Community Conservancies in Botswana 2026: Conservation, Livelihoods & Impact

Why Community Conservancies Matter in Botswana

Botswana's landscape tells a conservation story unlike many African nations. While African elephants and other megafauna roam some of the continent's largest remaining wilderness areas, the future of these species depends not on government rangers alone, but on the goodwill and stewardship of the communities living alongside them.

Community conservancies represent a fundamental shift in conservation philosophy: instead of excluding people from protected areas, Botswana's CBNRM approach devolves resource management rights and responsibilities directly to resident communities.[4] This model recognizes a critical reality—across Africa, more than 65% of wildlife exists on community and private land, not in national parks.[5] In Botswana, the approach has created a network of locally-governed Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) adjoining protected areas, managed by Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) that operate as the functional equivalent of conservancies in other Southern African countries.[3]

The philosophy is simple but powerful: when communities own the conservation outcome and share its benefits, wildlife transforms from a liability (crop-raiding elephants, livestock-killing lions) into a shared asset. Communities become the first line of defense against poaching, habitat degradation, and human-wildlife conflict—and they do it because they have economic incentive and cultural investment in the outcome.

The Conservation Landscape: Botswana's CBNRM Framework

Botswana's formal commitment to community-based conservation began with the 1999 CBNRM policy, now under government review to strengthen climate adaptation and institutional capacity.[4] The framework operates through a decentralized structure:

• 18 designated Community-Based Organisations manage wildlife across multiple WMAs[1]
• 10.9 million hectares under community management—roughly 27% of Botswana's land area[1]
• Coordination support from the Botswana Community-Based Organisation Network (BOCOBONET), which serves as an umbrella advocacy body and communication forum for member organizations[3]
• Policy alignment with Botswana's National Climate Change Response Strategy, which emphasizes building climate resilience in natural resource sectors and conservation efforts for carbon sequestration[4]

Unlike neighboring Namibia—which formally designates 39 "conservancies" with explicit legal status—Botswana's WMAs function as conservancies in practice, though the terminology differs. The distinction is important for understanding how international funding mechanisms and best-practice networks classify Botswana's work.[3]

What Threatens Community Conservancies Today

The Funding Crisis

The most immediate threat to Botswana's community conservancies is not poaching or habitat loss—it is financial collapse. In 2012–2013, external donor financing represented a significant amount of support for Botswana's Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT), which manages the protected area estate. External financing assistance was estimated at approximately USD 15 million in 2013, representing about 15% of total MEWT annual expenditures.[1] However, donor support for Botswana has decreased considerably in recent years.[3] Local NGOs lack strong independent funding bases, and government has not adequately filled the funding gap left by departing donors.[3]

This creates a vicious cycle: donor grants historically funded ranger salaries, vehicle maintenance, office operations, and community equity stakes in joint-venture lodge development.[3] As those grants dried up, conservancies were expected to become self-sustaining through tourism revenue and sustainable use income (trophy hunting, wildlife product sales). But tourism revenue fluctuates with global demand, and Botswana's ban on trophy hunting—introduced in 2014—eliminated a major income stream for organizations like the Sankuyo Management Trust, one of Botswana's most successful CBOs, which had to retrench 62 employees and halt community projects including household sanitation improvements and funeral assistance.[3]

Institutional Capacity & Governance

While field experience has shown that communities can develop strong resource management institutions, they require considerable institutional support to do so.[3] NACSO (the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations) and its regional partners have documented that developing and emerging conservancies—particularly those in their first decade—need quality technical support, governance training, and financial planning assistance that NGOs and government struggle to provide given resource constraints.[6]

Additionally, the institutional support base for CBNRM in Botswana remains relatively weak, despite two decades of implementation.[3] Leadership turnover, limited accounting capacity, and governance disputes within some CBOs have delayed conservation outcomes and reduced community trust in benefit-sharing mechanisms.

Human-Wildlife Conflict & Predator Pressure

Community conservancies exist at the frontline of human-wildlife coexistence. Elephants raid crops, lions kill livestock, and conflict can quickly erode community support for conservation. Historically, such conflicts led to retaliatory killings of predators—reducing wildlife populations and undermining conservation goals.[5] In northern Botswana, lion populations faced particular pressure from defensive killings by herders protecting their stock.

How Community Conservancies Protect Wildlife & Reduce Conflict

Community Ranger Networks & Technology

The most visible conservation tool is the community ranger—typically a local resident trained and equipped to conduct wildlife patrols, monitor populations, and deter poachers. These rangers are the backbone of anti-poaching efforts in Botswana.

In the CLAWS (Communities Living Among Wildlife Sustainably) Conservancy in northern Botswana, rangers have deployed GPS-collared lions with virtual-fence technology that triggers real-time predator alerts to farmers' mobile phones when lions approach their settlements.[5] This innovation has proven transformative: after the introduction of alerts, local lion killing fell by almost 90 percent.[5] Herders can now protect livestock and families without resorting to lethal action against big cats—fundamentally changing the conservation calculus.

