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

Even though Botswana has developed an institutional framework that promotes the
development of tourism through the preservation/conservation of natural resources
in the Okavango Delta, this institutional policy arrangement fails to effectively
address issues of sustainability, particularly in relation to tourism carrying capacities
and the effective monitoring of tourism activities in the Okavango. Tourism, as an
economic activity, is often associated with the tendency by operators to maximize
profits within a short time period, often at the cost of the local environment. As such,
once resources are depleted, tour operators and tourists usually relocate elsewhere
where there is a new tourist boom and the cycle starts all over again (Butler, 1980;
Prosser, 1994). Promoting and ensuring ecological sustainability is, therefore, vital in
attempting to limit the negative environmental impacts of tourism in a host
destination. This involves placing a limit on the use of an area's resources to ensure
that depletion does not occur at a rate faster than the natural processes that renew
them (Serageldin, 1993). Poor monitoring bythe Departments of Tourism, Wildlife
and National Parks, and the Tawana Land Board, and a general failure to improve
on management strategies, has led to the emergence of negative environmental
impacts by tourism activities in the Okavango Delta.
9.7 The Community Based Natural Resource Management
(CBNRM) Programme
In an attempt to address the problem of the lack of local involvement in natural
resource management, the Community Based Natural Resource Management
(CBNRM) programme was implemented in the Okavango Delta. This gives local
communities the chance to actively participate in the utilisation and management of
the areas' natural resources, and provides the opportunity for local people to receive
economic benefits from the conservation of wildlife and other resources.
The low participation of local investors and local communities in tourism in the
Okavango Delta means that much of the revenue generated from tourism accrues to
private tour operators and to a lesser extent, the government, in the form of tax
revenues and royalties. Apart from wage earnings (for those employed by safari
companies) and land rentals (for communities allocated Controlled Hunting Areas),
local communities derive little or no benefits from tourism resources in the Okavango
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