Donald L. Kgathi

Shocks and rural livelihoods in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

This paper describes the impacts that three shocks in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, have had on rural livelihoods: the desiccation of river channels, animal diseases, and HIV/AIDS. Primary data was collected from five study areas, using formal questionnaire interviews and focus group discussions. The paper reveals the adverse effects on rural livelihoods. It describes the way households have been exposed to poverty and vulnerability and the various ways they have coped or adapted, such as by re-allocating their labour, liquidating their assets to cover medical expenses and funeral costs, reducing the area ploughed for crops, hiring labour, digging wells and switching from flood recession agriculture to dryland farming. The Botswana government has provided safety nets to help households cope, but this paper recommends that peoples responses to these shocks should be taken into account in future policy and programme formulation.

Livestock predation, household adaptation and compensation policy : a case study of Shorobe village in northern Botswana

ABSTRACT Human-wildlife conflict is a worldwide phenomenon. Through a household survey supplemented by informal interviews, this study attempts to understand the dynamics of livestock predation by carnivores at village level in Botswana. The study reveals that farmers perceive hyenas and lions to cause more livestock losses than other predators. In order to reduce predation, attempts should be made to put livestock in enclosures at night and also to herd them during the day. These practices comply with the conditions of the new government compensation policy for livestock losses caused by carnivores. The study recommends a review of the compensation rates and suggests that they should be closer to the market value. Such changes, accompanied by strict animal husbandry practices, may bring about the increased willingness of households to co-exist with predators.

Rural livelihood diversification: A household adaptive strategy against flood variability in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the role of livelihood diversification in household adaptation to flood variability in the Okavango Delta, and locates it within the global discourse on adaptation to climate variability and change in developing countries. The contribution of livelihood activities to household income, level of livelihood diversity and the relationship between livelihood diversification and adaptation to flood variability was determined. Data from a survey of 623 households in five villages, focus group discussions and key informant interviews confirmed livelihood diversification as an important strategy for household adaptation to flood variability in the Delta. However, the household income portfolio was dominated by public transfers, underscoring the weak socio-economic status of the households and the effects of multiple shocks over and above flood variability. The study concludes that livelihood diversification and other household adaptive strategies may be sufficient for current flood variations, but may be inadequate for dealing with global climate variability and change in future.

Climate Variability and Rural Livelihoods: How Households Perceive and Adapt to Climatic Shocks in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

AbstractClimate variability and change have adverse effects on agricultural production and other livelihood strategies of the rural households. The paper hypothesizes that rural households naturally devise means of overcoming the challenges currently posed by climate variability. The research article addresses the question of how rural households apply local knowledge of weather forecasting in adapting to climate variability in the Okavango Delta. It specifically probes, among others, the extent to which climate variability has affected agricultural production over the last 10 years in the area. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select a total of 592 households from eight rural communities. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and a stakeholder workshop were used to obtain demographic, socioeconomic, psychosocial, and climatic information. Households used both natural animate and inanimate indicators to predict the weather. To enhance household adaptation to climatic events, indige...

Potential Impacts of Biofuel Development on Biodiversity in Chobe District, Botswana

There is a need to use cleared idle agricultural land for biofuel production in order to avoid adverse impacts on food security and biodiversity. This chapter examines the potential impacts of biofuel development on biodiversity in Chobe District, Botswana, using literature review and stakeholder interviews. The stakeholders interviewed confirmed that there are significant areas of idle agricultural land available in the district, but most of it is not cleared. Therefore, the production of biofuels in Chobe District may on the one hand negatively affect biodiversity through the clearing of new land, but on the other hand it may not adversely affect food security since idle agricultural land will be used. The use of marginal land for biofuel production may also harm biodiversity (plant and animal species). This chapter shows that the use of jatropha and sweet sorghum for biofuel production is likely to have a lower impact on biodiversity compared to corn. In conclusion, research on biology, chemistry as well as agronomic aspects of energy crops should be undertaken prior to large-scale biofuel development in Botswana.

Water Implications of Biofuel Development in Semi-Arid Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Studies of Four Countries

Biofuel production may have considerable impacts on water resources. To analyze the implications of biofuel development on water resources in the semi-arid parts of Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Mali, case studies were elaborated. In all four countries plans are under way to develop comprehensive biofuel policies. Botswana and Mali have similarities since they are water scarce countries with high dependency on imported food and energy. Whilst large areas of Mali and Botswana are semi-arid, the semi-arid parts in Zambia and Tanzania are of smaller size and have relatively suitable conditions for biofuel production. In Zambia and Tanzania, there are sugarcane and jatropha-based biofuel projects, whereas in Botswana and Mali biofuel production is mainly based on jatropha. It is shown that the expansion of biofuel projects in all four countries may adversely affect water resources. It is therefore recommended that water scarce countries such as Botswana and Mali should engage in biofuel projects which do not require much irrigation. The production model of integrating biofuel production with food crop production as practised in Mali provides useful lessons for Botswana and other countries. Whilst in Zambia and Tanzania large-scale projects based on contract farming could be expanded to reach the full potential of these countries, it is crucial to carefully monitor their impacts on water resources.

