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

trust between stakeholders. The joint venture partnership system in the Okavango
Delta is very weak and it directly affects the successful performance of community­
based projects (Mbaiwa, 2002). However, joint venture partnerships are assumed to
be very important to the success of CBNRM projects (DWNP, 1999; Gujadjhur,
2001). Communities which do not possess knowledge on how to commercially utilise
their natural resources, nor the capital to do so, regard forming joint venture
partnerships as a means of acquiring such skill and capital, through the transfer of
entrepreneurship and management skills to the local people (DWNP, 1999). This
goal, however, has not been achieved in CBNRM projects in the Okavango.
According to Rozemeijer and van der Jagt (2000) and Gujadjhur (2001), there is
very little transfer of skills between communities and safari operators in the
development of tourism-based CBNRM projects in the Okavango Delta. Gujadjhur
(2001) states that even though there are communities with tourism operations plans,
there is no example of real collaboration and learning between safari companies and
communities. Hence, what was intended as a true joint venture partnership through
CBNRM has resulted in a management contract where communities have little to do
with the management, monitoring or practicalities of running a tourism business.
Instead of being managers or being at the forefront in the development of
community-based tourism, most of the participating communities have become
labourers and land-lords, who are aware that they will receive money from the
leasing of their land, regardless of participation or performance (Gujadjhur, 2001 ;
Boggs, 2002). CBNRM has, therefore, created a system of passive participation,
raised expectations and provided disincentives to work (Boggs, 2002; Mbaiwa,
2004).
Where local communities have sold their hunting quota or sub leased their
Controlled Hunting Areas to safari companies, sums of money accrue to the
community-based organisations. However, a lack of entrepreneurial skills by local
communities often leads to the failure to reinvest, or the misuse, of such community
trust profits. In such cases, there is often a loss of support/interest by community
members for the project when their livelihood situations or living conditions do not
improve. In January 2001, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local
Governments, Mr. E. Molale, raised the same issue when stating that there is poor
handling and use of funds earned from CBNRM projects, failure to conduct audit
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