While Botswana prides itself with a cadre of enterprising reporters and creative editors who deserve honourable mention for covering environmental issues that contribute to public knowledge and debate over critical issues of biodiversity loss, development and conservation, the grim reality is that the overall participation of the powerful mass media tool in environmental journalism and broadcasting is scanty and thinly spread.
In an industry where, ‘fluffy stories and cute pictures’ make the front page and occupy prime time while environmental journalism is continuously relegated to the periphery of social discourse, these journalists and broadcasters are the selfless patriots to whom we all owe a huge debt of gratitude. To the heroic foot soldiers in the battle to bring conservation issues to the front burner, and raise awareness of environmental topics, I salute you.
However, in the face of imminent threats of global warming; unsustainable land use and resource exploitation; inadequate freshwater flows; pollution; habitat conversion and modification; invasive species; and many other destructive forces, there remains a glaring lack of interest and mediocrity in the coverage of environmental issues by members of the fourth estate. This wanning, scattergun approach to environmental journalism has (probably not without reason) been viewed by environmentalists as a drawback that retards global action to protect the environment and amounts to a deliberate erasure of the genre.
Now, more than ever before, the magnitude of the stress to ecosystems and the threat this has on the world’s fragile water supplies and agricultural production could have dire ramifications for both humanity and nature. This calls for winning partnerships between governments, environmental organisations and the media where the phenomenal power at the media’s disposal can be leveraged to raise awareness on environmental issues and campaign for change of habits and behaviours that are detrimental to the environment. Environmental journalism is after all, essentially an advocacy tool to encourage its audience to adapt a more biocentric worldview and environmentally sensitive attitudes.
The conservation story however is not only about the environment. It is about much more, as it touches just about every aspect of life. It involves the world’s primary resources, clean water, fresh air and biological diversity. Environmental cadre, Mohau Pheko observes that contrary to popular perception, “conservation is not an exotic hobby for white liberals but a life and death issue that should be our priority because humanity cannot survive without clean drinking water, nor can we live without food grown in rain–fed fields and woodlands for fuel, fodder and carbon sinks to soak up the perilous carbon dioxide from the blazing fossil fuels we burn to power our machinery.”
In an era of pervasive and far reaching mass media the media remains the single most effective way of taking the conservation message to the masses. The media has an obligation to cover biodiversity related themes with clarity and accuracy, it has a duty to educate the masses on the importance and urgency to preserve the natural wealth of our world. Tragically though, the industry’s commitment to its obligation is faltering as biodiversity themes continue to fall outside the mass media’s radar because of the myth that conservation stories are a ‘hard sell’ that is not exciting or appealing enough.
Frazer Kopanag laments the emasculation of the media when he states that the, “castration of the media watch-dog by commercial interests has taken the spark out of a supposed to be vibrant media.” Keletso Sedirwa is even less complementary when she lambast’s commerce for the, “prostitution of the media for commercial favours.” These frustrated outbursts decry the enervation of the environmental movement by the apparent censure of environmental issues by the mass media. They bemoan the unfortunate emergence of the abhorable, woefully unimaginative, ineffective and perverted advertorials that are the illegitimate offspring of the unholy liaison and adulteration of the media by commerce.
The superfluous indulgent tendency by the print media to scamper for the mundane and eyesore centrespread advertorials which parade modelling megalomaniac pseudo politicians, socialites and captains of industry at the expense of pertinent biodiversity related themes is a typical example of the environmental laggard of the press. A cursory glance at the setup of any newsroom will reveal a crime desk, a sports desk, a culture desk, but never a desk dedicated to engaging society on environmental issues.
It is tragic that environmental journalism and its conservation message are drowned in the parroted excesses of commercial self praise ad nauseam. Media coverage has in essence been reduced to a fierce jostle for time and space with advertising occupying a massive 50% - 70% of the limited time and space of the news media. The daily splatter of sickening advertorials in the local press is indicative of this convoluted trend. The ‘ugly duckling’ perception of environmental journalism is further compounded by the media industry’s mistaken believe that environmental issues tend to be complex in nature and involve drawn out processes that are not easily accommodated in the limited time and space of the news media. With such hardened attitudes, it is little wonder environmental journalism straggles to find a firm foothold in the traditional news media.
In the limited instances where environmental journalism has received media coverage, all too often, the coverage has either been oversimplified or sensationalised with robust greenhouse activism or bland misrepresentation of scientific research. Mike Hulme, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, points out that green militancy and megaphone journalism use, “catastrophe and chaos as unguided weapons with which forlornly to threaten society into behavioural change.” Evidently such alarmist shock tactics and inaccurate, stereotypical portrayal of environmental topics are the bane of environmental journalism that stifles public knowledge and debate over critical biodiversity issues.
Nonetheless, the challenge for governments and environmental organisations to harness the power of the mass media to raise awareness of environmental issues remains critical. Quality coverage of environmental issues is however not achieved from the confines of ‘cubicles in metropolitan newsrooms’, it is achieved through site visits to primary sources of news which remain a budgetary and logistical challenge for most media houses.
In an effort to address these challenges, the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, through the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) project and in collaboration with the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the University of Botswana’s Harry Oppenheimer Research Centre (UB – HOORC) and other environmental organisations commemorated the 2007/8 World Wetlands Day by inviting journalists and broadcasters into the Okavango Delta in a deliberate effort to raise the media’s awareness of biodiversity conservation and to get them to broaden and enrich local media coverage of the Okavango wetlands.
The objective of the site visit was to engage the media and to get the ODMP project and its partners to build constituencies that will catapult off the strength of the mass media to get the conservation message out into the public arena. It had been hoped the multiplier effect of the mass media would amplify the conservation message to the masses and entrench the genre’s foothold and the Okavango Delta’s profile in the traditional news media while promoting ‘greener’ behaviour that supports Botswana’s long term vision, Vision 2016.
The Okavango Delta is a treasure trove of news articles. The jewel of Africa is hydrologically unique. It is the world’s largest and most important wetland ecosystem which forms the world’s largest Ramsar site. The transboundary river basin receives its water from the highlands of Huambo in Angola and flows downstream through the narrow Caprivi Strip of Namibia before entering north-west Botswana at Mohembo in Ngamiland and disperses its flow in an alluvial fan known as the Okavango Delta.
The mosaic of channels, lagoons, intermittent swamplands and islands that emerge in the Delta’s waterways give rise to several diverse ecosystems, which in turn offer an oasis of habitat for the Delta’s rich biodiversity and myriad of different land and water habitats. These habitats hold a vitally important place in the ecological, economic and cultural fabric of communities living around the Delta as it provides a vast area of water and flooded grasslands with good grazing for the rich diversity of wildlife and livestock.
Increasingly, however, the Delta is under pressure. Increasing human population and water abstraction for irrigation, mining and domestic use upstream and around the delta have led to the unsustainable use of much of its natural resources. The magnitude of the stress to the ecosystem and the threat this has on the fragile water supplies and the general wellbeing of communities living in and around the Delta could adversely affect the fragile water course as we know it today. The cooperation and conflict over resources, the struggle over resource ownership, resource access and resource use that is unfolding in Okavango Delta Ramsar site could make for riveting anecdotes and in-depth news articles that give the Delta story a human face and bolster the prominence of environmental journalism in the mainstream news media.
The site visit by the local journalists and broadcasters represented renewed tactics in the contemporary environmental movement and a moral boost to the ecological avant-garde who will champion the environmental course. While there have been bursts of sporadic brilliance in the coverage of environmental issues since, the true potential of these initiatives is yet to be realised.
Postscript
Subsiquent to the the huge investment in site visits for local journalists, an audit of media cover on the ODMP project revealed minimal coresponding improvement in the cover of ODMP issues in the Okavango Delta Ramsar site. The project then embarked on a renewed drive to sustain media coverage of the ODMP Project by inviting select scribes for site tours. Former Mmegi Editor, Mesh Moeti was one of the media practitioners who accepted our inivitation and below are some of his insightful notes on the tour.
