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

CHAPTER EIGHT
The Socio-Cultural and Environmental Impacts of
Tourism in the Okavango Delta Region
8.1 Introduction
The promotion of tourism in Botswana gained momentum in the early 1990s as a
result of the government's attempt to diversify the country's diamond-based mono­
economy. Prior to the 1990 tourism policy, the industry had not been given much
prominence, but with the government's attempt at diversification tourism was
identified as an additional engine of growth (Ndubano, 2000). It has been argued
that the growth of tourism in the Okavango Delta has led to several socio-economic
benefits. These include employment opportunities for the local population, the
generation of foreign exchange, the conservation of the Okavango Delta and its
natural resources, and the stimulation of infrastructural developments (Mbiawa,
2001). However, as the Delta's tourism industry grows, a number of negative socio­
cultural and environmental impacts are also increasingly becoming evident.
Additionally, increasing pressure from the growing population in Namibia, and plans
to start the process of development and modernisation, with the end of the civil war,
in Angola, means that the governments of both these countries are formulating plans
to use the Okavango River and its catchment area for irrigation projects, the creation
of dams to supply water to urban centres and hydro-electric schemes. Such
developments would undoubtedly place the continued existence of the Delta, in its
present state, under threat (Bock, 1998; Mbaiwa, 2002).
This chapter presents an in-depth review of the socio-cultural and environmental
impacts of the international tourism industry in the Okavango Delta region. It also
reviews the current and future challenges and threats that face the Okavango Delta
and the Okavango River Basin as a whole.
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