Biodiversity Conservation, Rural Livelihoods, and Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Botswana

This study employs the sustainable livelihoods framework to examine the achievements and challenges of the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) program, with an emphasis on wildlife-based tourism development in Botswana. The article analyses whether the CBNRM program in its 30-year history has achieved its main goal of improving rural livelihoods and promoting conservation in Botswana. The article used secondary data, supplemented by primary data collected through personal observations and interactions with key people in the tourism and conservation sectors. The paper argues that the proper implementation of CBNRM can enhance rural livelihoods and contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. In Botswana, wildlife-based tourism generates economic benefits, including employment opportunities and income, which in turn fosters positive attitudes among residents towards conservation and tourism. CBNRM also faces difficulties; reviews show that wildlife-based tourism employment provides low wages, and after reaching a certain age, residents become impoverished because they cannot participate in the formal labor force and have no alternative means of support because of their locations, where other livelihood options, such as agriculture, which is a legacy in most of Botswana, are illegal or unfavorable. Benefits from wildlife-based tourism are inequitably distributed among age groups. Employment monopolizes benefits. This situation occurs because most community-based organizations (CBOs) fail to allocate benefits from CBNRM ventures directly to households, where the costs of coexisting with wildlife are incurred; instead, benefits are disbursed to villages. The results also indicate that in Botswana, most of the successful and sustainable CBNRM CBOs benefiting from wildlife-based tourism through joint ventures were initially established during the introduction of CBNRM in the 1990s. CBOs that registered later are struggling to venture into wildlife-based tourism because of insufficient managerial and entrepreneurial competencies within the tourism industry, insufficient training and capacity development in CBNRM, and other factors limiting communities from benefiting from wildlife-based tourism. These village community members continue to regard wildlife as state property because they lack projects that give them a sense of ownership over wildlife species, raising questions about whether CBNRM is meeting its aim of improving livelihoods and conservation. This evidence reveals that Botswana has not utilized most of its wildlife-based tourism potential.