Re a leboga Mesh.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The roadmap
By Mesh Moeti
Sekgoma Motsumi reflects momentarily on what he calls a million Dollar question.
Then he expounds: “There are challenges on the ground. Building relationships and collaboration is only the lighter part; it takes a while to change mindsets. But I must say I am impatient with the pace, although things are changing in the right direction”.
He is discussing the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) and if it will achieve its goals. Formerly the Public Education Officer for ODMP Project, he only recently became its coordinator. Having been here since the earl days, he can talk about ODMP authoritatively.
ODMP is an ambitious plan that seeks to integrate resource management for the Okavango Delta to ensure long-term conservation, as well as encourage sustainable use of its natural resources. The draft management plan lists three strategic goals:
• To establish viable management infrastructure and tools to sustainably manage the delta resources at local, district, national and international levels.
• To ensure that the Okavango Delta (and its associates dry lands) continues to deliver present day ecosystem goods and services.
• To sustainably use the delta resources for improvement of livelihoods of all stakeholders that are directly and indirectly dependent on the ecosystem products and services of the Okavango Delta in an equitable way.
Since 2003, experts from different and diverse fields such as ecology, hydrology, wildlife biology, economics, physical planning, natural resource management, and tourism management have engaged with each other, as well as with the local communities and tourism sector to map out a universally-acceptable management plan. It was walking a tight rope given the vested interest in the area.
Home to 1 300 plant species, 71 fish species, 33 amphibians, 64 reptiles, 444 birds species, and 122 mammals, the Okavango Delta was listed as a Wetland of International Importance in April 1997. covering an area of 55 374 km², it forms the core of the world’s largest Ramsar site under the Ramsar convention for the protection of Wetlands. That easily makes it the jewel in the crown of Botswana’s tourism industry – and a playground for some of the world’s rich and famous – from royalty to film stars. But it is also home to some of the poorest people who have subsisted for generations from the delta’s resources.
“The moment you come up with a plan or framework that will introduce certain restrictions that suggests some element of control. In that case, everyone is going to protect their interest. The key challenge, therefore, becomes how to balance the interests of those who are suspicious of an initiative like this one,” says Motsumi.
The tourism industry’s overriding concern, in that regard, was how ODMP would impact on their business. Motsumi still recalls the first consultative meeting with representatives of the tourism industry. Close to 100 people attended. He ascribes the high attendance confirms the suspicions that people had about the real intentions of ODMP.
Grant Woodrow, managing director of Wilderness Safaris – one of Botswana’s biggest tourism concerns – talks of “big issues” that nearly went without the industry’s input. Among these was the suggestion from the land board to change boundaries of concession areas. He blames it on the initial inadequate communication between ODMP and the tourism industry.
“Obviously, these were issues that were going to impact on the industry. At a presentation by the land board, when we saw them putting up diagrams of boundary changes, we got nervous. That meeting was very interesting. The industry was very aggressive because it had not been part of the process. We felt since we operate in areas where ODMP is involved, we should have played a major part. ODMP took a step back and from that meeting, we have had fantastic meetings (with ODMP),” says Woodrow.
A veteran of the delta, Map Ives commands an authoritative voice within the tourism community in Maun. His work as environmental manager for Wilderness Safaris makes him a watchdog that the company adheres to best environmental protection practices. From his discussions with peers in the ODMP project, he has noted a lot of appreciation of the ecosystem approach to the delta’s conservation, which would embrace all components and users.
One area he is unhappy with is with regard to the plan’s implementation.
“The plan’s 12 components will be run by 12 different departments. I feel we need one manager to run ODMP because these things can gather dust; they need to be driven. We believe we can work together with the driving force. We need an individual within that department to be strong. The (ODMP) planning is cutting edge,” says Ives. “The private sector often has cutting edge technology available. We can work together to maintain the Okavango Delta and make it a prize among the Ramsar sites.”
Woodrow underscores that while ODMP is set to be a working document for six years, and afterwards a more binding one, there is need for continues interaction by all stakeholders. He suggests annual meetings to thrash out issues of concern.
“We shouldn’t wait until five-and-half years have passed. We need to ensure that communication continues. Some issues will go quickly, and others won’t. After six years we need to ensure that we have the right policies that work for Botswana and the Okavango Delta,” Grant points out.
Motsumi agrees.
Sekgoma Motsumi reflects momentarily on what he calls a million Dollar question.
Then he expounds: “There are challenges on the ground. Building relationships and collaboration is only the lighter part; it takes a while to change mindsets. But I must say I am impatient with the pace, although things are changing in the right direction”.
He is discussing the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) and if it will achieve its goals. Formerly the Public Education Officer for ODMP Project, he only recently became its coordinator. Having been here since the earl days, he can talk about ODMP authoritatively.
ODMP is an ambitious plan that seeks to integrate resource management for the Okavango Delta to ensure long-term conservation, as well as encourage sustainable use of its natural resources. The draft management plan lists three strategic goals:
• To establish viable management infrastructure and tools to sustainably manage the delta resources at local, district, national and international levels.
• To ensure that the Okavango Delta (and its associates dry lands) continues to deliver present day ecosystem goods and services.
• To sustainably use the delta resources for improvement of livelihoods of all stakeholders that are directly and indirectly dependent on the ecosystem products and services of the Okavango Delta in an equitable way.
Since 2003, experts from different and diverse fields such as ecology, hydrology, wildlife biology, economics, physical planning, natural resource management, and tourism management have engaged with each other, as well as with the local communities and tourism sector to map out a universally-acceptable management plan. It was walking a tight rope given the vested interest in the area.
Home to 1 300 plant species, 71 fish species, 33 amphibians, 64 reptiles, 444 birds species, and 122 mammals, the Okavango Delta was listed as a Wetland of International Importance in April 1997. covering an area of 55 374 km², it forms the core of the world’s largest Ramsar site under the Ramsar convention for the protection of Wetlands. That easily makes it the jewel in the crown of Botswana’s tourism industry – and a playground for some of the world’s rich and famous – from royalty to film stars. But it is also home to some of the poorest people who have subsisted for generations from the delta’s resources.
“The moment you come up with a plan or framework that will introduce certain restrictions that suggests some element of control. In that case, everyone is going to protect their interest. The key challenge, therefore, becomes how to balance the interests of those who are suspicious of an initiative like this one,” says Motsumi.
The tourism industry’s overriding concern, in that regard, was how ODMP would impact on their business. Motsumi still recalls the first consultative meeting with representatives of the tourism industry. Close to 100 people attended. He ascribes the high attendance confirms the suspicions that people had about the real intentions of ODMP.
Grant Woodrow, managing director of Wilderness Safaris – one of Botswana’s biggest tourism concerns – talks of “big issues” that nearly went without the industry’s input. Among these was the suggestion from the land board to change boundaries of concession areas. He blames it on the initial inadequate communication between ODMP and the tourism industry.
“Obviously, these were issues that were going to impact on the industry. At a presentation by the land board, when we saw them putting up diagrams of boundary changes, we got nervous. That meeting was very interesting. The industry was very aggressive because it had not been part of the process. We felt since we operate in areas where ODMP is involved, we should have played a major part. ODMP took a step back and from that meeting, we have had fantastic meetings (with ODMP),” says Woodrow.
A veteran of the delta, Map Ives commands an authoritative voice within the tourism community in Maun. His work as environmental manager for Wilderness Safaris makes him a watchdog that the company adheres to best environmental protection practices. From his discussions with peers in the ODMP project, he has noted a lot of appreciation of the ecosystem approach to the delta’s conservation, which would embrace all components and users.
One area he is unhappy with is with regard to the plan’s implementation.
“The plan’s 12 components will be run by 12 different departments. I feel we need one manager to run ODMP because these things can gather dust; they need to be driven. We believe we can work together with the driving force. We need an individual within that department to be strong. The (ODMP) planning is cutting edge,” says Ives. “The private sector often has cutting edge technology available. We can work together to maintain the Okavango Delta and make it a prize among the Ramsar sites.”
