04 Dec 2023

Parliament has adopted a motion directing the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to consider leasing Gaborone Game Reserve to the local community for purposes of Community Based Natural Resource Management with a view to maximizing its commercial potential.

When motivating his motion, Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy, said giving the game reserve to a community trust would ensure that it was operated optimally.
He said although not too reliable, available statistics indicated that the game reserve’s popularity was dwindling, which raised a need to try other means of resuscitating it, hence the need to give it to a community trust.

“Available statistics indicate that in 2021, it had 3120 visitors while last year it registered 3 540 visitors. This year the number of visitors stands at 2 992,” he said. Mr Mangwegape-Healy said that the statistics indicated that the number of visits was not commensurate with the population of the area as he said it represented an average of only 0.8 per cent.

He also said that even though the concept of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) was associated with rural communities, it could also be introduced in towns through the Gaborone Game Reserve.

For his part, Vice President also Boteti West MP, Mr Slumber Tsogwane said that although the motion was noble, it would be better to cast the net wider to include the Greater Gaborone, not just Gaborone Central constituency.

“This is more so that constituencies are not permanent, and the said constituency might have different demarcations after the next delimitation commission,” he said, and advice which Mr Mangwegape-Healy was amenable to.

He said if the game reserve was given to the Greater Gaborone, it would complement the government’s plans of an inclusive economy, and that if better managed, the game reserve would also come in handy in supporting government’s MICE strategy as visitors to summits could be taken nearer to see wildlife than travelling far north.

He said the handing over of the reserve would also help in private sector participation as private investors could be roped in for funding the park into a world-class venue. Ends