Duba Plains, Vumbura Plains and Little Vumbura are Wilderness Safaris camps that fall into two concessions totalling over 89 000 hectares (220 000 acres) that have been ceded by the Botswana Government to five villages just outside of the Okavango Delta. These villages, located to the north of our camps, comprise approximately 5000 people, and are represented by the Okavango Community Trust (OCT), a trust that administers the Duba and Vumbura concessions, oversees the project and directs the flow of funds. Since its inception, the communities have benefited from substantial cash and auxiliary returns, jobs, skills transfer and training in nurturing this area, and in turn are doing a superb job of managing the concessions. The five villages involved in this joint venture are Seronga, Gunitsoga, Eretsha, Betsha, and Gudigwa.
Wilderness Safaris and the Okavango Community Trust have formed a partnership that involves the employment and training of the local community members in all aspects of lodge employment. At this stage Wilderness employs 120 community members in its camps, and those with the greatest potential are selected for the Wilderness Safaris Localisation Training Course, a programme designed to train local Batswana to become skilled and effective camp managers. Wilderness is also in the process of assisting and advising the community on administration matters and business planning decisions. This is geared to helping with other small business projects such as vegetable gardens, shops and basket making, which will further enhance the self-realisation and self-employment prospects of the members of this community. Wilderness has also employed the services of a qualified paramedic and HIV/AIDS counsellor to assist with the health and safety issues that face these communities.
The wildlife in this area has benefited substantially from this partnership; with the neighbouring communities gaining hard cash, training and employment, poaching has dropped, with the result that animal populations have increased.
In addition, these areas are in fact zoned as hunting concessions. Wilderness Safaris has chosen not to hunt and in doing so loses about US$300 000 a year in hunting quotas that we do not take up in preference for photographic safaris. The reasons we have elected not to hunt are many and varied, but one of the most important reasons is that hunting and photographic tourism do not mix in the same area for many reasons. As a result of this "no-hunting" policy in the Kwedi area (and because of the wide ranging habitats and permanent water in the floodplains) this region has some of the best wildlife viewing in all of Botswana. This has encouraged Wilderness Safaris to continue to find solutions that will benefit the environment, the community, our guests and ecotourism in the long term.
It is a complex arrangement but for any wildlife area to succeed, it is essential that the communities that live adjacent to these areas are not only educated about the environment that they oversee, and about the importance of sustainable business in these areas, but also participate and are included in the decision-making and business intricacies required to make it a success.
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