News / Camp News

Socio-economic Community Surveys

16 Oct 2009

Sighting:  Socio-economic Community Surveys
Location:  Okavango Community Trust villages, Okavango Panhandle, Botswana
Dates:   9-19 September 2009
Observers:  Sue Snyman, Helena Faasen and Geoffrey Aupiti
Photographs:  Sue Snyman

Wilderness Safaris' ongoing commitment to building sustainable conservation economies continues, with extensive socio-economic research conducted in all our regions. Recently it was the turn of the Okavango Delta.

The Okavango Community Trust (OCT) is our landlord for the Kwedi Concession which includes Vumbura Plains, Little Vumbura and Duba Plains camps. From 9-19 September 2009, community surveys were conducted in the five OCT villages in the panhandle of the Okavango Delta: Seronga, Gunotsoga, Eretsha, Beetsha and Gudigwa. 

A total of 261 surveys were completed, involving people of all ages and from a variety of different ethnic groups: Basarwa, Bayei, and Hambukushu.

There are schools and clinics in all villages, except for Eretsha, which has only recently been declared an official village and should receive both in the near future.

Infrastructure supplied by the Botswana government is largely new and in very good condition: including solar panels and water tanks at all the schools. Electricity is currently being installed in all the villages and the road between the villages was recently upgraded.

Despite this, there is very little formal employment in the area and the level of poverty is still relatively high in these villages, with most families living a subsistence lifestyle. Therefore, the fact that jobs in the Wilderness Safaris camps in the Kwedi Concession (Little Vumbura, Vumbura and Duba Plains) impact about 33% of the total population of the five OCT villages is substantial. The impact is through wages, salaries and dependency. 

Conflict with elephants is common as a result of the subsistence lifestyle and the location of the villages along elephant paths to and from water. It is therefore essential that the communities receive tangible benefit from ecotourism, over and above the employment creation of the camps. This aspect is covered somewhat by the substantial annual lease fee paid by Wilderness Safaris to the community for the right to operate the camps in the Kwedi Concession. This money is intended to be used for village development with strategies discussed during the recent round of kgotla (community) meetings organised by Wilderness Safaris and held together with the OCT Board.

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