Dryland Villages in the Kalahari region: Opportune for Community-Based Geotourism

Abstract

In this case study geological, geomorphological, and cultural heritage resources in and around Bokspits, Rappelspan, Vaalhoek, and Struizendam (BORAVAST) villages, Botswana, were chronicled. This case depicts the BORAVAST communities as a destination with a diversity of geo-resources worthy of exploitation for community-based geotourism in spite of the fact that there is low knowledge of geotourism amongst the residents of the four villages. Within the area, there are signs of poverty, high unemployment, low growth of tourism and limited to almost no industries except small/local scale agricultural activities that include rearing of goats, sheep, horses and crop farming (maize, melons) for subsistence livelihoods. Yet, tourism based on desert features (fossil valleys, salt pans), geo-attractions and geodiversity of the Kalahari region remains unique to this region. The landscape in this desert region of south-western Botswana stands out as a socio-economic livelihood changer to the remote and resource-poor inhabitants of the BORAVAST villages. The government has identified the tourism industry as one of the economic sectors with the potential to open opportunities in marginalised and remote communities within the greater Kalahari Desert region, hence this case study. In most parts of the Kalahari Desert area, job opportunities are almost non-existent if it was not for nature and heritage-related tourism. Thus, we found that geo-site resources, including sand dunes and their associated interdune hollows, pans, fossil valleys and indurates (duricrusts such as calcretes, silcretes and their intermediate forms resulting from precipitates of the geochemical and environmental changes (Atlhopheng et al., 2022)) present opportunities for community-based geotourism. This study furnished residents and many others who took part in the activities, including seminars and training workshops, with capacity on what geotourism is about; and equipped with skills to identify, document and care for geo-resources for tourism development in their region. One of the key skills was how to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to document coordinates once a geo-attraction was identified.Additionally, the off-road 4x4 vehicle the local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) received through the assistance of the UNEP Botswana, would improve tourism activity and bring associated benefits, in the BORAVAST. The Community-Based Organisation’s (CBO) business activity of producing charcoal from the Prosopis plant found in the study area has begun to bear fruit. The 4x4 vehicle is used in collecting wood and then transporting packages of charcoal to the market in nearby towns, and the city of Gaborone.© The Authors 2023This case study is a publication based on a research project that was undertaken by researchers, including the lead author in the southern Kgalagadi District in western Botswana. The work was part of the Southern Africa Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land use (SASSCAL). Work has not been published.