Woodrow underscores that while ODMP is set to be a working document for six years, and afterwards a more binding one, there is need for continues interaction by all stakeholders. He suggests annual meetings to thrash out issues of concern.
“We shouldn’t wait until five-and-half years have passed. We need to ensure that communication continues. Some issues will go quickly, and others won’t. After six years we need to ensure that we have the right policies that work for Botswana and the Okavango Delta,” Grant points out.
Motsumi agrees.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
A place in the delta
By Mesh Moeti
A concession in the Okavango Delta is a highly priced possession. According to a recent study carried out under the ambit of Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP), tourism in the delta and its environs is estimated to generate an annual gross income of P1, 115 million, making a direct contribution of P401 million in terms of direct value to GDP. An estimated 80 percent of tourism value accrues to photographic tourism companies, 15.5 percent to hunting safari companies, and only 3.1 percent goes to communities through Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) arrangements.
In the rising tide for meaningful citizen participation in tourism, the delta is prime target. It’s remarkable that what used to be peripheral pronouncements by the early pioneers of citizen economic empowerment is now a sentiment that is freely expressed by officials in government offices.
District Tourism Officer, Lesedi Ntshekisang, points out that while a lot of citizens are employed in the industry, they hold marginal jobs.
“Batswana are not participating as we would wish them to when we talk of meaningful citizen participation,” she says.
This kind of talk is, obviously, a source of discomfort for the long established players.
Grant Woodrow heads one of the major and influential players in the industry – Wilderness Safaris. While he says he appreciates the demand for more Batswana to enter the industry, he points out that the industry is still in its infancy, and overtime it will develop into a citizen-dominated sector. He cautions that in the meantime, the industry must be allowed to grow.
He cites the recent development by University of Botswana to offer tourism courses as one of the factors that will lead to the industry being led by citizens “in the near future”.
“Empowerment is important, and we need to empower at every level, but it has to be done in a sustainable manner,” says Woodrow. “The spotlight is in the delta, but there is a change at all levels – and it’s happening at an acceptable rate. Such change must be managed well. We have serious competition as a country from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Southern Angola, Mozambique and Namibia. We need to ensure that we are strong to compete with this growing competition. These emerging alternative destinations are going to put serious stress on our industry”.
Map Ives – Wilderness Safaris’ environmental manager- is a native of Francistown who came to Maun in 1980. In that time, he has seen a number of worthy changes in the industry. He has seen more Batswana become involved in tourism at various levels, a far cry from 27 years back when citizen faces where those of the night watchman and the cleaner. He thinks if information could be put in historical context, it would shed light to “politicians, traditional leaders, and the average voter”.
Ultimately, Ives warns, change for change’s sake is not sustainable.
There is a point where Ntshekisang, the district tourism officer, agrees with Woodrow – and that is the relative infancy of the industry. She mentions it as a contributing factor to the low numbers of Batswana in the Industry. There are others, such as the high capitalization requirement, lack of product diversity, and general unawareness about the industry.
“We need to do a study to see how to eliminate barriers, and see meaningful citizen participation,” she says.
She says government is walking the empowerment talk. For instance, to qualify for future concessions, companies will have to demonstrate citizen involvement scheme, and skills transfer. She cautions that even with the best of intentions, Batswana would remain minor league players if they don’t get their attitude right.
“I still think Batswana lack the passion to go an extra mile. This industry is about service; it’s about the exceeding customer’s expectations,” she says.
In Sankuyu, a small village of about 700, the villagers have gathered at the kgotla for consultative meeting on one of their assets. The village is a beneficiary of the Community Based Natural Resource (CBNRM) initiative. The villagers’ interests are vested in the Sankuyu Tshwaragano Management Trust, which has three concessions for photographic as well as hunting safaris. The Trust is in a joint venture (JV) partnership with an established tour operator.
Today’s meeting is meant to solicit the villagers’ views on a request by the JV partner for rights to one of the campsites that belongs to the Trust. With a few objections, the verdict is finally reached – in favour of upholding the partner’s request.
The Sankuyu Tshwaragano Management Trust is Botswana’s most celebrated community-based initiative, in a country where projects of similar nature often collapse due to financial mismanagement.
The previous evening, we met the Trust’s trainee operations manager, Skipper Mareja, in Maun where the organisation maintains its major office. A past beneficiary of the scholarship programme that the Trust runs for the village’s children, the 26-years-old is being groomed to assume overall management of the organisation’s business activities. For now, he is content to bide his time as number two to an expatriate pro.
He explains the Trust’s twin organs: business arm (Trust Enterprises), and the social welfare aspect (Trust Activities). The Trust Enterprises wing’s mandate is to generate money, improve the products, and market them. Trust activities arm, on the other hand, disburses money voted for to finance community projects and programmes. The programmes that have won Sankuyo Tshwaragano Management Trust national acclaim include the funeral assistance scheme (P3 000 for a deceased adult, and P1 500 for a child aged under 12), and a biannual living allowance of P1500 for unemployed villagers aged 50 and above. It has built houses for all council-registered destitutes in the villages, and an entertainment centre that even has digital satellite television sets. On each compound stands a green dysfunctional toilet – the enviro loo – all constructed at the cost of P200 000. The Trust has recovered from the setback, and next year plans to install a water-borne system in each household.
The village leader is Gokgathang Timex Moalosi, who assumed this position in 1999, after 14 years working for various safari companies as a professional guide.
Now in his 40s, Moalosi has experienced sweeping changes in the villagers’ lifestyle in less than a generation. He recalls that in his youth, the community lived off subsistence farming. But as the wildlife increased people were impoverished. Elephants destroyed crops, while lions killed livestock. When government raised the buffalo fence, it effectively meant that the community could not bring any more livestock into the controlled area. Overnight, people who had been self-sufficient became destitute-until government introduced the CBNRM programme.
“The programme has created employment opportunities, leading to acquisition of skills about the tourism industry. Even more importantly, the standard of living in the village has improved a great deal,” says Moalosi.
As the village’s traditional leader, he is an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees.
The CBNRM programme is not without its critics. There are growing voices that say it contradicts one of the founding principles of our modern republic, which is that all natural resources belong to the entire nation, not the communities that live next to such resources. Diamonds are often given as an example of a natural resource that was exploited for the benefit of the entire nation.
Moalosi does not hide his impatience with this logic.
“Diamonds don’t stop anyone from cultivating their fields, and keeping cattle. Diamonds don’t kill anybody. People should differentiate between the various resources. Here, we talk of animals that have negatively impacted on our lives. We no longer plough because of elephants. We no longer rear livestock. Now, on what grounds would people from areas with mineral deposits be entitled to preferential treatment? Do you know that each time a new mine opens, government builds a road, and connects water and electricity to the place? Here, we have no electricity and telephones. People shouldn’t talk as if there is no money that goes to Bank of Botswana from tourism-related activities. Chobe National Park makes P17 million each year. Moremi Game Reserve makes P7 million, Nxai Pan generates between P3 million and P4 million. The communities of Sankuyo and Mababe only make P1 million each. How many camps are in the delta, and how much tax do they pay to government? What percentage accrues to communities under CBNRM programme? It’s only two percent. Is that what people are crying about? Look at the contribution of tourism to the national coffers, and compare that with the amount that goes to communities,” says Moalosi.
He warns that if the current benefit were taken away, communities would have no incentive to conserve wildlife.
A concession in the Okavango Delta is a highly priced possession. According to a recent study carried out under the ambit of Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP), tourism in the delta and its environs is estimated to generate an annual gross income of P1, 115 million, making a direct contribution of P401 million in terms of direct value to GDP. An estimated 80 percent of tourism value accrues to photographic tourism companies, 15.5 percent to hunting safari companies, and only 3.1 percent goes to communities through Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) arrangements.
In the rising tide for meaningful citizen participation in tourism, the delta is prime target. It’s remarkable that what used to be peripheral pronouncements by the early pioneers of citizen economic empowerment is now a sentiment that is freely expressed by officials in government offices.
