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

As such, this study has revealed that the development of tourism in the Okavango
Delta has done little to economically benefit the local population through the creation
of employment. It has instead served to increase 'rural-urban' migration levels,
decrease subsistence agricultural production, led to the concentration of
unemployed rural migrants on tourist peripheries and increased pressures placed on
the region's economy and resources by poverty stricken communities.
9.9 Review of the Role of Tourism in Natural Resource
Management in the Okavango Delta
Tyler (1998) considers Developing Countries to be particularly prone to tourism­
related environmental degradation, given the need for such countries to generate
income and the frequently low priority given to environmental issues. Tananone
(1991) suggests that tourism has aided in transferring the ecological problems of the
industrialised nations to developing countries. Cater and Lawman (1994) note that
tourism in developing countries often occurs at the expense of the host country's
biophysical and cultural environments.
Some of the most common negative impacts of tourism on the Okavango Delta's
natural resources include: destruction of natural environments, vegetation damage,
water pollution, soil erosion and the silting up of water ways; creation of competition
for land and resources; loss of access to natural areas; inflation of land values;
abandonment of traditional subsistence strategies and rural-urban migration;
poaching; destruction of wildlife through habitat loss (fires) and fragmentation, and
the deterioration of the natural resource base. It is only through the establishment
and recognition of carrying capacities, or limits of acceptable change in tourism
development, and the effective monitoring of tourism activities and the enforcement
of government policies by the Department of Tourism, Wildlife and National Parks
and Tawana Land Board in the Okavango Delta, that the further environmental
degradation of the area may be limited and controlled (Mbaiwa, 2002).
Other authors, however, adopt an alternative view, emphasising the actual and
potential benefits of tourism, especially with regard to the conservation and
protection of natural and built environments. Stankovic (1991) stresses that tourism
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