Natural Resources, Tourism and Community Livelihoods in Southern Africa

Challenges of Sustainable Development

Moren T. Stone, Monkgogi Lenao, Naomi Moswete, Moren T. Stone, Monkgogi Lenao, Naomi Moswete

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Topic: Economics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000763713
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Economics

This book examines the connections between natural resources, tourism and community livelihood practices in Southern Africa, highlighting the successes and constraints experienced over the last 50 years.

Questioning how natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods relations can positively contribute towards development efforts, this book adopts an interdisciplinary approach to understand socio-ecological systems that characterize the dynamics for sustainable development. It explores the history of conservation and natural resource management in Southern Africa and traces the development and growth of nature-based tourism. Boasting a wide range of tourism landscapes, including national parks, wetlands, forests and oceans, the book draws on case studies from a variety of Southern African countries, including Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and considers the political challenges for implementing policies and practices. Furthermore, it analyses broader issues such as the impact of climate change, human–wildlife co-existence and resulting conflicts, poor access to funding and poverty in local communities. The book argues that the links between conservation and livelihoods can be best understood by considering the different approaches to reconciling the demands of conservation and livelihoods that have evolved over the past decades.

Containing contributions from natural and social sciences the book provides guidance for practitioners and policymakers to continue to shape policies and practices that are in line with the key tenets of sustainable development. It will also be of great interest to students and scholars researching Southern Africa, sustainable tourism and conservation.

1 Contextualizing and conceptualizing relationships in natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods

An introduction overview

Naomi N. Moswete, Monkgogi Lenao and Moren T. Stone

Southern Africa is endowed with natural resources that abound in diverse areas of the region. The wealth of natural resources found traversing the Southern African landscape include but are not limited to the Le Morne Brabant world heritage site in Mauritius, Lake Chilwa Wetland Biosphere Reserve of Malawi, Okavango Delta, Botswana and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe/Zambia.

Natural resources in and outside gazetted areas and /or protected regions of the world have become an important component of the tourism sector, local communities and conservation in Southern Africa and the world. Due to the attached value and importance of natural resources (forests, wildlife) they ought to be preserved and conserved for posterity. Hitherto, protected areas as attractions for nature tourism have become vital livelihood options for communities located in the vicinity of wildlife reserves and other secure sites of universal importance, which include the iSimangaliso Wetland Park of South Africa, the Chobe National Park in Botswana and many others. Additionally, examples of distinctive natural resources from outside Africa are also discussed in this edited book, including the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the United States. In today’s lingo, tourism and natural resources are interlinked as people travel the world to experience well-kept wilderness and non-traversed secrets of Southern Africa. It is against this backdrop that managing protected areas (parks and reserves) and other associated resources presents opportunities and challenges for both national and international governments alike. Opportunities in this case include protecting the natural, cultural and recreational values of national parks (conservation) and opening access to visitors and tourists to enjoy and appreciate (outdoor recreation) (Manning, 2009). In spite of vast opportunities alluded to, park authorities face management challenges which lead to reduced quality of experience due in part to trampling, littering or pollution of water sources (Ewert, Dieser, & Voight, 1999; Manning, 1999).

Introducing tourism and sustainability

According to the United Nations World Tourism organisation (UNWTO, 2007), tourism involves travel away from areas of abodes for an overnight stay for reasons that include leisure, outdoor recreation, education or relaxation. Destinations chosen by tourists include nature reserves, wildlife refuge sites, and heritage sites. Recently, tourism to natural areas has experienced an upsurge of tourists and visitors alike, thereby implying the need for new modalities of management of resources to alleviate its negative impacts on people and the environment (Moswete, Nkape, & Tseme, 2017; Richards & Hall, 2000).

Thus, the tourism industry is dependent on the natural resource base for an environment for its continued existence. Without a well-kept and clean physical environment, the tourism sector cannot be sustained. As stated by Goeldner and Ritchie (2012, p. 23), “there is no question that tourism delivers benefits, but tourism is not perfect.” As well echoed, tourism industries often create negative impacts on the environment, society, culture, and sometimes even on the economy (Richards & Hall, 2000). For example, trampling is a common negative impact of tourism as it destroys ground cover, widens walkways, causes vegetation loss, trail deepening and loss of habitats, especially for burrowing animals (Manning, 2009). Creation of illegal roads and tracks by tourists’ vehicles in some environmentally sensitive areas, such as the Chobe National Park (Moswete et al., 2017), Camp Xakanaka or Okavango Delta (Mbaiwa, 2003) has had negative impacts on the fragile vegetation communities of the area, reducing the picturesque quality of some parts of the delta in Botswana (Mbaiwa, 2003). There are socio-economic and environmental costs and benefits associated with sustainable tourism (see Table 1.1).