District Tourism Officer, Lesedi Ntshekisang, points out that while a lot of citizens are employed in the industry, they hold marginal jobs.
“Batswana are not participating as we would wish them to when we talk of meaningful citizen participation,” she says.
This kind of talk is, obviously, a source of discomfort for the long established players.
Grant Woodrow heads one of the major and influential players in the industry – Wilderness Safaris. While he says he appreciates the demand for more Batswana to enter the industry, he points out that the industry is still in its infancy, and overtime it will develop into a citizen-dominated sector. He cautions that in the meantime, the industry must be allowed to grow.
He cites the recent development by University of Botswana to offer tourism courses as one of the factors that will lead to the industry being led by citizens “in the near future”.
“Empowerment is important, and we need to empower at every level, but it has to be done in a sustainable manner,” says Woodrow. “The spotlight is in the delta, but there is a change at all levels – and it’s happening at an acceptable rate. Such change must be managed well. We have serious competition as a country from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Southern Angola, Mozambique and Namibia. We need to ensure that we are strong to compete with this growing competition. These emerging alternative destinations are going to put serious stress on our industry”.
Map Ives – Wilderness Safaris’ environmental manager- is a native of Francistown who came to Maun in 1980. In that time, he has seen a number of worthy changes in the industry. He has seen more Batswana become involved in tourism at various levels, a far cry from 27 years back when citizen faces where those of the night watchman and the cleaner. He thinks if information could be put in historical context, it would shed light to “politicians, traditional leaders, and the average voter”.
Ultimately, Ives warns, change for change’s sake is not sustainable.
There is a point where Ntshekisang, the district tourism officer, agrees with Woodrow – and that is the relative infancy of the industry. She mentions it as a contributing factor to the low numbers of Batswana in the Industry. There are others, such as the high capitalization requirement, lack of product diversity, and general unawareness about the industry.
“We need to do a study to see how to eliminate barriers, and see meaningful citizen participation,” she says.
She says government is walking the empowerment talk. For instance, to qualify for future concessions, companies will have to demonstrate citizen involvement scheme, and skills transfer. She cautions that even with the best of intentions, Batswana would remain minor league players if they don’t get their attitude right.
“I still think Batswana lack the passion to go an extra mile. This industry is about service; it’s about the exceeding customer’s expectations,” she says.
In Sankuyu, a small village of about 700, the villagers have gathered at the kgotla for consultative meeting on one of their assets. The village is a beneficiary of the Community Based Natural Resource (CBNRM) initiative. The villagers’ interests are vested in the Sankuyu Tshwaragano Management Trust, which has three concessions for photographic as well as hunting safaris. The Trust is in a joint venture (JV) partnership with an established tour operator.
Today’s meeting is meant to solicit the villagers’ views on a request by the JV partner for rights to one of the campsites that belongs to the Trust. With a few objections, the verdict is finally reached – in favour of upholding the partner’s request.
The Sankuyu Tshwaragano Management Trust is Botswana’s most celebrated community-based initiative, in a country where projects of similar nature often collapse due to financial mismanagement.
The previous evening, we met the Trust’s trainee operations manager, Skipper Mareja, in Maun where the organisation maintains its major office. A past beneficiary of the scholarship programme that the Trust runs for the village’s children, the 26-years-old is being groomed to assume overall management of the organisation’s business activities. For now, he is content to bide his time as number two to an expatriate pro.
He explains the Trust’s twin organs: business arm (Trust Enterprises), and the social welfare aspect (Trust Activities). The Trust Enterprises wing’s mandate is to generate money, improve the products, and market them. Trust activities arm, on the other hand, disburses money voted for to finance community projects and programmes. The programmes that have won Sankuyo Tshwaragano Management Trust national acclaim include the funeral assistance scheme (P3 000 for a deceased adult, and P1 500 for a child aged under 12), and a biannual living allowance of P1500 for unemployed villagers aged 50 and above. It has built houses for all council-registered destitutes in the villages, and an entertainment centre that even has digital satellite television sets. On each compound stands a green dysfunctional toilet – the enviro loo – all constructed at the cost of P200 000. The Trust has recovered from the setback, and next year plans to install a water-borne system in each household.
The village leader is Gokgathang Timex Moalosi, who assumed this position in 1999, after 14 years working for various safari companies as a professional guide.
Now in his 40s, Moalosi has experienced sweeping changes in the villagers’ lifestyle in less than a generation. He recalls that in his youth, the community lived off subsistence farming. But as the wildlife increased people were impoverished. Elephants destroyed crops, while lions killed livestock. When government raised the buffalo fence, it effectively meant that the community could not bring any more livestock into the controlled area. Overnight, people who had been self-sufficient became destitute-until government introduced the CBNRM programme.
“The programme has created employment opportunities, leading to acquisition of skills about the tourism industry. Even more importantly, the standard of living in the village has improved a great deal,” says Moalosi.
As the village’s traditional leader, he is an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees.
The CBNRM programme is not without its critics. There are growing voices that say it contradicts one of the founding principles of our modern republic, which is that all natural resources belong to the entire nation, not the communities that live next to such resources. Diamonds are often given as an example of a natural resource that was exploited for the benefit of the entire nation.
Moalosi does not hide his impatience with this logic.
“Diamonds don’t stop anyone from cultivating their fields, and keeping cattle. Diamonds don’t kill anybody. People should differentiate between the various resources. Here, we talk of animals that have negatively impacted on our lives. We no longer plough because of elephants. We no longer rear livestock. Now, on what grounds would people from areas with mineral deposits be entitled to preferential treatment? Do you know that each time a new mine opens, government builds a road, and connects water and electricity to the place? Here, we have no electricity and telephones. People shouldn’t talk as if there is no money that goes to Bank of Botswana from tourism-related activities. Chobe National Park makes P17 million each year. Moremi Game Reserve makes P7 million, Nxai Pan generates between P3 million and P4 million. The communities of Sankuyo and Mababe only make P1 million each. How many camps are in the delta, and how much tax do they pay to government? What percentage accrues to communities under CBNRM programme? It’s only two percent. Is that what people are crying about? Look at the contribution of tourism to the national coffers, and compare that with the amount that goes to communities,” says Moalosi.
He warns that if the current benefit were taken away, communities would have no incentive to conserve wildlife.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Building bridges over troubled waters
By Mesh Moeti
When asked about the tensions and disputes in the Okavango Delta , one official reportedly said, “It’s no longer a conflict, but a war”.
The conflicts in the delta are characteristic of the various economic interests in the area, and such clashes come at different levels. The most commonly identified conflict is between tourism interests, on the one hand, and local communities that have subsisted on the delta’s natural resources for generations, on the other. The major source of discord at this level is access rights.
The tourism industry accrues P1, 115 million each year in an area where, for most households, firewood is the most commonly used heating source, with an estimated 176 million bundles harvested annually. A study on the economic value of the Okavango Delta estimate an annual harvest of 280 tonnes of plant foods and 160 tonnes of wild meat. Some 276 000 poles, 150 000 bundles of reeds and 174 000 bundles of grass are harvested each year. Over 9 000 bundles of palm leaves are harvested, and some 36 500 products (mainly baskets) are produced from a combination of grass and palm leaves as well as natural dyes. Fishing is practiced by up to 34 percent of households in the panhandle and central areas. It is the largest fishery in Botswana, with an estimated total of 3 570 fishers and a catch of about 450 tonnes.
Piet Scheepers, manager of the Shakawe Lodge Drotskey’s Cabins, faults the fishers for practices that lead to discomfort of guests, such as night fishing and beating the water (to chase the fish into the nets) even in front of camps.
“One morning people ask me what the gunshots were all about. It’s quite disturbing. They say they don’t go out at night, but there is video evidence. The fishers never used to fish at night because hippos and crocodiles move at night. They used to catch fish at daytime because it was plenty, but now there are just so many nets. Everybody can’t catch enough to sustain their business,” says Scheepers.
Mareko Mareko is one of the fishers that have constituted themselves into a syndicate in Samuchima. A former pastry chef at various lodges in Kasane, he understands the concerns of the tour operators from his experience with tourists and their high expectations.
