27 Jun 2016

Botswana Guides Association has complained about being denied access to White Sands stretch point inside the Chobe National Park. 

That came to light at a recent consultative meeting with the parliamentary portfolio committee on wildlife, tourism, natural resources and climate change in Kasane recently. 

The association’s representatives, Mist Setaung and Peace Shamuka, said proper consultations were not done before the decision was taken to deny mobile safari operators access to the spot.

“When we asked, we were told that this is done for environmental purposes,” noted Setaung. 

Shamuka said one of the reasons provided for shutting down the spot was that there had been a lot of illegal activities. 

“If that is the case, how many people were caught? And why were we then painted with the same brush?” he noted.

Shamuka added that concerns over illegal activities only became pronounced with the entrance of a new lodge on the Namibian side. 

“That was when we heard that we were disturbing guests in that lodge and the complaints about illegal activities started until White Sands was eventually shut off from us,” he opined.  

The lodge in question is Chobe Savannah Lodge, not too far from the contentious White Sands resting spot. 

Wildlife officials argued that they shut down the place after complaints of illegal activities such as pollution and speeding. 

“We do not have presence over the area so it was impossible to have control over it hence the final decision by the then Minister Kitso Mokaila to close it,” said the acting regional wildlife director,  Lesole Montshiwa. 

However, parliamentary member, Wynter Mmolotsi wanted to know if there had been any scientific researches done to justify environmental degradation concerns cited over the closure.

To that, the DWNP team insisted they had relied on observation to arrive at such a conclusion. 

On one hand, Bagalatia Arone further highlighted that often when such regulations and decisions were made, it was the local small businesses who suffered the most while the well-established large organisations stood to benefit.

“In this case, it is clear that the big guys felt that the small guys were being a nuisance which is completely unfair,” Arone said. 

He highlighted that such regulations had the potential to impoverish small businesses especially citizen-owned who were trying to play a part in the tourism sector while the foreign players kept getting richer.

He therefore emphasised the need for thorough consultations to engage all players in the sector when such sensitive matters were at hand. 

Thus, he called for balance in ensuring that interests of local communities were balanced with those of the environment to ensure one does not suffer at the expense of the other. 

The portfolio committee chairperson, r Itumeleng Moipisi concluded that there was need to follow up on the reviews of the decongestion strategy and the Chobe National Park Management Plan. 

Resource Management trusts and to tour their projects. Ends, the committee is on a tour in Ghanzi, Ngami and Chobe regions to meet with Community Based Natural Resource Management trusts and to tour their projects. Ends