At the beginning of the 20th century, the region that would become Botswana was divided up to different land tenure systems.  At that time, a major part of the park’s area was classified as crown land.  The ideas of a national park to protect the varied wildlife found here as well as promote tourism first appeared in 1931.  In 1932, an area of 24 000 km² in the Chobe district was declared a non-hunting area and during the following two years, this protected area increased in size to 31 600 km².
Due to heavy tsetse fly infestations in 1943, the idea of a national park was cancelled.  It was only in 1953 that this project received governmental attention again and 21 000 km² were suggested to become a game reserve. As a result, the Chobe Game Reserve was born in 1960 and finally, in 1967, the reserve was declared a national park. The boundaries of the National Park were altered in 1980 and 1987 respectfully, increasing the size of the national park.