He confirms the night fishing, which he says takes place between 8.00 pm and 1.00 am because fish move a lot at night. He has witnessed a lot of quarrels between tour operators and fishers during those night fishing expeditions. One particular source of misunderstanding was the method of using a motored boat to circle a particular area to chase the fishers into the nets.
Mareko says after meetings held at the kgotla at which each side voiced out its concerns, a compromise was reached.
“It has been agreed that we will only fish on the side of the river where there are no lodges,” he says.
The concern has to do with the reproductive capacity of the fish stock itself. To this, the fishing community has agreed to ban small nets, so that they only catch fully-grown fish.
“We watch each other for compliance,” says Mareko. “If anyone is caught breaking any of the rules , they are reported to the syndicate chairperson who is empowered to handle such matters decisively.”
In Maun, at the offices of Wilderness Safaris, the company’s environmental chief Map Ives adds his voice to the industry’s concern about the upsurge in commercial fishing in the Okavango Delta. He declares that if conducted traditionally, fishing would not clash with tourism interests.
“Where we have an issue with fishing is when people bring motor boats, deep freezers, and vehicles with cool boxes,” says Ives. “The delta can sustain commercial fishing, but the conflict is over noise, pollution, and the size of the nets. Commercial fishing currently is not accountable. No fisherman pays tax, or keeps books. The same applies to commercial letlhaka (reed) cutting. People bring Land Cruisers, and they have workers cutting letlhaka for them. They travel into the protected areas with dogs, and carry arms. They use fire as a way of encouraging next year’s harvest”.
He would like to see people who harvest these resources be licensed, and be required to have registered offices, keep accounting books, and be allocated specific concessions. He finds fault with the Okavango Delta Management Plan’s (ODMP’s) perceived reluctance to put in place regulations on traditional use of natural resources.
“It’s almost like lack of political will. The attitude seems to be, “look out for a place for Batswana, instead of look out for a place for the environment,” he protests.
There is another dimension that Scheepers brings to the debate. He finds it a contradiction that while the law prohibits hunting at night, the wildlife department tolerates night fishing.Phepa Babupi, the Senior Wildlife Warden in Gumare, explains that the new fishing regulations currently being drafted will address concerns such as night fishing.
Sekgowa Motsumi, the ODMP coordinator, aptly defines the conflict as a battle between commercial access rights and traditional access rights. While private companies have been granted concessions for camps, the lease agreement issued by the land board stipulates that local communities must be guaranteed access to natural resources.
The poor state of the buffalo fence has long between a source of conflict between cattle owners and government. Since the fence is not adequately maintained, it’s easier for livestock to cross into wildlife areas. When that happens, the cattle are killed, and the owner compensated P400 per head. The communities never fail to point out that when buffalo crosses into livestock area, government mobilizes its resources (a helicopter, for instance) to drive it back. Motsumi says it is a challenge to explain this apparent contradiction to the communities, and one has to be considerate and sensitive.
Away from the eyes of the local communities, there is low intensity conflict between the big players in the tourism industry. Scheepers voices suspicious goings-on in neighbouring properties, which were allocated as residential yet the owners have quietly turned them into lodges. He reports sightings of tourists on boats who stay at the properties in question. A local who is privy to this conflict points out that when confronted, owners of the “offending properties” claim that they are hosting private guests – and that could mean friends, family or relatives. The source of conflict here is that if, indeed, “private guests” are tourists, their hosts are able to undercut the market, and pose unfair competition to the registered operators.
Scheepers suggests that it is an issue that the land board must investigate.
“We pay fees and taxes. We have to comply with all the rules, but what about other people? If people are to open a camp, that’s fine, but the same set of rules must apply to them as well,” says Scheepers. “We hope ODMP will be a solution to all these problems, by bringing everybody to work together”.
The other conflict, perhaps not so volubly expressed, pits hunting safaris against photographic tour operators. Once again, it’s over utilization of a natural resource – this time, game. For instance, there is an allegation that hunting safari operators sometimes chase game from areas designated as photographic areas to shore up the numbers in the hunting areas.
Map Ives does not hide his disdain for hunting. A former hunting enthusiast, Ives recalls that in 1965, it only took two kilometers out of Francistown to shoot wildebeest. Today one has to drive halfway between Nata and Maun just to see one.
“I am terrified that we keep pushing them backwards. I hope with the ODMP, we can manage the pushing back,” says Ives. “Even as I say this, I am aware that hunting is a major industry in this country; it can employ people who are not qualified in other fields, such as skinners and trackers”.
One thing that ODMP has managed to do is to foster understanding between the non-consumptive and consumptive camps. There was a time when the two industries were not in talking terms.
Managing Director of Wilderness Safaris, Grant Woodrow comments: “Today we lobby government together. In the past, each would go separately. Now when we have a problem, we go together to see the minister, and the issue is sorted out quickly. Since ODMP, their representative comes to our meetings.
When asked about the tensions and disputes in the Okavango Delta , one official reportedly said, “It’s no longer a conflict, but a war”.
The conflicts in the delta are characteristic of the various economic interests in the area, and such clashes come at different levels. The most commonly identified conflict is between tourism interests, on the one hand, and local communities that have subsisted on the delta’s natural resources for generations, on the other. The major source of discord at this level is access rights.
The tourism industry accrues P1, 115 million each year in an area where, for most households, firewood is the most commonly used heating source, with an estimated 176 million bundles harvested annually. A study on the economic value of the Okavango Delta estimate an annual harvest of 280 tonnes of plant foods and 160 tonnes of wild meat. Some 276 000 poles, 150 000 bundles of reeds and 174 000 bundles of grass are harvested each year. Over 9 000 bundles of palm leaves are harvested, and some 36 500 products (mainly baskets) are produced from a combination of grass and palm leaves as well as natural dyes. Fishing is practiced by up to 34 percent of households in the panhandle and central areas. It is the largest fishery in Botswana, with an estimated total of 3 570 fishers and a catch of about 450 tonnes.
Piet Scheepers, manager of the Shakawe Lodge Drotskey’s Cabins, faults the fishers for practices that lead to discomfort of guests, such as night fishing and beating the water (to chase the fish into the nets) even in front of camps.
“One morning people ask me what the gunshots were all about. It’s quite disturbing. They say they don’t go out at night, but there is video evidence. The fishers never used to fish at night because hippos and crocodiles move at night. They used to catch fish at daytime because it was plenty, but now there are just so many nets. Everybody can’t catch enough to sustain their business,” says Scheepers.
Mareko Mareko is one of the fishers that have constituted themselves into a syndicate in Samuchima. A former pastry chef at various lodges in Kasane, he understands the concerns of the tour operators from his experience with tourists and their high expectations.
He confirms the night fishing, which he says takes place between 8.00 pm and 1.00 am because fish move a lot at night. He has witnessed a lot of quarrels between tour operators and fishers during those night fishing expeditions. One particular source of misunderstanding was the method of using a motored boat to circle a particular area to chase the fishers into the nets.
Mareko says after meetings held at the kgotla at which each side voiced out its concerns, a compromise was reached.
“It has been agreed that we will only fish on the side of the river where there are no lodges,” he says.
The concern has to do with the reproductive capacity of the fish stock itself. To this, the fishing community has agreed to ban small nets, so that they only catch fully-grown fish.
“We watch each other for compliance,” says Mareko. “If anyone is caught breaking any of the rules , they are reported to the syndicate chairperson who is empowered to handle such matters decisively.”
In Maun, at the offices of Wilderness Safaris, the company’s environmental chief Map Ives adds his voice to the industry’s concern about the upsurge in commercial fishing in the Okavango Delta. He declares that if conducted traditionally, fishing would not clash with tourism interests.
