Problems and prospects for conservation and indigenous community development in rural Botswana

Community development and conservation programmes have recently been combined in the form of community-based natural resource management programmes. Community participation is recognized as an integral component of these programmes. Communities, however, often lack the administrative or technical knowledge to participate fully in the planning and implementation of the programmes. As government and non-governmental organisations also become involved, the design of programmes becomes more complex. Given the diversity of experience, knowledge and interests of these stakeholders, disagreements in the design of programmes among and within groups are almost unavoidable. Using informal semi-structured interviews, workshops and document analysis that involved the indigenous peoples, non-governmental organisations and the Government of Botswana, we identified the main issues that affect the design of programmes in the northern Okavango panhandle in Botswana. These are savings, capacity building and training, research, community health, cattle industry, conservation of the Okavango Delta, employment, economic diversification, natural resource management, land tenure, cultural identity, traditional leadership, language and representation in and responsiveness of the national government. Strategies for dealing with these issues are discussed.