Biodiversity Finance Initiative Report 2019

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative Report 2019

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Biodiversity Finance Initiative Report 2019

March 16, 2020

Entrance and other protected area fees are largely publicly accepted with good revenue potential. They have not been adjusted in Botswana since 2000, presenting a clear opportunity to increase revenues from this source. Growing protected area self-generated revenues from fees will only be beneficial to biodiversity conservation if it results in greater funds being made available for protected areas management and investment. However, at present these revenues are not kept within the protected area system and essentially accrue to the Treasury. DWNP, who are responsible for protected areas management, are then allocated a departmental budget. Moreover, this allocation is inadequate for the purposes of biodiversity conservation and the upkeep of tourism infrastructure and is therefore leading to the gradual degradation of critical tourism assets. The overall objective of this solution would be to increase revenues from entrance and other fees and to ensure that increased amounts of funding are available for protected areas management and infrastructure which is key to eco-tourism development. It would have a component focused on reviewing fees and one on ensuring increased funds flow to protected areas. Assuming entrance and other fee revenues could increase by 50% above current levels within three years, total cumulative net financial gains from the solution over the next 10 years would sum to approximately P201 million (US$19.1 million).

Enhanced benefit sharing through Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) improvements

The success of protected areas in conserving biodiversity and as key tourism assets can be significantly enhanced through providing local communities with incentives for wildlife and natural resource conservation. Botswana has a CBNRM programme which aims to provide these incentives by sharing the benefits of local natural resource conservation and offering compensation for the costs of living, and sometimes conflicting, with wildlife. While much progress has been made, the CBNRM programme is not functioning optimally. The overall objective of this solution would be to review and reform the CBNRM programme and associated practices in order to ensure that they deliver better particularly with respect to benefit sharing with local communities thereby augmenting rural welfare and development along with anti-poaching efforts. The review would draw from research already done in Botswana, stakeholder inputs and could include some comparisons with the pros and cons of systems in other countries. Total cumulative benefit sharing gains from the solution over the next 10 years would sum to approximately P44 million (US$4.2 million) assuming concession revenues flowing to communities would increase by 25% above current levels within four years.