05 Apr 2022

 Government remains committed to expanding tourism and empowering Batswana by creating more opportunities for them to take part in the tourism activities at Chobe National Park and Okavango Delta.
Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng reiterated such commitment when arguing against a motion that Maun West legislator, also leader of opposition, Mr Dumelang Saleshando tabled recently.

Mr Saleshando called for urgent withdrawal of Expression Of Interest (EOI) which the environment, natural resources, conservation and tourism ministry issued last month and also requested the minister to reconsider the plan to allocate eight tourism sites to ensure fairness, transparency and strict adherence to the current Chobe Management Plan of 2021 and other government policies or strategies such as the Chobe River Front Decongestion Strategy.

He argued that the management plan once indicated that the part earmarked for the eight tourism sites was already congested.
“Allocating the eight camp sites will result in further congestion to the already congested Chobe National Park, against the scientific evidence indicated in the decongestion strategy,” Mr Saleshando said.
Also, he said allocating sites showed ‘lack of understanding’ on the part of the minister because Batswana did not want to benefit from the sector that defied all scientific evidence placed before it.
He added that the draft management plan eliminated all the expert advice to the ministry, hence executing the plan may have effects on the image of the country, bearing in mind that the country had international obligations.

“International environmentalist groups are going to put pressure on tourists to avoid visiting this country because of decisions that tamper with the environment and this will hurt our tourism,” he argued.
In addition, he said records showed that in 2017 the Botswana Defence Force requested to develop a lodge in the Chobe National Park, but the ministry rejected their request on the basis that the negative environmental impacts of the proposed lodge at the site outweighed the positives to be derived.
He said the BDF Trust Fund was advised to consider other less developed, but prime tourism potential areas.
In response to some comments raised by Mr Saleshando and some opposition Members of Parliament,  Ms Kereng said she was not aware of any congestion caused by lodges along the river front because there was only one lodge in the park.

She said the State of the Nation Address indicated that government was going to diversify and develop the tourism sector by including projects such as dam tourism at the dams and further open campsites at Khutse and Central Kalahari game reserves as well as Kalahari Trans-frontier Park.
She added that about 48 campsites had thus far been identified, which would be allocated to Batswana, adding, ‘all these were allocated in a transparent manner and there were no complaints raised.
The ministry will also undertake a similar exercise at Chobe National Park, which is at the heart of tourism’.
She said the scientific approaches were applied during the processes,  hence there was nothing that would thwart government’s intent to undertake such projects or activities even if the management plan was still at draft stage.

The minister indicated that Chobe National Park was vast, hence eight campsites would not cause any congestion and some of the proposed lodge sites were located away from the river due to the ecological sensitivity of that area.
“The proposed lodge sites are also two kilometres apart to allow for free movement of wildlife,” she added.
On the decongestion strategy, Ms Kereng said the plan was aimed at opening other establishments in the park, hence the sporadic development of lodge sites in the park was part of decongestion.
“To minimise congestion on the river side, the ministry is going to open alternative routes for game drives to promote better opportunities for tourists to do sightseeing compared to one route currently being used,” she said.

In addition, she said the ministry would drill boreholes so that animals did not crowd at the river for water, thus giving tourists an opportunity to view animals in other places in the park to avoid having all the tourists crowding by the river side, especially during the dry season.
She said Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) would be conducted by those allocated sites individual  so that it focused specifically on the project to be undertaken to guide the design of the envisaged lodges.

She said there was also a prescription that the lodges should have a minimum of 75 rooms hence maintaining the high value principle in that regard.
Majority of Members of Parliament supported Ms Kereng’s explanation, saying that it would help empower Batswana, particularly small businesses as well as diversify the tourism sector and in turn create jobs.
They also argued that the fact that more than 200 people expressed their interests in the tender, showed that Batswana were eager to take part in the proposed projects and already had high hopes in the project.
Consequently, the motion was rejected after Minister Kereng, together with 36 other legislators, voted against withdrawal of the Expression Of Interest defeating the 16 Members of Parliament who voted for the withdrawal. ENDS