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

Activities common at this time include hunting, photographic tourism, and bush
clearing for molapo cultivation. It is alleged that these activities encourage the
burning of areas of the Delta for economic purposes. However, a comprehensive
study must be carried out to confirm the cause of bushfires in order to enable the
management and control of this problem. At present, there are no preventative and
control measures in place to manage the fires and their impacts. As such, sensitive
areas are being repeatedly burnt, year after year, with the Fire Control Unit in the
Ministry of Agriculture being unable, due to a lack of staff and resources, to attend to
this problem (OPWT, 1998).
9.12.4 Local Participation in the Tourism Industry
Issues regarding citizen and local participation in the tourism industry need to be
addressed. The foreign ownership and control of the Okavango Delta's (and the rest
of Botswana's) tourism industry, as well as the repatriation of tourism revenue needs
to be considered. A revue of the current tourism policy is needed and the
development of pro-active government policies or programmes focusing specifically
on local participation is required if Botswana citizens are to become economic
stakeholders and players in the areas tourism industry. Additionally, community
empowerment and mobilization is essential if the Community Based Natural
Resource Management (CBNRM) programme is to be successful in the Okavango
Delta. The Botswana Government needs to provide local communities with the
necessary entrepreneurial and managerial skills, through the involvement of Non­
Governmental Organisations (NGOs), in order to manage and run community-based
enterprises independently.
Compared to NGOs, the government is not well placed to facilitate community
participation in tourism, as illustrated by the failure of the Department of Wildlife and
National Parks (DWNP) in effectively implementing CBNRM. The Department of
Wildlife and National Parks should play an advisory role in community-based
organizations in their efforts to benefit from tourism and to complement NGO efforts
when the need arises. NGOs are better placed than the government in facilitating
community training in the tourism industry. The government should use NGOs to
reach out to local people, and resources spent by the government on local
communities should be channeled through NGOs. Additionally, NGOs should be
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