“Where we have an issue with fishing is when people bring motor boats, deep freezers, and vehicles with cool boxes,” says Ives. “The delta can sustain commercial fishing, but the conflict is over noise, pollution, and the size of the nets. Commercial fishing currently is not accountable. No fisherman pays tax, or keeps books. The same applies to commercial letlhaka (reed) cutting. People bring Land Cruisers, and they have workers cutting letlhaka for them. They travel into the protected areas with dogs, and carry arms. They use fire as a way of encouraging next year’s harvest”.
He would like to see people who harvest these resources be licensed, and be required to have registered offices, keep accounting books, and be allocated specific concessions. He finds fault with the Okavango Delta Management Plan’s (ODMP’s) perceived reluctance to put in place regulations on traditional use of natural resources.
“It’s almost like lack of political will. The attitude seems to be, “look out for a place for Batswana, instead of look out for a place for the environment,” he protests.
There is another dimension that Scheepers brings to the debate. He finds it a contradiction that while the law prohibits hunting at night, the wildlife department tolerates night fishing.Phepa Babupi, the Senior Wildlife Warden in Gumare, explains that the new fishing regulations currently being drafted will address concerns such as night fishing.
Sekgowa Motsumi, the ODMP coordinator, aptly defines the conflict as a battle between commercial access rights and traditional access rights. While private companies have been granted concessions for camps, the lease agreement issued by the land board stipulates that local communities must be guaranteed access to natural resources.
The poor state of the buffalo fence has long between a source of conflict between cattle owners and government. Since the fence is not adequately maintained, it’s easier for livestock to cross into wildlife areas. When that happens, the cattle are killed, and the owner compensated P400 per head. The communities never fail to point out that when buffalo crosses into livestock area, government mobilizes its resources (a helicopter, for instance) to drive it back. Motsumi says it is a challenge to explain this apparent contradiction to the communities, and one has to be considerate and sensitive.
Away from the eyes of the local communities, there is low intensity conflict between the big players in the tourism industry. Scheepers voices suspicious goings-on in neighbouring properties, which were allocated as residential yet the owners have quietly turned them into lodges. He reports sightings of tourists on boats who stay at the properties in question. A local who is privy to this conflict points out that when confronted, owners of the “offending properties” claim that they are hosting private guests – and that could mean friends, family or relatives. The source of conflict here is that if, indeed, “private guests” are tourists, their hosts are able to undercut the market, and pose unfair competition to the registered operators.
Scheepers suggests that it is an issue that the land board must investigate.
“We pay fees and taxes. We have to comply with all the rules, but what about other people? If people are to open a camp, that’s fine, but the same set of rules must apply to them as well,” says Scheepers. “We hope ODMP will be a solution to all these problems, by bringing everybody to work together”.
The other conflict, perhaps not so volubly expressed, pits hunting safaris against photographic tour operators. Once again, it’s over utilization of a natural resource – this time, game. For instance, there is an allegation that hunting safari operators sometimes chase game from areas designated as photographic areas to shore up the numbers in the hunting areas.
Map Ives does not hide his disdain for hunting. A former hunting enthusiast, Ives recalls that in 1965, it only took two kilometers out of Francistown to shoot wildebeest. Today one has to drive halfway between Nata and Maun just to see one.
“I am terrified that we keep pushing them backwards. I hope with the ODMP, we can manage the pushing back,” says Ives. “Even as I say this, I am aware that hunting is a major industry in this country; it can employ people who are not qualified in other fields, such as skinners and trackers”.
One thing that ODMP has managed to do is to foster understanding between the non-consumptive and consumptive camps. There was a time when the two industries were not in talking terms.
Managing Director of Wilderness Safaris, Grant Woodrow comments: “Today we lobby government together. In the past, each would go separately. Now when we have a problem, we go together to see the minister, and the issue is sorted out quickly. Since ODMP, their representative comes to our meetings.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Winning the hearts and minds
By Mesh Moeti
Among the local communities within the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site, the most known foot soldier of the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) project is an affable young man with time for everyone. They all call him Ramji.
Ramogaupi Gaborekwe joined the project as a rural sociologist in February 2005 – midway through the programme.
“It was tough,” he recalls his first days, “I had to learn the ropes when everyone else was sailing smoothly, having learnt the ropes earlier.”
His brief was fairly straightforward – but tough: bring the common man onboard, so that the communities buy into the plan. The project’s current coordinator, Sekgoma Motsumi, names three distinct factors that made this a very challenging assignment for the project team: high illiteracy within the district, the rural nature of the area, and the communities’ perception that this was just one of those projects that pretended to solicit their views while conclusions had already been drawn.
“Stakeholders were consulted in previous initiatives, but there was hardly anything on the ground as a result. We had to prove that ODMP would be different. We had to build trust-and it’s a long-term thing. To be different from other projects, we wanted people to see results on the ground. We wanted to create contact between us and the stakeholders,” says Motsumi.
Then enters Gaborekwe. A graduate of Environmental Science and Sociology, his first job was a gender officer at Women’s Affairs Department, which he followed up with four years as a secondary school teacher. The experiences would come handy in the present job, which threw him into the melting pot of a conservative patriarchal society that has some of the highest illiteracy rates in the country.
“Having been a teacher, I know how to drive home a point. I used teaching skills to simplify environmental issues. In a typical class, you teach learners with different capabilities. You have the cream of the class, the high fliers, and those that can’t even write their names, but at the end of the year each must write an exam. In a way, the kgotla is similar to a class. You have a gathering of learned people, semi-literate, and the illiterate,” Gaborekwe says. “To win the common man, you have to be strategic. You should come down to their level to build trust, maintain it, and be honest with them. You become their child, and when I saw them treating me like that I knew I was going to succeed”.
He explains that contrary to common belief, the rural society is not homogenous. There are various ramifications-there are the rich, the influential, and agitators – and one has to be aware of these dynamics.
He emphasizes the need to respect the local people’s beliefs and customs. To illustrate this point, he tells the story of one meeting he had long scheduled in Tsodilo. Just before the event, one of the chief’s wives died, and her funeral coincided with the meeting.
“When I went into the village the following day, there was not a single soul in sight. They had gone to perform cleansing rituals for the chief, and when that happens everyone goes there because the chief’s wife is the community’s mother. In the evening, when they came back I told them that I respect their rituals and we re-scheduled the meeting. It was a success,” he states.
As Motsumi explains, one of the key features of ODMP is constant communication with communities. The traditional forum for consultation in Botswana’s rural areas remains the kgotla, but these days it is poorly attended. To go about that, each village has an elected contact person who liaises with the programme regularly.
“We hold workshops with them, and they disseminate information to the communities,” Motsumi explains.
The contact persons are some of Gaborekwe’s key allies in the blitz for the communities’ hearts and minds.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
A fight for the land
By Mesh Moeti
A security guard at Etsha Junior Secondary School, Thihupe Dithinde spends his free time in a field just outside the village, where he runs a horticultural project along the riverbed. He raises fruit trees such as guava, mango and peach, as well as a wide variety of vegetables like rape, sweet potato, and cassava. In the last quarter of the year, he grows cereal crops
These days, Dithinde finds himself invited to workshops as a resource person to give testimonial about a new initiative being pioneered by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. He is one of the five farmers that have volunteered to pilot a new method that the department hopes will address the human-elephant conflict.
Gaseitsiwe Masunga, a Senior Wildlife Biologist and Head of Research Division in Maun, observes that if the human-elephant conflict is not resolved, the Okavango Delta Management Plan’s aspirations would not be realized. He draws this link between the communities’ poverty and degradation of the delta; people strip the delta because of poverty, and they are poor because elephants destroy their crops.
In an effort to address the human-elephant conflict, ODMP project financed a consultancy to find measures to mitigate the conflict. The consultant identified a Zimbabwe-based NGO that has successfully used chilli pepper to deter elephants from crop fields, and suggested that the method be replicated in Botswana.
There are three ways to employ the chilli pepper in this exercise. The first is to grind it and mix the powder with oil. Then pieces of mutton cloth are soaked into the mixture and hung around the field’s fence. The mixture emits an irritating smell that elephants cannot withstand. This is the method that Dithinde currently uses, and he testifies that since he hung the cloths, elephants do not approach beyond 100 metres.
