Resettlement for conservation: The impacts of the relocation of the Basarwa from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana

Abstract

The establishment of protected areas (PAs) is often promoted as an effective way to address environmental degradation and the loss of certain endangered species. PAs are typically predicated on the fortress conservation philosophy that perceives human habitation as a contributory factor to biodiversity loss. Thus, to offset the rate of biodiversity loss and minimise anthropogenic impacts, there has been a resurgence of the creation of strictly protected conservation areas. Nation-states have renewed their PA creation strategies and set aside portions of land to protect unique species and habitats. However, the strict protectionist paradigm that underpins PAs is unjust and unethical, as is more clearly the case when it is associated with the resettlement of human populations from conservation spaces. Strict conservation strategies also have adverse impacts on the livelihoods of the rural poor and may lead to their impoverishment, social disarticulation and political disempowerment. This research examines the resettlement of the indigenous Basarwa peoples from their traditional homelands for the establishment of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in Botswana. The research uses a case study approach to scrutinise the implementation of the resettlement policy and to understand its impacts on the displaced Basarwa communities. To inform this evaluation, the study explores Michel Foucault’s biopolitical theory and reveals the extent to which nation-states assert power over human mobility and the populations affected by the creation of PAs. Although the CKGR resettlement was intended for biodiversity conservation and rural development, the government justified the intervention on the basis of certain benefit flows in favour of the Basarwa. Yet, the Basarwa were disenfranchised by their loss of resource territories, the disruption of their traditional activities, social exclusion and political disempowerment. Their life changes have also been transformed through greater exposure to disease, impoverishment and alcoholism.