The Okavango Delta, one of Africa’s prime game areas, is surrounded by vast wildlife concessions. In addition to six Batswana, it has been disclosed that 31 head leases of concessions in total have been allocated to community trusts in the area. In the past, some Batswana complained that most of the prime tourism concessions in the delta have been allocated to foreigners. The Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Kefentse Mzwinila, told the media during a brief this week that in giving Batswana the head leases, government wants to emphasise that elephant hunting is beneficial to the communities.
Concessions are granted by lease and are managed by safari operators. Strict environmental standards form part of these leases, ensuring a pristine safari environment. Mzwinila also said they had realised in Maun on April 2018 that Batswana community living near wildlife areas were not benefiting from controlled hunting. “We have facilitated this by allocating hunting concessions to Batswana and their companies. We wanted Batswana to take a major part in the Okavango Delta by owning land in those areas. Now, community trusts have leases in the delta so we are changing the face of the Okavango Delta. We want the riches, which come into our country, to fall into Batswana’s arms,” he told the media. Mzwinila emphasised that government has changed the face of tourism and now the owners of the concessions are community trusts. He said the old way of changing leases from one person to another every year was not benefitting the community in those areas. “People didn’t really develop the concessions because of limited time but with the current head leases, people can now look at a period of three years to develop and benefit communities nearby,” he said.
