Talk: Robert K. Hitchcock (University of New Mexico)

This presentation will address issues relating to the Central Kalahari  Game Reserve in Botswana which is a large protected area of 52,730 sq  km. In 1997 and 2002  over 2,000 San and Bakgalagadi were  relocated  involuntarily out of the reserve. From 2004-2006 a legal case was  brought against the Botswana government which was won by the former  residents, some of whom returned to the Central Kalahari and took up  residence in 5 communities.  In 2011 the residents won the right to  water which set a world-wide precedent.  Since that time the Botswana  government has continued to pressure the residents to leave the reserve,  efforts which have been resisted by the peoples of the Central Kalahari  who remain resilient.  Recent events include the familiar of the  government to allow the CKGR communities to have their own community  trusts and to engage in tourism on their own, and the government's  refusal to allow the family of a man who died in December 2021 to bury  his body in the Central Kalahari where he had resided.  Discussions  today revolve around the human rights of the people of the Central  Kalahari.