Similarly, in southwest Botswana, Akashinga (in partnership with Kalahari Research and Conservation) is supporting and empowering local community scouts to protect 5 million acres of the Greater Kgalagadi Transfrontier Area.[7] Akashinga's plant-based, all-female ranger model brings a community-centered approach to anti-poaching work, combining training, employment, and ecosystem restoration.

Tourism Revenue & Sustainable Use

Community conservancies generate income through multiple channels: tourism concessions, wildlife viewing fees, sustainable harvesting of game meat, and joint-venture lodge partnerships. This revenue is then reinvested in ranger salaries, community projects (schools, clinics, water systems), and conservation operations.[3] When tourism works, it creates powerful economic incentive for communities to protect wildlife rather than exploit it.

Travelers booking Botswana safari lodges and guided wildlife experiences often stay in or near community conservancy areas; their fees directly support ranger employment and conservation operations. This link between international tourism demand and local conservation outcomes makes sustainable safari tourism a material conservation tool.

Regional Coordination & Transboundary Conservation

Several community conservancies in Botswana are part of larger transboundary conservation complexes, maintaining important wildlife movement corridors between Botswana and Namibia, between Botswana, Namibia and Angola, and between Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.[3] This landscape-scale coordination is essential for species like elephants and wildebeest, which migrate across international borders and require protected corridors to sustain viable populations.

International Support & Flagship Programmes

UNESCO's COMPACT Programme in Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta World Heritage site—one of Botswana's crown jewels—has launched the Community Management for Protected Areas for Conservation (COMPACT) programme with support from UNESCO, UNDP, the Government of Botswana, and local partners.[8] COMPACT provides demand-driven small grants to community-based organisations, aiming to enhance engagement of Indigenous peoples and local communities in shared conservation and governance of the UNESCO World Heritage site while supporting sustainable livelihoods.[8]

COMPACT represents four years of cooperation among UNESCO, UNDP and its GEF Small Grants Programme, the Government of Botswana, and local partners, specifically focused on empowering communities and ensuring their involvement in management and development activities.[8] The programme is co-funded by the Flanders Trust Fund at UNESCO (Kingdom of Belgium) and receives ongoing support from contributions by the Government of Norway to the World Heritage Fund.[8] Its focus on the panhandle area of the Okavango Delta demonstrates how international conservation funding can be channeled directly to community organizations for locally-led conservation action.

Maliasili's Pan-African Support Network

Maliasili, a pan-African conservation network, is strengthening and supporting nearly 60 local organisations working in community-based conservation across 16 countries, including Botswana.[2] Since its inception 15 years ago, Maliasili has:

• Supported 75 organisational strategic plans[2]
• Trained 237 conservation leaders[2]
• Raised and leveraged over USD 27 million for its partners[2]
• Helped local organisations collectively work across 64 million hectares of high-biodiversity ecosystems and reach 13.6 million people[2]
• Helped generate USD 12 million annually for communities sustainably managing forests, rangelands and waters[2]

With support from the Trafigura Foundation, Maliasili is intensifying its support for conservation organisations in five countries including Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.[2] This regional approach recognizes that community conservation requires not just project funding but sustained institutional strengthening—training leaders, improving governance, and building financial resilience.

Measurable Conservation Outcomes

Wildlife Population Stabilization

Conservation efforts across Botswana have significantly contributed to stabilizing and increasing local wildlife populations through habitat preservation, anti-poaching measures, and community engagement.[9] African elephants in Botswana have recovered to over 50,000 individuals in Chobe National Park alone—the largest elephants by body size of all living elephants—thanks in part to protected area networks and reduced poaching pressure.[10]

Community-based conservation projects have empowered local communities to participate actively in wildlife protection, leading to increased awareness and reduced poaching incidents.[9] Research on wildlife movements, such as GPS tracking of lions and other predators, helps communities understand and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts while ensuring coexistence of local populations with wildlife.[9]

Reduced Poaching & Predator Killing

The CLAWS Conservancy's near-90% reduction in local lion killing demonstrates the direct conservation impact of combining technology, community engagement, and economic incentive.[5] When herders receive real-time alerts and have access to alternative predator management tools (improved livestock pens, livestock insurance, compensation schemes), they no longer default to lethal control of wildlife.

This outcome matters for apex predator conservation: lions and other large carnivores face extinction pressure across Africa, and community-level tolerance for their presence is essential for landscape-scale survival.

Livelihoods & Benefit Sharing

While Botswana's CBNRM data on total income generation is less comprehensive than Namibia's (where NACSO documented growth from less than N$ 1 million in 1998 to more than N$68 million in 2013 across conservancies),[3] field evidence confirms that successful CBOs distribute cash income to residents through employment (particularly ranger positions), the sale of wildlife products, and in-kind benefits (distribution of harvested game meat, access to improved water and sanitation, school scholarships).[3] The Sankuyo Management Trust, before the trophy hunting ban, was distributing substantial benefits to member communities—evidence that when conservancies function well, local populations see tangible economic return from conservation.

