- DWNP acts on guides’ misconduct inside Chobe National Park
- This follows years of complaints from various stakeholders about congestion at sightings owing to disregard for park regulations
- Guides detour from designated routes in the park, especially on the Chobe River front
- Appeal made for limitation of the number of vehicles getting into the park as decongestion strategy still fails
The department of wildlife and national parks has suspended eight tour guides from operating in the Chobe National Park for violating park rules. This follows years of complaints from various stakeholders with regard to congestion at sightings mostly stemming from the disregard for park regulations – where some guides detour from designated routes in the park, especially on the Chobe River front.
While the department was consistently blamed for inaction, and its failure to patrol the park and enforce the law, it has also pointed to lack of resources to effectively carry out its mandate.
Speaking during the official opening of the 2nd training workshop on the Botswana Protected Areas Resource Mobilisation Strategy and Partnerships Planning in Maun this week, DWNP Senior Wildlife Officer for Chobe Phuthego Phuthego said that the eight offenders were suspended on the 17th June 2025 for failing to comply with the Chobe National Park regulations.
Phuthego stated that the issue of misconduct which is mainly fuelled by congestion of vehicles has been a great concern within the Chobe National Park, is a serious issue with potential negative impacts on both the environment and the tourism experience.
He appealed to the government to limit the number of vehicles getting into the park, indicating that all along they have been trying to practice the decongestion strategy, without any results.
According to him, DWNP usually register about 50 cars getting into the Chobe National Park for the morning and afternoon game drives, stating that this is an issue which leads to misconduct by tour guides.
Phuthego indicated their efforts as wildlife officers to confiscate guiding licences as per the law from those who fail to comply with the national park regulations are usually in vain as perpetrators take the matters up with the ministry and district leadership, seeking to be pardoned.
“Sometimes we just give verbal warnings or written warnings to those who fail to comply with the park regulations, because if we suspend or confiscate their licences they go again to the minister, permanent secretary or the MP to complain that we have suspended them to get into the park, they will then plead with us as wildlife officers to forgive them,” he said.
Phuthego further stated that they had allocated the new routes for the tour operators within the park but it was unfortunate that currently they are not using them because their clients/tourists prefer the river front routes. He pleaded with the government to allocate two vehicles to operate at the Ngoma and Sedudu gates so that they can be able to monitor issues of misconduct within the park.
Despite the implementation of the decongestion strategy at the Chobe National Park which was meant to manage vehicle and tourist traffic, particularly along the Chobe River Front, misconduct by some tour operators which aligns with congestion stills remains a great challenge with some guides continuing to fail to comply with code of conducts.
