Community Based Tourism
Finding the Euilibrium in the COMCEC Context
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Benefits:
 The Khama Rhino Sanctuary Trust is an important source of employment for local rural
communities (i.e. employs locals at various levels of need).
 The sourcing and purchasing of goods and services from the local community has
resulted in the small, medium, and micro enterprises as well as some informal sector
operators to incur economic benefits from the Sanctuary operations and tourists that
visit the Sanctuary.
 Tourists have increased their purchases of local arts and crafts that are sold in villages.
 The Sanctuary has significantly preserved and contributed to the increase of rhinos in
the local area that generates more interest from the tourists.
 The Sanctuary was able to financially assist in the construction of a house for orphans in
the village.
Challenges:
 Sanctuary’s goals pertaining to revenue generation have not materialized for the local
population as expected.
 Lack of a clear-cut benefits distribution plan to determine whether the distribution of
benefits will go to individuals, households, or institutions presents a challenge for the
above mentioned 10 functioning principles to guarantee success of a CBT program.
 The program is heavily dependent upon external donors.
Lessons Learned:
 In order for CBT enterprises to succeed the benefits from natural resource utilization
should outweigh the costs in order to ensure the sustainability of CBT.
 A lack of a benefits distribution plan may have harmful consequences and may affect
the overall success and progress of a CBNRM program.
Source: (Sebele, 2010)
Best Practice Point: A Code of CBT Conduct
The 10 basic principles as listed below provided a code of conduct, or a benchmark of
right or wrong in evaluating CBT development decisions.
1. Decision-making authority must be at a community level,
2. Decision-making must be representative,
3. The community must be as small as practical,
4. Leadership must be accountable,
5. Benefits must outweigh costs,
6. Benefits must be distributed equitably,
7. Benefits distribution must be linked to natural resources conservation,
8. Planning and development must focus on capacity-building,
9. Planning and development must be coordinated,
10. The CBNRM process must be facilitated (Sebele, 2010).