A/HRC/24/41/Add.1 benefiting from parks’ resources, the fundamental issue of land rights has, problematically, yet to be resolved. (a) The Hai//om San in and around Etosha National Park 41. Etosha National Park was created in the 1920s by the German colonial administration and is today one of the premier tourist attractions in the country. The Hai//om people were removed from the park in the 1950s, although they still maintain a cultural connection to lands within the park. 12 While previously the Hai//om were permitted to continue some hunting in the park, following their eviction in the 1950s, all open access to the park as well as hunting and gathering in it was banned. As noted, many of the Hai//om evicted from the park are now landless and awaiting resettlement, or have been recently resettled onto commercial farms. 42. In a recent positive development, the Government, through its Ministry of Environment and Tourism, granted Hai//om San a tourism concession within Etosha National Park – the first of its kind. Under this concession, the Hai//om have exclusive rights to run tourism operations at the Gobaob watering hole, a spot that attracts a high number of wild animals and is also of central cultural significance to the Hai//om, being the birthplace of many of their ancestors. 43. The concession agreement was signed during the course of the Special Rapporteur’s visit to Namibia, and was met with optimism by both Government and Hai//om representatives alike. However, Hai//om people with whom the Special Rapporteur met also expressed the concern that only those groups that move to the resettlement farms will benefit from the concession, and that those people who choose to not move to the farms will not be able to profit from tourism activities. In addition, the Hai//om have a strong desire to establish a tourism lodge within the boundaries of the park as part of the concession, an undoubtedly more attractive option in terms of tourism potential than a lodge outside of the park; however, their proposal in this regard was rejected by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with the justification that only Namibia Wildlife Resorts, a State-owned enterprise, may operate lodges within protected areas in Namibia. 44. In any event, overall, Hai//om representatives expressed to the Special Rapporteur their feeling that the Government is trying to “erase” the Hai//om connection with the park, an assertion that appears to the Special Rapporteur to have some merit. At the very least, there is clearly no official policy or activities to reflect the Hai//om connection to Etosha or to strengthen that connection. Indeed, there is a dearth of information within Etosha National Park that links that area’s history with the Hai//om San, apart from basic signage indicating Hai//om names for watering holes, gathering places or other spots of significance. The Special Rapporteur was informed also that a concession previously granted to a Hai//om group to perform traditional dances for tourists was not renewed by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. 45. Finally, the majority of employees in Etosha National Park are not Hai//om and there is no hiring preference for Hai//om people, a fact that is a source of frustration for them, and there is also a lack of Hai//om input into decision-making about the park management at all levels. However, during a meeting of the Special Rapporteur with representatives of the Hai//om and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Hai//om members proposed the establishment of a Hai//om advisory body in relation to the Etosha National Park, and representatives of the Ministry indicated a willingness to consider this proposal. 12 12 For a history of the Hai//om in the area of Etosha National Park, see Christina Longden, ed., Undiscovered or Overlooked? the Hai//om of Namibia and their Identity (Windhoek, Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa, 2004).