CLIMATE CHANGE, TOURISM, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: PERCEPTIONS OF MAUN RESIDENTS, BOTSWANA

Tourism is a key economic sector and tool for community development in most developing countries. However, climate change remains one of the major threats to this development. This is especially so for countries such as Botswana whose tourism industry is largely nature based, making it vulnerable to the effects of environmental change. Consequently, communities who rely on tourism to some extent are also vulnerable to global climate change and its local effects. The purpose of this article is to examine community perceptions with regards to the tourism-climate change nexus in Maun, a key tourism hub in Botswana and dependent on the tourism economy. Data collection was done by means of a household survey. Interestingly, the results showed that most local people do not perceive tourism highly as a source of income. In practice, they depended on other forms of livelihoods like formal employment and farming. Furthermore, even though they have noted some changes in the environment and climate, they generally did not know the resultant impacts despite acknowledging that the tourism industry is bound to be affected. The low awareness levels may lead to inaction, and hence a clarion call to decision makers to develop information and adaptation strategies for communities that host tourist attractions to ensure resilience to anticipated effects of global climate change.