“The community understands one hundred per cent that the benefits are coming from the wildlife,” says Kgosi Gokgathang Timex Moalosi, Chief of Sankuyo Village, a small community of 700 hundred people on the eastern shores of the Okavango Delta.
Through a wildlife management concession afforded to the village in 1996, Sankuyo is able to generate revenue by promoting hunting safaris and eco-tourism activities on their tribal land. These are typically offered through joint ventures with private sector concerns and, especially the hunting, return handsome dividends.
Moalosi says over 65 per cent of the revenues are ploughed back into the village for development purposes. Water connections have been installed in every household; toilets have been built; a shelter constructed for the destitute; and, supplementary pension money made available to villagers over the age of 60.
Recognition that the resources of the Delta are of economic value appears to be creating the desired conservation ethic among local inhabitants. If the resources – the wildlife, the land and the water – are protected to generate income, then the ecosystem services of the Delta itself can function to their optimum. It is integrated Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) at its best.
“We haven’t seen poaching here since 1999. Even the farmers are now more tolerant of the elephants,” says Moalosi in reference to the ongoing conflict in Botswana between small-scale crop growers and the destruction wrought by trespassing elephants that express scant regard for wire or wooden fences.
On the day that I visit, Moalosi and the village elders are holding an open-air kgotla (meeting) in which they debate the merits of private sector proposals to join the village in a community-run eco-tourist venture.
Moalosi acknowledges that Sankuyo has tried and failed in previous attempts to operate a campsite and six-chalet lodge. The idea was that the community would capitalise on the tourist value of the surrounding wildlife, thereby generating wealth and employment.
CBNRM models of this nature have been fiercely debated in Botswana, with critics citing the lack of basic commercial skills at local level as an all-too-familiar stumbling block.
“We have the natural and the human resources,” says Kgosi Moalosi, “we just don’t have the marketing resources.” Hence the kgotla to see what critical private expertise can be brought to the table.
With donor assistance, a management and organisational analysis of the Sankuyo Tshwaragano Management Trust, the operational body that runs the various commercial enterprises of Sankuyo village, was carried out in 2006, out of which business plan and marketing plans were designed for the redevelopment of Sankuyo’s Kaziikini Campsite and Santawani Lodge.
“We needed to break from the old ways and take the lodge to a new level,” explains Enterprises Manager of the Trust, Raphael Muskwe.
It is still early days with everyone recognising that the first true tourist season (May to October) will provide the proof in the pudding. Nevertheless, there is an air of optimism in Sankuyo. A full-time accountant has been appointed and a bookings office opened in Maun, the nearest district centre through which much of the tourist trade passes. Campsite and lodge staffs have been trained and management initiated in the demands and expectations of tourist clients.
“We are happy to persevere and develop our tourism aspirations. We are ready to compete with other (commercial) lodges,” says 26 year old Skipper Mareja, the trainee enterprises manager with the management trust.
Kaziikini, which means “economic abundance” in Tswana, is already making a name for its authentic tourist experience.
“This is the best community run campsite that is completely in the bush,” remarks tour guide Ronald Solipito, who takes safari groups through the Delta and into neighbouring Zambia.
One hopes that the word gets out for both the campsite and the lodge, and that the necessary skills needs are met to convert both ventures into successful businesses. If these goals are achieved, the benefits won’t just be for the community, but also for the Delta, Botswana and all conservation minded people around the world – for now and into the future.
Written by Alex Hetherington