Botswana communities receive payments for wildlife camera records

What you need to know

• The scheme connects wildlife monitoring with a direct community benefit: payments are tied to camera-trap records from the settlements. This is an operating programme, rather than a proposal, although its wider conservation effects remain unknown. 12
• Community rangers check cameras weekly, and payment levels vary according to the species recorded. Elephants receive the highest payment, making a species associated with crop damage a prominent part of the scheme’s incentive structure. 123
• Mongabay’s reported payment total and account-disbursement details come from programme representatives, not an independent audit. The supplied material therefore records that payments were reported as delivered, but does not independently verify the sums. 1
• A 2024 project report describes the settlements as substantially reliant on subsistence farming and facing wildlife crop damage, particularly from elephants. That local context helps explain why a scheme linking wildlife sightings to community benefits is relevant to coexistence. 3
• Research on a related camera-trapping payment programme in Belize found participation associated with tolerance, but cautioned that money alone may not change attitudes or behaviour. Those findings offer context, not evidence of the Botswana programme’s effectiveness. 4

Why this matters

For communities experiencing wildlife-related crop damage, linking monitoring to payments is one way to provide a tangible benefit alongside the costs of living near wildlife. Whether that benefit contributes to lasting tolerance or better outcomes for wildlife in Botswana is not yet clear. 134

What happens next

The key test is whether the programme can demonstrate changes in conflict, community attitudes or wildlife outcomes over time. The supplied reporting also leaves questions about how sightings are verified, how benefits are distributed and whether the operator can sustain payments. 12

What we know

• The programme operates in Gogomoga and Tsutsubega in the Okavango Delta. 12
• Community rangers check village cameras weekly, and payments vary by species. 12
• Mongabay reports 57,600 Botswana pula in payments for 2026 sightings, with first-half payments reaching community accounts. 1
• An earlier project report describes subsistence farming and elephant-related crop damage in the settlements. 3

What we don't know

• The supplied sources do not show whether the scheme has affected tolerance, retaliatory killing or other coexistence outcomes. 12
• They do not provide an evaluation of changes in wildlife outcomes attributable to the payments. 12
• The reporting does not explain how camera sightings are verified or how community decisions and benefit distribution are documented. 12
• The long-term ability to maintain payments is unclear; the operator says it funds them itself and keeps them modest. 2

Read the reporting

This WildNews briefing synthesises and summarises reporting from the sources below. WildNews did not produce the original reporting. Learn more about how we use AI