Thus, sustainable tourism has become a new method through which natural and other tourism resources could be protected (UNEP/WTO, 2005). Sustainable tourism is devoted as tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities (Holden, 2008; UNWTO, 2007). Therefore, the guiding principles of sustainable tourism include but are not limited to the following:

Table 1.1Positive and negative socio-economic and environmental impacts of tourism

• Tourism activities and development should respect the scale, nature and character of the place in which they are sited.
• In any location, harmony must be sought between the needs of the visitor, the destination/place and the host community.
• The relationship between tourism and the environment must be managed so that the environment is sustainable in the long run.
• It must respect social and cultural traditions in the host country.
• It must be non-exploitative of the local people and ensure, as far as possible, that benefits flow to local people.
  (Carter, Garrod, & Low, 2015; Holden, 2008)

Conservation, tourism and local communities: challenges for development

In Southern Africa, vast areas of land have been set aside for conservation of wildlife and other natural resources. This shows a positive move and commitment to conservation and protection of resources. Conflict over resource use arises when several groups of people compete for limited resources (Nelson, 2010). For instance, government may see a game reserve or national park as a wildlife habitat where wildlife is to be protected, whilst the local people residing in or adjacent to a protected area regard wildlife and the preserved areas as their own land where they should be allowed to hunt and gather food freely (Bolaane, 2004; Nelson, 2010). In Botswana the San of Khwai residents were relocated from Moremi Game Reserve and resettled at the northern gate of the reserve when the reserve was created in 1963 (Bolaane, 2004; Mbaiwa, 2003). The action denied these communities free access to their traditional land and resources, consequently affecting their traditional hunting and gathering lifestyles. Such actions have caused conflicts and disputes between natural resources (e.g. wildlife), resource managers and tourism developers (Nelson, 2010).

Conceptual framework

This book is guided by the principles of sustainable development and/or sustainable tourism development in assessing connections between natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods.

The starting point is that the local community should benefit through participation in nature-based tourism enterprises. These initiatives have taken different formats across the sub-region. Topical amongst which are multiple community conservation and tourism enterprise arrangements where two or more communities are expected to share in the management and benefits arising from a single initiative. The different socio-economic and ecological benefits accruing from these types of arrangements have been widely documented. Among the key conclusions arrived at is the realisation that these partnerships have contributed towards improving both livelihoods and human–wildlife co-existence. On the other hand, nature-based tourism in Southern Africa has experienced a number of limitations and challenges over the past decades. These include political instabilities in certain countries, poor tourism infrastructure, human–wildlife conflicts, lack of institutional and human capacity, poor access to funding as well as top-down governance approaches to natural resources management. These have weakened nature-based tourism development in many natural resource-rich Southern African countries. Collective research interest in trying to link the livelihoods of people living near natural resources to the conservation of these resources has been developing over the last few years. Through these prolific discussions it has been discovered, among other things, that local communities often rely on products and services from nearby natural areas to meet their livelihood needs. Therefore, their use constitutes a demand on the biodiversity/resources of these areas while their conservation objectives, coupled with those of the state and outside groups, constitute another. The resulting conflict, compatibility or complementarity between the demands created by livelihoods activities and conservation objectives has been the focal point of much discussion and effort over the last decades. Be that as it may, efforts aimed at systematically defining and assessing the dynamics of these linkages have not been given enough attention. To this end, the actual nature of these linkages remains largely understudied and, therefore, unknown.

This edited book focuses on natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods practices pulled from some countries in the Southern African region. The book highlights successes and constraints experienced in this part of the region. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach as it attempts to understand socio-ecological systems that characterize the dynamics of the relationships between natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods. Chapter contributors to the book are researchers in multiple disciplines in the natural and social sciences with a diversity of views; a necessary condition for the design of best practices and policies. Through this diversity in scholarship, the book is suitable for practitioners, planners, policy developers and interested stakeholders to learn, adapt and continue to review and align policies and practices that are in line with the key tenets of sustainable development. The chapters reflect what these relationships are and what has been accomplished in various geographical areas within the Southern African natural resources and tourism landscapes. The concept of relationships between conservation and livelihoods can perhaps be best understood by considering the different approaches to reconciling the demands of conservation and livelihoods that have evolved over the past years.

Chapters in this edited book consist of theories and case studies drawn from different Southern African regions, demonstrating practical cases related to natural resource conservation, tourism, local communities and sustainability. The chapters cover a variety of issues that affect natural resources use and sustainability, conservation, tourism and local communities.

