Tshwarelo Gakegane’s roots run deep in the melapo of the Okavango Delta. “My mother and father used to hunt buffalo and red lechwe here, and they taught me all about the animals and plants of this area.” They are lessons that have served her well in her job as an “escort guide” and community representative at Little Vumbura camp in the Kwedi Reserve.
Gakegane is part of an exciting community participation project that ensures that real benefits from ecotourism flow to the people who live on the land. “I’m working in my own area and I’m happy because my parents used to be in this place.”
It is clear that she sees the delta as her own backyard, which is borne out by the fact the guides — all Motswana but from various areas of the country — refer to her as their “human GPS”.
Gakegane (27) comes from GuniÂtsoga, one of five villages on the fringes of the delta — comprising 5Â 000 people — that make up the Okavango Community Trust.
Wilderness Safaris, which has three camps in the Vumbura and Duba concession areas, has formed a partnership with the trust to provide skills training, employment and a share of revenue. At Little Vumbura, about 70% of the staff come from the surrounding villages, and are trained and employed in a range of positions from housekeepers to mekoro (dugout canoe) polers.
“This project is good, because it employs the children from the villages so they don’t have to go to Maun and look for work,” explains Gakegane.
The villages in the area are based predominantly on subsistence agriculture, raising cattle and growing sorghum, maize and watermelons.
As a single mother, she appreciates the opportunity to earn an income for her family: “Most of the workers here are women, so we are really benefiting. Since the project started, each village has been able to buy its own vehicle that we use for transporting people to funerals, or carrying crops from fields that are far away.”
On a more personal level, her job has also opened up greater vistas for her: going out on game drives with guides and guests from all over the world has made her acutely aware of the myriad possibilities out there. “I’ve met people from France and Canada and Italy. I like going out on drives with them — they ask me questions about our community and culture and I also learn about them.”
Her plans include getting a driver’s licence — not an easy task in the middle of the bush — and studying for her game guide’s licence.
The community participation approach is “not only ethically right, but also presents its own set of opportunities … for the sustainability of conservation”, says Chris Roche, of Wilderness Safaris.
Job creation and skills training have seen a dramatic decrease in poaching, with a concomitant increase in wildlife populations, which in turn makes the area more attractive to tourists on a “photographic safari”. Despite the fact that they could earn more than $300Â 000 a year from hunting, Wilderness Safaris and the trust have agreed on a no-hunting policy.
But conservation cannot be simply about fauna and flora, says Dr Clive Evian, an HIV/Aids expert who has designed a workplace Aids policy for staff working in the Wilderness Safari camps. “People are just as important in the ecological ethos as everything else … we need to ensure that we maintain healthy families and give people a good quality of life.”
Staff members, many of whom come from other parts of Botswana, work in the camps for up to three months and then go home for a month’s leave. Research has shown that working away from home is a driver of the disease, and with Botswana’s prenatal HIV prevalence rate at about 35%, the company’s provision of education, testing and treatment is vital.
“There is no point having an amazing environment but having a plague among the staff,” says Evian. In addition to the workplace Aids plan, a counsellor has been employed to work with members of the surrounding communities, who are not employed in the camps, says Roche.
“HIV is a problem in this area,” agrees Gakegane, but points out that thanks to an efficient roll-out of antiretrovirals by the Health Department, treatment is easily accessible even in the most remote villages.
The partnership is working, as evinced by the fact that the community has recently elected to renew the concession lease to Wilderness Safaris: “The proof is in the pudding,” says Roche.