Current Challenges & Setbacks

The Trophy Hunting Ban & Revenue Loss

In 2014, Botswana introduced a ban on trophy hunting, intended to shift the country's conservation and tourism model away from hunting-based revenue. However, the ban created an immediate financial crisis for hunting-revenue-dependent conservancies. The Sankuyo Management Trust, described as "one of the most successful CBNRM organisations in Botswana," had to retrench 62 employees and halt various community projects including improved sanitation, scholarships, and funeral assistance.[3] This case illustrates a critical challenge: policy shifts designed to improve conservation can destabilize community institutions if alternative revenue streams are not developed in parallel.

Donor Dependence & Institutional Fragility

Throughout BOCOBONET and partner NGO histories, funding has depended heavily on external donors such as USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and WWF.[6] As donor priorities shift (often toward climate change, biodiversity loss in other regions, or political changes in donor countries), Botswana's community conservancies face sudden withdrawal of financial support. The institutional support base for CBNRM remains relatively weak, and many developing and emerging conservancies are not yet financially viable without external grants.[3][6]

Governance & Transparency Concerns

While not detailed in recent impact reports, field experience across Africa's CBNRM landscape indicates that some community organisations struggle with transparent governance, equitable benefit distribution, and accountability to member communities.[3] Leadership disputes, inadequate financial management systems, and elite capture (where leaders disproportionately benefit while ordinary community members see little return) can undermine conservation outcomes and community support.

How Travelers Can Support Community Conservancies Responsibly

Choose Community-Based Safari Lodges & Guides

When planning a Botswana safari, prioritize lodges and tourism operators that are directly owned or operated by community conservancies, or that have transparent benefit-sharing agreements with local organisations. Ask lodges:

• What percentage of your fees goes directly to the community conservancy?
• How many local residents do you employ, and in what roles?
• Can you show us the community benefit-sharing agreement?
• What conservation or development projects has this lodge funded in the community?

Transparency in these relationships ensures your safari spending genuinely supports conservation and livelihoods.

Engage with Community Rangers & Anti-Poaching Efforts

Many community conservancies offer guided walks, wildlife monitoring activities, or ranger talks where visitors can learn directly from community rangers about conservation challenges and successes. These interactions support ranger employment, build international awareness of community conservation work, and create cultural exchange that often deepens visitor commitment to conservation.

Support Conservancy-Led Tourism Initiatives

Look for tourism experiences explicitly branded as community-led or community-owned. In the Greater Kgalagadi Transfrontier Area, for example, tourism revenue supports Kalahari Research and Conservation's community scout program. In the Okavango Delta, COMPACT-supported community organisations are developing sustainable tourism activities that generate income while protecting the World Heritage site.

Advocate for Policy Support

Share what you learn from community conservancies with your networks. Advocate to your government representatives for continued international support to community conservation in Botswana—whether through bilateral development aid, multilateral conservation funding, or trade policies that incentivize sustainable wildlife tourism. Community conservancies depend on predictable, long-term funding; individual voices from travelers and conservation advocates help sustain political will for that investment.

Book Through Responsible Platforms

SafariFind makes it possible to search and book safari lodges and experiences with transparency about conservation impact. When booking your Botswana safari, filter for conservancy-partnered operators and read reviews that mention community engagement and conservation outcomes.

The Future of Community Conservancies in Botswana

Botswana's CBNRM framework stands at a crossroads. Two decades of implementation have demonstrated that communities can be effective conservation stewards—reducing poaching, stabilizing wildlife populations, maintaining transboundary corridors, and generating sustainable income for rural populations. The COMPACT programme in Okavango Delta, Akashinga's work in the Kgalagadi, and the CLAWS Conservancy's GPS-collar innovation show that community conservancies are evolving, adopting new technologies, and scaling impact.

However, the current institutional support base is fragile. External donor funding has declined; some conservancies remain financially dependent on grants; and policy shocks (like the trophy hunting ban) can destabilize even successful organisations. For community conservancies to thrive in the next decade, Botswana needs:

• Diversified, predictable funding beyond donor grants—including government budget allocations, conservation trust funds, and climate finance mechanisms
• Institutional strengthening for governance, financial management, and leadership development
• Alternative revenue streams to replace lost trophy hunting income—including carbon finance, biodiversity offsets, and premium sustainable tourism
• Regional coordination to maintain transboundary conservation corridors and share best practices across Botswana, Namibia, and neighboring countries
• Climate adaptation integration as Botswana's CBNRM policy is reviewed to align with climate change resilience goals

The 1999 CBNRM policy, currently under government review, offers an opportunity to embed these lessons and modernize the framework for the next 25 years. If Botswana can transition community conservancies from grant-dependent to financially resilient institutions while maintaining community ownership and benefit-sharing, the model will become a continental exemplar—proving that conservation and development are not competing goals but complementary outcomes when communities lead.

Last reviewed July 2026. Conservation data changes — see the cited sources for the latest figures.