Outline of the book

This book is divided into four parts: Part 1 is the introduction, which contextualizes and conceptualizes relationships in natural resources, tourism, and community livelihoods. It is in this chapter that tourism is introduced, and resource use and conservation tourism is discussed. Part 2 has six (6) chapters which discuss natural resources management and conservation in Southern Africa, including history and trajectories. For example, Gumbo talks about the historical evolution of conservation in Southern Africa, while Chilembwe, Njerekai and Hebinck discuss wildlife resources, community conservation and CBNRM with examples from Botswana, Nambia and Malawi. Hambira is concerned with the ways in which multinational tourism companies engage in local community social upliftment activities through corporate social responsibility in natural resources conservation in and around protected areas. Hoogendoorn and Fitchett bring about a new twist in which they reveal the negative impact of climate on nature-based tourism and the need to conduct more research on the relationship of tourism and climate change.

Part 3 focuses on issues related to natural resource-based tourism development and growth in Southern Africa covering policy issues, challenges and practices. There are four chapters in this part. Mogomotsi, Saayman and Saayman write about conflict and the coexistence of traditional and contemporary land uses using a case study of Botswana’s Okavango Delta region. They argue that the Okavango Delta has experienced negative natural resource dynamics, such as increasing competition and conflicts over natural resources, biodiversity loss and some cases of natural resource depletion. Nyirenda, Milimo and Namukonde adopt the sustainable tourism development concept, with emphasis on its application to protected area management. The chapter discusses local people’s perspectives on wildlife conservation, ecotourism and community livelihoods in Zambia. Similarly, Kimaro and Saarinen explore issues of tourism and poverty alleviation through corporate social responsibility by different tourism-related companies in Namibia. And Muzirambi, Musavengane and Mearns explore issues related to devolution of CBNRM and governance of natural resource management and communities.

Part 4 of this book consists of five (5) chapters. At most it covers topics that include conservation and tourism development debates in Southern Africa. Brian Child adopts the sustainable governance approach to write on the economics and governance of wildlife economy in drylands in Southern Africa. This chapter explains the institutional history of private conservation and CBNRM, interrogating the cost and benefits of the CBNRM approach in community conservation. Child recommends a new paradigm shift in which communities become shareholders and not stakeholders so that they can acquire full rights to own land and wildlife. Lepetu and Garekae’s chapter focuses on the role of forest resources and conservation using a case study of the Chobe Forest Reserve in Botswana. This chapter emphasises the importance of ecotourism and how it can be used to manage resources. Seetanah and Sannassee’s contribution is on a similar topic, with a specific focus placed on institutional arrangements and the manner in which they can either aid or impede the development of ecotourism in the sub-region. The final contribution in this part comes from Fairer-Wessels, where she discusses the relationship between sustainable development goals, livelihoods and tourism development in a rural protected area in iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa. Here she decries rural poor’s apparent inability to leverage on the opportunities provided by the resource base in order to lift themselves out of poverty.

Part 5 attempts to situate Southern Africa in the world regarding the tourism, conservation and livelihoods nexus. It presents cases from Southern Africa as well as lessons that may be learnt in comparison to the other regions of the world. This part has four (4) chapters. Stone et al.’s chapter focuses on natural resources, sustainable tourism development and community livelihoods relationships, making a comparison between Botswana and the United States. In the end, Stone et al. found that in both communities conflicts were reported, such as increased human – wildlife at CECT, vandalism of canyons and off-track driving at GSENM. Mmopelwa and Mackenzie’s chapter focuses on the economic assessment of tourism-based livelihoods for sustainable development. Drawing from handicraft-related literature spurning Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania, they argue that communities found near tourism-based resources must reap significant benefits that have contributed to improved livelihoods. Finally, Thapa’s chapter focuses on a comparison evaluation of visitors’ perceptions of park characteristics in Southern Africa. In this chapter, he investigates how protected areas in the Southern African region may utilise their resource endowments (comparative advantage) to improve on their competitiveness, especially through infrastructural and other tourism-related investments.

Finally, Chapter 6 concludes the book and brings along synthesis and conclusions which are derived from all chapters or outcomes of the book. The overall conclusion of the chapter is that the many case studies presented by this book indicate that the relationships between natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods are dynamic, complex and context specific. However, it has emerged that, if natural resources (either in protected areas or buffer zones) are to remain feasible in the future, local communities must be given a greater role not only in their management, but also their livelihood ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 Contextualizing and conceptualizing relationships in natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods: an introduction overview
• Part I Natural resources management and conservation in Southern Africa: history and trajectories
• Part II Natural resource-based tourism development and growth in Southern Africa: policy issues, challenges and practices
• Part III Conservation and tourism development debates in Southern Africa: origins, narratives and progress
• Part IV Southern Africa in the world: cases and lessons
• Part V Conclusion
• Index