My focus then was on the exploitation of wildlife resources and the community based natural resource management (CBNRM) concept. Recently, Botsalo Ntuane vehemently argued against the CBNRM. The concept does not seem to enjoy support from the head of state, President Festus Mogae either. This is despite Parliament passing a somewhat watered down CBNRM policy not so long ago, which if Ntuane had his way would be recalled and corrected. In the article that I wrote previously, I tried to reason why using nation building as a reason not to adopt the CBNRM concept was no longer a strong a reason as it was in 1966.
CBNRM is in fact not a new concept for Batswana per se. It is well entrenched in our culture. The saying "Matlo go sha mabapi" illustrates the concept very clearly. It literally means "if a fire starts burning a household, it will spread to adjacent households first and burn them down, before spreading further afield". Thus, those who are closest to the fire will suffer the most damages. The CBNRM concept is premised on this notion for both costs and benefits as well as responsibilities and rights. Similarly, the mafisa cattle system, where family A lends family B cattle to take responsibility for them, and family B is allowed to enjoy some rights (such as use as draught power, drink milk and so on.) of the cattle they borrowed.
