A/HRC/31/59/Add.1 partnerships with public- and private-sector actors to develop programmes for the sustainable use of a variety of natural resources. 33 50. The policy of the Government is to ensure the economic transition of local communities through their participation in tourism activities, away from hunting and harvesting activities, which are considered as mainly detrimental to the environment, in particular in national parks. There are still important challenges remaining, however, to make those schemes a reality; the Special Rapporteur heard many accounts that local people still lack the capacity to seriously engage in the tourism industry. 51. In 2014, a national hunting ban was put into place for the whole territory of Botswana to enable the fauna to reproduce to acceptable levels and to design more tailormade policies in the future. Some consider, however, that the motivation for the hunting ban is to pave the way for tourism and tourist trophy hunting, without any due consideration given to the cultural rights of local populations. According to some observers, there is no scientific evidence that hunting in Botswana is detrimental to wildlife conservation and photographic companies simply force their values and belief systems onto resource management in Botswana. Many people believe that, when used wisely, hunting can be a management/conservation tool: for example, hunting through community-based natural resource management could be used to control the ever-increasing elephant population.34 52. Various interlocutors, including from local communities, acknowledged the need for some kind of control of hunting and harvesting practices, stating, for example, that some people overharvest at inappropriate times. Communities, especially the San, stress the importance of confidence-building measures to improve relationships between communities and the government departments responsible for protecting the fauna and the flora for the common interest of all. Practices at stake include harvesting — including of medicinal plants —, fishing and hunting, fire control and firewood techniques, and knowledge of specific resources in the forests. It is important to emphasize the cultural dimension of hunting and tracking practices by which people learn about their traditional territories, animal ecology, biosystems and the relationship between existences, and develop medicinal knowledge, conservation techniques and the skills used to maintain the environment, the fauna and the flora. 53. Another point of frustation for many people relates to the cohabitation with wildlife, in particular elephants, whose population is said to have grown to a point that is unsustainable and which cause damage to crops and villages. They also reported difficulties in obtaining compensation for such losses and feel that the animals are better protected than they themselves. Some people request authorization to trophy hunt elephants as a way of managing the elephant population, participating in the tourism economy and creating income. 1. Tsodilo Hills 54. Tsodilo Hills have been on the UNESCO list as a cultural World Heritage Site since 2001. The hills are home to two communities who live in neighbouring villages: the Ju|’hoansi San (about 50 people) and the Hambukushu (about 160 people). 33 34 Botswana, Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Community-based Natural Resources Managment in Botswana, Practitioners’ Manual (2010), p. iv. “The future of CBNRM in a changing environment”, Proceedings of the Fifth National Communitybased Natural Resource Management Conference, held in February 2010, p. 19. 13