Biomass Potential in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions in Botswana

The development of new biomass energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change is opening new opportunities in Botswana. Cleaner technologies have increasingly led to the transformation of biomass into various bioenergy carriers for the use in modern energy systems that have lower GHG emissions. Whilst the use of biomass for energy purposes in rangelands has been as problematic as overgrazing, an increasing trend towards bush encroachment is observed in the dry-lands of southern Africa as a result of climate change. This chapter explores the potential of bioenergy development on arid lands in Botswana based on species associated with bush encroachment, invading species, and other potential energy sources such as oil plants. Bush encroachment and invasive species could be assessed for sustainable production of wood pellets either under management systems of the naturally occurring resources or by established plantations. Naturally occurring oil plants in Botswana such as Ximenia sp. are identified as potential sources for bioenergy production. Further research on the possibilities of using this plant species for bioenergy production is recommended.

Changing Flow in the Okavango Basin: Upstream Developments and Downstream Effects

The Okavango basin is shared between the countries of Angola, Namibia and Botswana and terminates in the Kalahari MOZ (Makgadigadi-Okavango-Zambezi) depression as an extensive alluvial fan often referred to as a “Delta” (Ringrose et al., 2005a). The upper catchment area receives 1200 mm/year rainfall and flows to the semi-arid Kalahari where the nominal average 460 mm/yr is considered a good rainfall year. Most of the streamflow in the basin is generated within the Angolan upper catchment. After 27 years of civil war, the cease-fire in 2002 may ultimately result in large number of refugees returning to the Angolan headstreams area with anticipated increased demands both for irrigation water and sites for dam construction for electricity generation. As the level of development is not high most of the returning people will be dependent on natural resources. Though the provision of needs to basin inhabitants is undisputed, there are concerns that the resettlement of displaced communities might have downstream environmental impacts (Green Cross International, 2000). Development will however be slow because of the large number of remaining landmines (Mendelsohn and El Obeid, 2004).

Prospects and Challenges for Tourism Certification in Botswana

Abstract This paper traces the development of tourism certification in Botswana and examines prospects and challenges of successful implementation. A precertification study was conducted that led to the resulting Botswana Ecotourism Certification System (BECS), the main document guiding the implementation of tourism certification in the country. The BECS comprises of seven principles and over 240 performance standards; a Best Practices Manual provided detailed criteria to assist in developing the standards. The system uses a three-tiered structure designed to incorporate various tourism operations and levels of sustainability practices. The extensive groundwork done prior to implementation indicated that tourism certification in Botswana has the potential to facilitate sustainable tourism and ecotourism practices, especially in nature-based tourism areas like the Okavango and Chobe regions. The current implementation emphasis is on the accommodations sector, to be expanded in future—26 tourism companies in the precertification programme went on to register for certification since the BECS programme was launched in January 2010. However, early learnings indicate that limited policies and infrastructure inhibit the provision of necessary sustainability oriented services from other supporting sectors. For instance, municipal waste recycling centers and national policies that promote the use of energy saving devices in destination areas are lacking, but are important to certification outcomes. Despite these challenges, the BECS is comprehensive in vision and scope (it addresses both quality and sustainability), and has the hallmarks of a globally outstanding certification system.

The nature and possible causes of land cover change (1984 –1996) along a rainfall gradient in southeastern Botswana

Land cover change analysis was undertaken in semi-arid southeastern Botswana. The aim was to determine how remotely sensed data could be applied over time and under different rainfall regimes to help assess the relative significance of biophysical and human factors in causing land cover change in a rapidly evolving developing world context. To this purpose, land cover changes were studied along an east (hardveld)-west (sandveld) gradient of decreasing rainfall and decreasing population density. Three years of Thematic Mapper imagery from 1984, 1994 and 1996, covering the period from the 1980s drought to the 1990s ‘normal’ rainfall regime were analysed using supervised classification techniques. Land cover change analysis revealed that over a large part of the study area the dry and more biophysically vulnerable western sandveld showed greater vegetation recovery than the eastern hardveld with its more productive soils and higher rainfall. Underlying causes behind this apparent reversal of trends are inferred to be mainly socioeconomic in nature and particularly related to higher population density due to the rise of salaried urban occupation opportunities in the hardveld. This work concludes that, while biophysical causes of change are important, the human dimension is regarded as being more significant especially where human factors negate otherwise positive biophysical effects in an agrarian developing country.