Africa-Press – Botswana. Communities have made about P195 million since the 2022 to 2025 hunting season from the hunting quota since the lifting of the hunting ban.
Answering a question in Parliament on Monday on behalf of the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Major General Pius Mokgware said this was coupled with about 7 000 jobs created per year from community-based organisation activities.
Currently, he said a number of the trophies were exported to the United States of America and Europe, particularly Germany, Spain, Italy and France.
He further said in Africa, South Africa was the largest market.
The minister added that some emerging markets include Mexico, and the Middle East particularly the United Arab Emirates with the Far East remaining unexplored market. He said land authorities, being Land Boards on tribal lands and the Department of Lands on state land, administered tourism concessions.
He said according to records from land authorities, 40 concession leases ended in the last 20 years to date.
The minister added that 29 had been renewed while 11 leases were pending renewal.
He said the leases that have been renewed we (NG4, NG14, NG16, NG17, NG18, NG19, NG28, N27A (Zone 1), NG27A (Zone3), NG28 (MGR1), NG28 (MGR3), NG 28 (MGR6), NG 28 (Savuti Campground), NG28 (Linyanti campground), NG28 (Khwai Campground), NG28 (Wilderness Campsites), NG29, NG30, NG31, NG32 (Zone 1), NG32 (Zone 2), NG 33,NG34, NG41, NG 48 (Nxai Pan Camp), and NG43.
The minister said land boards were responsible for the administration and allocation of tourism concessions on tribal land as per the authority bestowed by the Tribal Land Act No. 54 of 1968 (CAP 32:02).
He added that the State Land Act No 29 of 1966 (CAP 32:01) gave the Department of Lands the authority for administration and allocation of tourism concession on state land.
He said ministry through the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) played a facilitative role of identification and recommendation of allocation of tourism land to suitable investors as well as overall technical support to land authorities on matters relating to tourism.
He further said BTO’s role in concession area management was informed by its mandate to plan, formulate and implement strategies for promoting sustainable tourism development and promote investment into the tourism sector and as captured under Part II: 4 (2) of the BTO Act (CAP 42:10).
The minister said in 2014, the management of the tourism sites was transferred from the Land Authorities to the then Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Management and Tourism and the reasons for transfer included among others, the delay in processing allocations and resolutions of issues arising from land allocations, lease management as well as insistent flaws in the management of lease agreements at the land boards.
He said during that period, some head leases for sites within the tribal areas were signed between the ministry and the operators and this arrangement was inconsistent with the provision of the Tribal Land Act.
Also, he said in January 2019, a decision was taken to transfer back the administration of tourism concession areas to the land authorities and thus a handover process was carried out in three phases, with each phase having its own unique issues such as non-compliance to terms and conditions of the leases whilst the phased approach resulted in a delay in lease renewals.
He said in appreciation of the adverse effect on security of tenure for investors and investment into the tourism sector, the Minister of Environment and Tourism and the Minister of Lands and Agriculture met in December 2024 to draft a Cab Info Note, which was presented to Cabinet in April 2025.
The Cab Info Note proposed interventions, being to give direction to the land boards to consider renewing leases, which by now should have either been renewed or the operators informed of their interest in renewing their leases.
He further said the inspections of the sites done within six months of the renewal period and as a condition precedent, operators will be required to commit to successfully address compliance issues observed during inspection within a year of the lease renewal period. Maj. Gen Mokgware added that the instruction was provided by the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture to Tawana Land Board on May 5 after which, TLB then resolved to conditionally approve the renewal of the 11 pending concession area leases.
He said lease compliance inspections were being carried out concurrently and expected to be complete in July 2025. The minister said currently, citizens hold 24 leases, 15 by community-based organisations and 13 by joint venture partnerships while four concessions were awarded to citizens in the last 10 years.
He was responding to a question from the MP for Molepolole North, Mr Arafat Khan who asked the minister how much communities have benefited from the lifting of the hunting ban, what markets were open to selling hunting trophies and how many concession leases ended in the last 20 years to date, and how many have been renewed and which ones have been renewed.
Mr Khan also asked the minister about the role of the land board, Ministry of Lands and Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in the allocation of concessions and leases, and what was delaying the renewal of leases and the effect on investor confidence, both local and international.
Source: DAILYNEWS
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