The Government of Botswana hopes to table a Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) Bill at the 13th Winter sitting of Parliament in July 2025. The Bill seeks to reform how local communities manage and benefit from natural resources, including wildlife and forest products. The proposed legislation aims to improve transparency, community participation, and the sustainable use of resources, especially in rural areas bordering protected zones.
The CBNRM programme, first introduced in the 1990s, was designed to empower communities to conserve and benefit from natural resources in their local areas. However, critics have long pointed out weaknesses in governance, revenue distribution, and the role of community trusts.
The new bill aims to address these gaps and give communities a stronger legal framework for managing their own natural heritage. The bill reflects the government’s commitment to inclusive conservation and rural development. The bill is a product of wide consultations with community leaders, conservation experts, and civil society. It puts people at the centre of conservation.
Among the key provisions in the proposed bill are: the establishment of the Department of CBNRM with enhanced powers to support and monitor CBO activities; The formal recognition of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) as legal entities with clearly defined rights and responsibilities; mandatory financial audits and annual reporting to ensure accountability; A regulated benefit-sharing model to ensure communities fairly receive proceeds from tourism, hunting, and natural product sales.
Community stakeholders have welcomed the draft bill but urged the government to ensure that it protects local decision-making and traditional knowledge. Stakeholders note that they need a law that truly respects the role of rural people as custodians of the land in their local environment.
Conservation groups have also praised the bill’s potential to improve biodiversity protection but have called for adequate funding and training for CBOs. Conservation groups argue that the success will depend on capacity building and ongoing government support. If passed, the CBNRM Bill could mark a new chapter in Botswana’s conservation history — one where rural community play a more empowered and transparent role in managing the resources that sustain them.
Although the CBNRM Bill provides hope in CBNRM development in Botswana, a refocus is needed to address the bottlenecks and challenges faced by CBNRM development in the country. In this regard, the Bill would have more weight if it was providing for an Association or entity that would regulate CBOs in the country as is the case with lawyers with Law Society or Engineers with their Botswana Institution of Engineers (BIE) and Engineers Registration Board (ERB) regulated by their respective Acts.
In the distant past, CBOs called for the registration of the CBNRM Support Association for Botswana (CSABO). The National CBNRM Forum adopted a resolution for the registration of the CBNRM Support Association for Botswana (CSABO). CSABO was expected to provide guidance and regulation for CBOs and communities in the administration, management and governance of natural resources and the benefits produced from CBNRM projects has not gone through parliament. The registration of the CBNRM Support Association for Botswana (CSABO) was delayed pending consultation with government stakeholders. CSABO would therefore be tasked with incubating and revitalizing CBOs throughout the country. The expectation therefore was that through CSABO, CBOs were expected to incubate and establish viable, business-oriented CBOs with the capacity to manage resources.