The other method is to mix ground chilli with wet elephant dung, and then dry the bricks. If sufficiently dried, the bricks emit an irritating smoke when lit. The challenge of the brick method” is to direct the smoke in the direction of the elephants.
The third technique is to plant the chilli pepper inside the parameter of the fence so that the plant acts as a buffer between the crop and the elephants. It acts in two ways. When it ripens, it can be irritating to the approaching elephants. Even more effective is when the elephants eat the hot fruits.
Following on the testimonies of Dithinde and other farmers, who began using the method last year, earlier this year the department identified crop fields that are frequently affected within the main elephant movement corridors to roll out the method to them in the form of a large-scale experiment. Thirty crop fields, which are the hot spots, have been identified in Seronga, Gumare, and Shorobe.
There is a danger that what starts off with good intentions might have undesired effect. The chilli plant is exotic, and is likely to spread. Evidence suggests that it can crossbreed with other members of the Solana ceae family.
“We shouldn’t delay implementation, but at the same time we should be careful. We have engaged one officer to look into how the plant spreads and the risk it poses to the delta,” says Masunga.
Since it is only limited to crop raids by elephants, the chilli pepper method addresses only one part of the problem. It does not deal with predators – lions, crocodiles, leopards, and hyenas – which are the scourge of livestock owners, a nomadic lot that follows water supplies and pastures.
The frequency of livestock’s encounters with predators follows the grazing patterns. During the rainy season, farmers move their animals to the sandveld because there would be enough water in the pans, and that happens to be the time when there are fewer encounters with marauders. In winter, when the pans dry, the cattle movement is diverted towards the floodplains, where there is high concentration of predators.
Phapa Babupi, a Senior Wildlife Warden in Gumare, observes that the high frequently of encounters between livestock and wild animals results from the farmers’ tendency to prefer free grazing, instead of keeping constant watch over their cattle.
“If they could kraal their cattle at night, this problem would decrease,” he says.
One of the issues that came out during the consultancy to determine mitigating measures to handle the human-elephant conflict was that compensation had led farmers to neglect their fields. One suggestion was that recompense should be gradually phased out so that farmers begin to “own” the problem. Babupi suggests that the communities lack the education to appreciate wildlife as their resource, and not “government’s animals”.
Mosepele Matheosa, ODMP focal person in Etsha, already notices a change in that direction.
“We are a farming community that was never taught ways to minimize conflict with wild animals. For instance, some people unwittingly grew crops in the elephant movement corridors. But now we appreciate that wildlife is an important resource, and that as a community we stand to benefit from tourism. That is going to change the way a lot of people in this area view wildlife, especially elephants,” says Matheosa.
A security guard at Etsha Junior Secondary School, Thihupe Dithinde spends his free time in a field just outside the village, where he runs a horticultural project along the riverbed. He raises fruit trees such as guava, mango and peach, as well as a wide variety of vegetables like rape, sweet potato, and cassava. In the last quarter of the year, he grows cereal crops
These days, Dithinde finds himself invited to workshops as a resource person to give testimonial about a new initiative being pioneered by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. He is one of the five farmers that have volunteered to pilot a new method that the department hopes will address the human-elephant conflict.
Gaseitsiwe Masunga, a Senior Wildlife Biologist and Head of Research Division in Maun, observes that if the human-elephant conflict is not resolved, the Okavango Delta Management Plan’s aspirations would not be realized. He draws this link between the communities’ poverty and degradation of the delta; people strip the delta because of poverty, and they are poor because elephants destroy their crops.
In an effort to address the human-elephant conflict, ODMP project financed a consultancy to find measures to mitigate the conflict. The consultant identified a Zimbabwe-based NGO that has successfully used chilli pepper to deter elephants from crop fields, and suggested that the method be replicated in Botswana.
There are three ways to employ the chilli pepper in this exercise. The first is to grind it and mix the powder with oil. Then pieces of mutton cloth are soaked into the mixture and hung around the field’s fence. The mixture emits an irritating smell that elephants cannot withstand. This is the method that Dithinde currently uses, and he testifies that since he hung the cloths, elephants do not approach beyond 100 metres.
The other method is to mix ground chilli with wet elephant dung, and then dry the bricks. If sufficiently dried, the bricks emit an irritating smoke when lit. The challenge of the brick method” is to direct the smoke in the direction of the elephants.
The third technique is to plant the chilli pepper inside the parameter of the fence so that the plant acts as a buffer between the crop and the elephants. It acts in two ways. When it ripens, it can be irritating to the approaching elephants. Even more effective is when the elephants eat the hot fruits.
Following on the testimonies of Dithinde and other farmers, who began using the method last year, earlier this year the department identified crop fields that are frequently affected within the main elephant movement corridors to roll out the method to them in the form of a large-scale experiment. Thirty crop fields, which are the hot spots, have been identified in Seronga, Gumare, and Shorobe.
There is a danger that what starts off with good intentions might have undesired effect. The chilli plant is exotic, and is likely to spread. Evidence suggests that it can crossbreed with other members of the Solana ceae family.
“We shouldn’t delay implementation, but at the same time we should be careful. We have engaged one officer to look into how the plant spreads and the risk it poses to the delta,” says Masunga.
Since it is only limited to crop raids by elephants, the chilli pepper method addresses only one part of the problem. It does not deal with predators – lions, crocodiles, leopards, and hyenas – which are the scourge of livestock owners, a nomadic lot that follows water supplies and pastures.
The frequency of livestock’s encounters with predators follows the grazing patterns. During the rainy season, farmers move their animals to the sandveld because there would be enough water in the pans, and that happens to be the time when there are fewer encounters with marauders. In winter, when the pans dry, the cattle movement is diverted towards the floodplains, where there is high concentration of predators.
Phapa Babupi, a Senior Wildlife Warden in Gumare, observes that the high frequently of encounters between livestock and wild animals results from the farmers’ tendency to prefer free grazing, instead of keeping constant watch over their cattle.
“If they could kraal their cattle at night, this problem would decrease,” he says.
One of the issues that came out during the consultancy to determine mitigating measures to handle the human-elephant conflict was that compensation had led farmers to neglect their fields. One suggestion was that recompense should be gradually phased out so that farmers begin to “own” the problem. Babupi suggests that the communities lack the education to appreciate wildlife as their resource, and not “government’s animals”.
Mosepele Matheosa, ODMP focal person in Etsha, already notices a change in that direction.
“We are a farming community that was never taught ways to minimize conflict with wild animals. For instance, some people unwittingly grew crops in the elephant movement corridors. But now we appreciate that wildlife is an important resource, and that as a community we stand to benefit from tourism. That is going to change the way a lot of people in this area view wildlife, especially elephants,” says Matheosa.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Going to waste
By Mesh Moeti
Thatayotlhe Balapi, Senior Environmental Health Officer in the North West District Council, concedes that waste management in the Okavango Delta Ramsar site (ODRS) presents a headache for the local authority.
He makes reference to a study, carried out last year through a private consultant, which found evidence of haphazard disposal of waste within the delta area. Through the culprit (s) could not be identified, the assumption is that the waste originated from some of the tour operators. Balapi makes the point that it is inconceivable that someone could have transported the waste from Maun to dispose of it in the delta.
In terms of Waste Management Act, local authorities are responsible for waste management within the district. But Balapi points out that the local authorities have operational constraints. In consideration of the limitations, the law does not put pressure on the council to go all out to collect waste in communities where it may not be feasible to do so-due to factors such as distance and cost implications. In that regard, the expectation on the local authorities is to show such communities better waste management options so that the communities can manage their own waste.
Given the inaccessibility of the delta, tour operators are responsible for the waste generated in their camps. They are required to transport their waste to a place where there is a designated waste disposal point. As a licensing requirement, tour operators are expected to submit a convincing waste management plan before they are given a license.
“But some, even with powerful plans, won’t pollute their own areas, but drive 5 km away and throw it there,” says Balapi.
He concedes that monitoring to ensure compliance with the submitted waste management plans is not sufficient. Officials from the council, tourism department and land board visit the camps once a year.
