| Overview : The mandate of the CBNRM programme is to promote sustainable utilization of natural resources by local communities. This includes management, conservation and protection of these resources and creating sustainable business that has the ability to create long-term jobs. The threats to biodiversity and the natural environment (e.g. land degradation, decrease in natural habitat, declining wildlife populations, poaching and human wildlife conflict) in Botswana have been escalating over the years. This escalation of threats to biodiversity has largely been ascribed to intensification of economic development, which in turn is compounded by the rapid expansion of the human population and associated human livelihood activities. CBNRM in Botswana was therefore suggested as an intervention to mitigate the observed degradation and decline of natural resources, particularly wildlife. Therefore, it was a way of providing an incentive for local communities to partner with government in the conservation of natural resources as they could see direct benefits from the resource. During its inception stage in the 1990s CBNRM programme was mainly focused on the use of wildlife-based resources by communities and was concentrated in the northern part of Botswana (Ngamiland and Chobe) hence the projects in that part of the country are well developed. However, CBNRM projects have diversified with some communities engaged in heritage tourism while others are into utilization of veldt products. Examples of the non-Wildlife CBNRM projects include heritage sites projects such as Tsodilo hills, Mogonye, Old Palapye, Goo Moremi and Kgetsi ya Tsie. Botswana Government through the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) and other partners such UNDP, has invested in some projects in partnership with Communities. Some of those projects include Goo Moremi Resort, Tsabong Camel Park, Lepokole Nature Reserve, Seboba Recreational Park and Lake Ngami Trust. At its initial stages, CBNRM’s focus was on hunting, with communities being given wildlife hunting quotas for the concession areas that have been allocated to them. These quotas were sold to professional Safari Hunting companies. Although this has been relatively easy and quick to bring about financial benefit to communities, it has not been sustainable, and communities continue to be incapacitated due to lack of skills’ transfer from hunting due to its duration and limited engagement. Over time policy changes were introduced over time geared towards transformation of CBNRM to improve the involvement of communities in natural resource management and tourism industry. This includes a heavy focus on the promotion of photographic tourism business within community owned areas. CBNRM intends to institute a deliberate move to improve sustainable community driven businesses, through which rural communities are well capacitated to operate and have ownership to operate natural resource-based businesses, hence the need to develop a practitioners’ manual that can guide the establishment of these community owned natural resource enterprises which will also include identifying capacity needs for improved success of these ventures. The Government of Botswana in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Botswana is seeking services of a consultants, to develop a Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) user manual for practitioners. The consultant is expected to review the current implementation instruments and prepare a manual that can be used by practitioners to guide Community Based Organisations through a process of community mobilisation to an effective community run enterprise. 2. OBJECTIVES
The overall purpose of this consultancy is to develop a CBNRM Practitioners’ Implementation Manual, that sets out a step by step process for every stage of the project cycle, i.e from design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation Phase. The project cycle is based on a model meant to assist communities to develop sustainable businesses from natural resource. |
