The Eco‐tourism of Cultural Heritage Management (ECT‐CHM): Linking Heritage and ‘Environment’ in the Okavango Delta Regions of Botswana

Abstract

The principles of eco‐tourism allude to the importance of socio‐cultural and psycho‐social aspects in natural resources management. However, approaches to natural resources management are more often addressed in isolation from cultural and heritage resources. For Botswana, this loophole is illustrated within a community‐based natural resources management (CBNRM) programme that focuses exclusively on natural and neglects cultural resources. Botswana Tourism Policy is another example.1 I argue that these management approaches negatively impact on sustainable conservation and development of both natural and cultural resources. A case study of a community‐based organisation (CBO) called Sankuyo Tshwaragano Management Trust (STMT) is used to illustrate that the current CBNRM programme originates from a management failure to perceive cultural and heritage resources as components of the broader ‘environment’ and hence neglects the significance of alternative resources in nature tourism. An operational point of departure for an Ecotourism of Cultural Heritage Management ECT‐CHM model is identified using a Community Based Cultural Heritage Resources Mangement (COBACREM) approach and an operational definition of eco‐tourism that acknowledges alternative resources suggested.