Abstract:
Wildlife tourism can provide economic incentives for conservation. Due to the abundance of
wildlife and the presence of charismatic species some areas are better suited to wildlife
tourism. Our first objective was to develop criteria based on wildlife abundance and diversity
to evaluate tourism potential in the Northern Conservation Zone of Botswana. Secondly we
wanted to quantify and compare tourism experiences in areas with high and low tourism
potential. We used aerial survey data to estimate wildlife biomass and diversity to determine
tourism potential, while data from ground surveys quantified the tourist experience. Areas
used for High Paying Low Volume tourism had significantly higher mean wildlife biomass
and wildlife diversity than the areas avoided for this type of tourism. Only 22% of the Northern
Conservation Zone has intermediate to high tourism potential. The areas with high tourism
potential, as determined from the aerial survey data, provided tourists with significantly
better wildlife sightings (ground surveys) than the low tourism potential areas. Even Low
Paying tourism may not be economically viable in concessions that lack areas with intermediate
to high tourism potential. The largest part of the Northern Conservation Zone has low
tourism potential, but low tourism potential is not equal to low conservation value. Alternative
conservation strategies should be developed to complement the economic incentive
provided by wildlife-based tourism in Botswana.
