Am I right in guessing that the concessions in Botswana are not fenced, but some of the reserves in South Africa are? The idea of one huge wilderness is entrancing, although I presume you wouldn't see as much. How much does it cost to maintain that much fence?
Fences on the reserves and concessions?
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Most parks and concessions in Botswana don't have fences. However, they have another nice feature in Botswana, veterinary fences or "buffalo fences". There is a good introduction in this scientific paper, www.wilderness.net/library/documents/IJWDec06_mbaiwa.pdf.
thanks, nyama, for an interesting article! I haven't read it all yet, but the declining numbers are very scary. However, they state that beef production has fallen to third, while now tourism is the primary income producer for the country. So, maybe the fences are counterproductive?
There's still a strong cattle lobby in Botswana. And tourism is a very "sensible" industry... do you remember the Mombasa blast? One bad thing happens, and the situation changes over night.
The Owens, authors of Cry Kalahari were essentially run out of Botswana because of their opposition to the veterinary fences. On their website, at least when I last looked, they were recommending people boycott Botswana because of the massive numbers of animals being killed by the fences. Obviously, their entreaties have fallen on deaf ears.
Jim
Farming is the ultimate "sensitive" industry everywhere.... if tourism were subsidized to the same extent maybe the government would pay for your next holiday to Botswana
Seriously, it is a very interesting article. I wondered a lot about this while I was in Namibia. Thank you both for the post.