ABSTRACT
The political economy of wildlife and biodiversity conservation and tourism’s contribution to the country’s economic development is a major theme in the development literature on Botswana. An increasingly cardinal economic sector in Botswana’s development, tourism is anchored on viewing wildlife and wilderness that have historically thrived as a result largely of consciously crafted conservation regimes over time. However, written mostly by environmentalists and development economists, debates on conservation and tourism in Botswana have tended to focus on Western scientific strategies, often ignoring the history of the evolution of conservation of wildlife and biodiversity and tourism in the country. Such studies have not analysed the evolution and development of conservation in an historical context. Like elsewhere in Southern Africa, wildlife conservation has a history that predates western colonial fortress conservation and subsequent paradigm shifts in the management of wildlife. However, the discussion is not necessarily a systematic chronological account but an historical analysis of developments in conservation and tourism over time. Thus, it utilises the concept of sustainable development to contextualise the development of tourism, natural resources and community livelihoods in Botswana.
This chapter delineates and explicates the long and complex history of the changing wildlife and biodiversity conservation regimes in Botswana over time. First, being cognisant of some neoliberal constructions which posited that pre-colonial traditional conservation was “just a myth” and that such societies “disturbed their local environment,” the chapter debunks the argument. It examines, through qualitative methodology and the utilisation of primary and secondary sources, the evolution of conservation regimes and tourism development up to today’s notion of “community conservation” which integrated conservation with rural development.
In conclusion, the chapter explores developments following decolonisation in Southern Africa in the 1990s, such as institutions and infrastructure that enabled Botswana to compete with the region favourably, also embracing the transfrontier conservation, a flagship cross-border collaboration approach to conservation.
