| Venue: Capitol
Hill. Rayburn HOB. Room 2255
Subject: The Relocation of Former Residents
of The Central
Kalahari Game Reserve
Mr. Chairman. The Central Kalahari Game Reserve
(CKGR) one of the Botswana’s protected areas was established
as a game reserve through the British High Commissioner’s
Notice of 14th February 1961. This law was superseded by the
Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act No. 28 of 1992.
The CKGR was established to protect wildlife resources and
to provide sufficient land for traditional use by the hunter-gatherers
communities that resided inside the area. About 3000 were
found to reside inside the park when it was established.
Residents of the game reserve, the 3000 Basarwa
I mentioned earlier, existed as small multi-ethnic and multi-lingual
communities and their way of life which was hunting and gathering
was at the time consistent with the preservation of wildlife
resources inside the game reserve.
Let me also explain here that Botswana has
an estimated population of about 60,000 Basarwa and they live
in smaller remote settlements spread across 7 out of the 10
national districts namely; the Southern, Kweneng, Kgatleng,
Ghanzi, Kgalagadi, Central and North West. Some of these districts
are thousands of miles apart. If they were to be referred
to as the indigenous people of Botswana the Basarwa would
therefore be indigenous to all these seven districts( or two
thirds of the country) and not just the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve.
Over the years people who resided in the CKGR
and other protected areas were encouraged to move out of the
parks. There were several reasons for this.
1. their way of life, be it hunting, arable
and or pastoral agriculture or some other commercial activity,
was now inconsistent with the primary purpose of the parks
and reserves, which is to conserve our wildlife heritage.
Their new lifestyle now involved tilling the land and rearing
of domestic livestock. There was increasing number of livestock
grazing inside the park. They now hunted with guns, on horse
backs and SUV’s as opposed to the traditional hunting
on foot and with bow and arrow. They were killing more than
was needed for their subsistence and selling meat and meat
products to outsiders who had also taken advantage of the
situation. Poaching of endangered animal species was prevalent.
2. to give themselves and their children the
opportunity to access benefits of developments extended by
government. Being a large country ( approximately the size
of Texas or France) with a population of 1.7 million it has
never been easy for the government to extend social services
to our more remote rural constituencies.
It was in the light of the forgoing that the
Government started consultations with the former residents
of the CKGR in 1985 to persuade them to move to permanent
settlements outside the reserve where they could carry on
with their new and preferred mode of livelihood, namely agriculture.
Outside the game reserve the government could easily provide
services such as health and education facilities, clean water,
destitute rations and old age pensions, among others. It was
also where they could have access to government funded schemes
for skills development and income generating opportunities.
The extensive consultations about relocation also involved
NGO’s and other interested parties.
The relocation exercise started in 1997 when
1739 people relocated to the new settlements that were identified
outside the reserve. 2 settlements of New Xade and Kaudwane
absorbed this first group which relocated voluntarily. Following
further consultations more voluntary relocations took place.
This resulted in about 689 people remaining inside the game
reserve by the time the 2001 Population and Housing Census
was evaluated. More voluntary relocations occurred in February
and June 2002.
Mr. Chairman, if these communities were forcefully
removed from the CKGR, as some want to make the international
community believe, the Government of Botswana would certainly
not have allowed 12 years to elapse before the first group
of former residents relocated. Indeed there would not be any
people remaining in the park as is presently the case with
the 17. There is therefore no basis for the allegations by
some, led by Survival International, that people were forcefully
removed.
The other misinformation that has been perpetuated
by those challenging the relocation has been that people are
being moved from their ancestral land to make way for diamond
mining. I can only repeat the truth .The relocation , which
has been a result of negotiation and persuasion, is meant
to alleviate poverty within the Basarwa communities and to
avoid the land use conflicts in the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve. Prospecting for mineral resources has taken place
in all areas of Botswana including the CKGR since the 1960’s..
Let me also emphasize that there is no need for people to
be moved in order to prospect for minerals. There has not
been any decision by government or any other party to operate
a diamond mine in this area.
People have been relocated before in Botswana
to make way for developments that are in the national interest.
Mining of minerals such as diamonds, which are the mainstay
of Botswana’s economy, is such an enterprise that has
in the past made it necessary for people to be relocated from
the actual project sites . There are also precedent cases
of relocations from protected areas in Botswana, where local
communities ( Basarwa and non-Basarwa) were relocated to adjacent
areas and compensated accordingly. The Mababe community who
were relocated from Moremi Game Reserve are one such example.
People also had to be relocated when the soda ash mine in
Sowa and the diamond mines in Jwaneng and Orapa were developed.
The condition for such relocation is provided for in the constitution
of Botswana and it has been applied in all cases including
in the CKGR.
In the current relocation of Basarwa the
people that voluntarily moved were compensated with land,
for which they hold proper ownership certificates, goats,
cattle and money to enable them to adapt quickly to the new
areas and to continue to live as they preferred to exist,
but with improved and equal access to life enhancing opportunities
enjoyed by all citizens of Botswana.
That is why the current debate over the relocation
of former residents of the CKGR also needs to be understood
in the context of the Poverty Alleviation strategy of the
Government, implemented through the Rural Development Programme.
A sub-set of this programme is the Remote Dweller Development
Programme conceived in 1978 and meant specifically for smaller
rural communities including the Basarwa. The objectives of
the Remote Area Development Programme are
1. To intensify development of remote settlements
in order to bring them at par with other villages in the country
2. To promote production oriented income and
employment generating activites
3. To promote social, cultural and economic
advancement of remote areas dwellers and
4. To enhance these communities access to
land
1. Le me conclude by repeating the message
of the President of Botswana, HE Mr. Festus Mogae , in an
address to the London School of Economics on the same issue
in June 2003; “ In Botswana everyone is free to come
and see things for themselves. We have nothing to fear, and
nothing to hide. Indeed, on the issue of the Game Park we
have already had visits from British and European Parliamentarians
and many others who have come away with a better understanding
of who we really are. Our door remains open to those NGO’s,
academics and politicians who want to establish the facts
for themselves at first hand..
2. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for giving the
Embassy of Botswana the opportunity to outline the position
of the Government, which does not only exist on paper, but
in real practice, on this matter. End
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