Sehitwa Sub Land Board

About 79 % of Botswana is given protected status. With 17% reserved for parks and reserves, 22% set aside for wildlife management areas and 40% designated as conservation area.The Okavango Delta, and according to the IUCN, the Okavango Delta s the largest Ramsar wetland site in the World, covering an area of approximately 68 340 sq.km. The area possesses an unparalleled resource base with regard to the abundance and variety of its wildlife and scenic beauty, with wildlife and wilderness experience being the principal tourist attractions. The delta also holds an abundant biological resource and an enormous aesthetic treasure. It is hailed as a unique ecosystem, unspoiled and pristine wilderness.

This is derived from the juxtaposition of a variety of wetland habitats, each with a considerable extent in a emi-arid environment and beset with a rich wildlife. As a dynamic system, the delta is liable to changes on a variety of time scales in response to a number of factors, including hydrological and climatic shifts, tectonism, natural cycles of channel evolution, vegetation changes, the activities of animals and above all, of human activity.For planning purposes, the Delta area is designated Planning Zone 8, comprising of a game reserve and two wildlife management areas, which have been subdivided into Controlled Hunting Areas. This followed the simple criteria that idealised the Delta as having a core area with a high protection level and an intensification of utilisation towards the periphery, translated into:

- Moremi Game Reserve as the core area;Designation of a ring of photographic areas around the Reserve, and
- Designation of multipurpose areas around the photographic areas.The Controlled Hunting Areas are as follows?

Commercial Areas
- 8 Multipurpose CHAs
- 6 Photographic CHAs Community Areas
- 4 Multipurpose CHAs
- 3 Photographic CHAs Reserved Areas
- 1 CHAIn Multipurpose CHAs consumptive utilisaton of wildlife is allowed. Although other forms of non-consumptive use are permitted. A whole CHA is leased to one operator for management. Photographic CHAs as buffer zones are strictly for non-consumptive utilisation of the wildlife resource and the activities allowed range from game drives, walking and mokoro trails (mokoro is a dug-out canoe), to horse and elephant- back riding, and motor-boating where appropriate. In a Photographic CHA, several sites, depending on the size of that area, are leased to multiple operators and the rights conferred are restricted to the site only. Community CHAs have been set aside for use by communities whose beneficiaries are restricted to those settlements and villages that reside within or adjacent to a particular CHA. The Tawana and Board has made and entered into Wildlife Management and Tourism Leases with the private sector for purposes of both consumptive and non-consumptive tourism related activities respectively.

The Wildlife Management Leases (multipurpose) have nine (9) years to run upon which the areas will be put up for tender afresh. About seven (7) Tourism Leases (photo tourism) will expire in eleven years (11) times and will be put up for tender.There are different types of land tenures, and land boards allocate these lands for free, with allocates not owning the land except for the state. Others only own the developments on the land. One way in which lard is allocated in Botswana is by what is known as the Tribal Land Tenure, which is strictly for citizens only, and involves residential plots. ploughing fields and for borehole purposes, sometimes it can be land held in perpetuity.

This type of land tenure can only allow the land to be transferred to a non-citizen member only when it has been converted to what is known as common law holding, but from citizen to citizen it can be transferred without the conversion being applicable. Common law land tenure is the type of allocation which is for residential and commercial purposes, but is for both citizens and on-citizens.

Companies can only receive a common law grant, tenure may be granted on a monthly basis for temporary use such as road building camp, or 99 years for citizen residential purposes and 50 years for non-citizen, company and commercial activities. For the leases on a monthly basis, the plots allocated cannot be more than S acres without the consent of the Minister. For developments on the plots to be sold, the land must be held under common law. For developments to be sold to a non-citizen, the Land Board must approve the sale. For sale to a citizen the Land Board must just be informed so that they can change their records, and people can apply for customary tenure changed to common law tenure. Common law land is thus leasec from the Land Board Only the plot holder owns the developments on the land, and land must be registered as common law before a bank loan can be obtained against it. State land tenure, in the case of new grants, ownership can only be given to the state, the president can, if they decide that it is in the interest of the public. require the ownership of a piece of land be transferred from the Land Board to the state.

The Land Board can refuse to grant the land to the state, but the Minister of Lands, Housing and Environment may set up a commission of inquiry to review the decision, and if the commission finds it in favour of the Minister, the Land Board must then grant the land or the Minister is able to execute the grant on the Land Board's behalf. If someone already has customary rights on the land, compensation must be paid or land of equivalent, if available may be given. Freehold land tenure, which are grants that were given prior to independence, and this type of tenure, ownership of the land, not just the rights to use, is held by an individual or a company. Therefore, this land may be sold or transferred in a private transaction without land board approval.