Africa-Press – Botswana. Global warming calls for the adoption of innovative, climate smart approaches to tourism development and management, says Specially Elected Member of Parliament, Dr Unity Dow.
Dr Dow, who is a member of the parliamentary committee on wildlife, tourism, natural resources and climate change, said this after a tour of tourism sites in Khawa on Sunday.
She said the world was faced with the effects of climate change and that there was the need for upcoming tourism destinations such as Khawa to implement innovative models and fresh adaptation strategies with long-term projections into the future to ensure sustainability.
Dr Dow was accompanied by fellow committee member and Kgalagadi South MP, Mr Sam Brooks. She said tourism was a key economic sector and tool for community development and that climate smart tourism was key to cushion the sector from vulnerabilities.
She said Khawa’s famous sand dunes, flora and fauna presented a great tourism potential and that there was need to device new tourism development models with climate change in mind when undertaking developments in the area.
She said sport and cultural tourism events staged at Khawa must infuse climate smart ways to keep the environment clean and safe, and suggested that instead of using fuel powered motorbikes the community could consider using electric motorbikes which were environmentally friendly. She also urged Khawa residents to be the epitome of climate smart tourism in all developments. She added that other countries could benchmark from their model.
For his part, Mr Brooks said their committee was established as a oversight committee and that they had visited various tourism projects across the country to appreciate challenges faced and to come up with solutions under the village score card. He noted that Parliament recently passed legislation that covered community based natural resources management. He emphasised the need for the committee to meet with communities and service providers in order to improve livelihoods.
Mr Brooks said Khawa was one of the country’s flagship tourism areas and that there was the need for legislators, service providers and community members to share ideas and come up with solutions to challenges faced.
Khawa Kopanelo Development Trust chairperson, Ms Elsie Velskoen, praised government for assisting the trust to stand on its feet. She said they were in charge of tourism and agro-tourism projects in Khawa such as the Swakara Farm where they kept karakul sheep and goats, tourism safari and accommodation in conjunction with Tsabong District Council and Botswana Tourism Organisation.
She said their Swakara Farm had great potential, but was unexploited and not making enough money. She lamented that the fence was worn and needed maintenance which they could not afford. The challenge, she said, led the sheep to go astray to nearby farms.
Ms Velskoen also said they needed transport to run trust errands, adding that they had requested for transport from the council and were still awaiting a response. On other challenges, she said the water was insufficient and saline. She noted that the Karakul pelt market was lucrative and a potential treasure trove for the community.
She said they were not selling pelts and aspired to benchmark from Namibia where they were running successful pelt business.
She said they harboured an ambition to open a butchery which would serve locals as well as tourists who visited the village.
She said more needed to be done to develop tourism in the area, including photographic tourism.
She said their tourism sites near Khawa such as the Konka and Wolwe pans needed to be developed. She said they planned to construct a lodge by the gate to provide accommodation to tourists, adding that the move would create employment opportunities for locals and generate revenue for the trust.
Kgosi Piet Manyoro of Khawa commended government for playing a role in developing Khawa and the trust. He said the Karakul farm required strong management to yield revenue and encouraged the community to form a pelt corporation to sustain the business.
Kgosi Manyoro said the road infrastructure needed to be developed to transport people and commodities.
He said if the trust became successful it would create jobs and create tourism value chains. He said the focus should be on developing the farm to employ more people and reduce beneficiaries under the Ipelegeng programme.
He said construction of the new Khawa gate into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park should be fast tracked to enable the trust to benefit. The development presented opportunities for locals. He said the annual hunting quota allotted to the trust was one of the revenue earners.
However, he said, the quota needed to be made more attractive to bidders through the inclusion of lions which could fetch them more money.
Other members of the parliamentary committee are Messrs Polson Majaha of Nata Gweta and Mpho Balopi of Gaborone North and Dr Thapelo Matsheka of Lobatse.
Source: dailynews
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