACOM
OKACOM is the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission, which is an
inter-governmental river basin institution formed by the three Basin States - Angola,
Botswana and Namibia, in September 1994 - to ensure that the water resources of
the Okavango River watercourse system are managed in an appropriate and
sustainable manner. OKACOM consists of three Commissioners from each of the
three Basin States, who are high ranking civil servants from the government
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