‘Once a year is not adequate. It would be adequate if all tour operators took responsibility,” points out Balapi. “If it wasn’t for difficulty of terrain, we would have people on the ground to monitor and ensure compliance.”
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Cross-cutting issues
By Mesh Moeti
Fundamental to the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) is the incorporation of elements of gender, poverty, and HIV and AIDS.
The Draft Okavango Delta Management Plan states that out of the Ngamiland district’s 63 725 women, 57.8 percent are rural. Their livelihood revolves around arable farming, fishing, gathering of veldt products as well as formal and informal employment. The men’s occupation is in the pastoral farming, fishing and employment (formal and informal). The women make the larger segment among the poor.
The ODMP project’s rural sociologist Ramogaupi Gaborekwe explains that given the patriarchal nature of the district’s society men control income generating economic activities. For instance, in Shakawe, fishing brings in more money, so men dominate the activity and have relegated women to farming.
“For the success of ODMP, we have to mainstream poverty and HIV into the programme. The poor live off the environment. People have to travel to access ARV, and if they do not have money to travel to the nearest health post, they harvest some natural resources to make money. So our interventions have to ensure that such harvesting is sustainable,” says Gaborekwe.
To make meaningful impact, ODMP pioneered some projects in the district, aimed at poverty reduction. One such project is promotion of cultural tourism at Tsodilo. The recently established curio shop for the Tsodilo settlement sells cultural artifacts from the San and Mbukushu artists at the settlement.
Another pilot project entailed clearing of small access channels into certain lagoons and islands to reach resources that communities are dependent on. The intervention is expected to improve accessibility for the collection of raw materials for craft production, mainly used by women, and therefore alleviate poverty.
“The communities use the channels to harvest grass, wood, and other resources. When the channels block, poverty sets in,” Gaborokwe explains.
Fundamental to the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) is the incorporation of elements of gender, poverty, and HIV and AIDS.
The Draft Okavango Delta Management Plan states that out of the Ngamiland district’s 63 725 women, 57.8 percent are rural. Their livelihood revolves around arable farming, fishing, gathering of veldt products as well as formal and informal employment. The men’s occupation is in the pastoral farming, fishing and employment (formal and informal). The women make the larger segment among the poor.
The ODMP project’s rural sociologist Ramogaupi Gaborekwe explains that given the patriarchal nature of the district’s society men control income generating economic activities. For instance, in Shakawe, fishing brings in more money, so men dominate the activity and have relegated women to farming.
“For the success of ODMP, we have to mainstream poverty and HIV into the programme. The poor live off the environment. People have to travel to access ARV, and if they do not have money to travel to the nearest health post, they harvest some natural resources to make money. So our interventions have to ensure that such harvesting is sustainable,” says Gaborekwe.
To make meaningful impact, ODMP pioneered some projects in the district, aimed at poverty reduction. One such project is promotion of cultural tourism at Tsodilo. The recently established curio shop for the Tsodilo settlement sells cultural artifacts from the San and Mbukushu artists at the settlement.
Another pilot project entailed clearing of small access channels into certain lagoons and islands to reach resources that communities are dependent on. The intervention is expected to improve accessibility for the collection of raw materials for craft production, mainly used by women, and therefore alleviate poverty.
“The communities use the channels to harvest grass, wood, and other resources. When the channels block, poverty sets in,” Gaborokwe explains.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site
By Mesh Moeti
“Indeed, from the moment I first saw them rising suddenly out of the flat plain, I had the same upsurge of emotions that made the psalmist cry out loud: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help,” wrote Laurens Van Der Post about his initial experience with Tsodilo Hills.
Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site remains as mystical as when Van Der Post first set foot here – and the community of Tsodilo is still as poor. ODMP is currently piloting a cultural tourism project to generate income for the community. Housed at the Tsodilo Museum, the curio shop project promotes the sale of cultural artifacts from the Tsodilo settlement’s craft makers.
The museum officer – Tebogo Segadika – says the shop has brought dignity to the craft makers. Prior to it, there used to be unsightly scrambles for buyers whenever a vehicle carried tourists to the heritage site.
An ambitious management plan for Tsodilo envisages a state of the art amphitheatre to showcase local cultures, two campsites, a lodge and a game park – all in the hands of the community through the local community development trust.
“The management plan will improve our livelihood. There is potential for tourism in this area, and we hope it will create employment for our children,” says Phoraki Katunda, chairman of the Tsodilo Community Development Trust.
“Indeed, from the moment I first saw them rising suddenly out of the flat plain, I had the same upsurge of emotions that made the psalmist cry out loud: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help,” wrote Laurens Van Der Post about his initial experience with Tsodilo Hills.
Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site remains as mystical as when Van Der Post first set foot here – and the community of Tsodilo is still as poor. ODMP is currently piloting a cultural tourism project to generate income for the community. Housed at the Tsodilo Museum, the curio shop project promotes the sale of cultural artifacts from the Tsodilo settlement’s craft makers.
The museum officer – Tebogo Segadika – says the shop has brought dignity to the craft makers. Prior to it, there used to be unsightly scrambles for buyers whenever a vehicle carried tourists to the heritage site.
An ambitious management plan for Tsodilo envisages a state of the art amphitheatre to showcase local cultures, two campsites, a lodge and a game park – all in the hands of the community through the local community development trust.
“The management plan will improve our livelihood. There is potential for tourism in this area, and we hope it will create employment for our children,” says Phoraki Katunda, chairman of the Tsodilo Community Development Trust.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Keoleboge Phonada Kobe (1982-2007)
Classical English poet John Donne aptly wrote, “Death be not proud for you are not mighty.” Indeed how can death be mighty when it preys on the vulnerable, the sick, the weak and the young? The cowardly grim reaper sneaked on us in the stealth of the night and snuffed the promising young life of the 24 year old dear friend and colleague, Keoleboge Kobe on Sunday 14th January 2007.
Keoleboge, who had only a month earlier survived a horrific road accident when the vehicle he was driving overturned in the vicinity of Tshodilo Hills, met his untimely death in a fatal road accident in Boseja ward in Maun. The tragic accident also claimed the life of a companion, Segametsi Basiamang of Kasane. The two were headed home following a nocturnal prowl of the village watering holes.
I came to know Keoleboge at the beginning of 2006 when I joined the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) Project, where he worked as the Project Assistant. The esprit de corps at the ODMP Project Secretariat was amiable and one settled in quickly amongst the team. However, the alluring warmth and friendly disposition of Keoleboge stood out amongst the rest. He had refined manners and a pleasant personality. He radiated an angelic charm that endeared him to all whose lives he touched. His personality was always felt throughout the office and gave colour and a pleasant character to the workplace.
His soft spoken and easy-going jovial nature however belied a serious and focused outlook to life as he displayed maturity beyond his youthful years. He had joined the project fresh from tertiary education having attained a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Environmental Science and Public Administration) degree from the University of Botswana, and had quickly adapted to the rigorous work ethic that prevailed at the Project Secretariat.
A formidable member of the ODMP Project Secretariat team, “Butt Man” or “Young Officer” as he was affectionately known at the office, interacted well with his peers and responded equally well to authority. His strong work ethic and attention to detail ensured that even under enormous pressure the quality of work that he produced was always exceptional. He was always ready to respond to the call of duty even beyond his regular hours and scope of work. He was a diligent, focused and hard working young man who was certainly destined for greater achievements.
Keoleboge was handsome and a debonair gentleman, he was a snappy dresser who was always immaculately groomed. Many a young lady, (and the senior girls too) were dazzled by his potent charm and charisma. The ODMP poster boy enthralled the fairer sex who found him irresistible, not surprising, urban legend is rife with his exploits in the playboy league of the fellowship of the single male culture.
He prided himself in his Tawana heritage and was anchored in the African principle of Botho, or courteousness. He was African, yet modern, sophisticated, yet grounded, playful yet respectful. I consider myself honoured and privileged to have known Keoleboge and for my life to have been touched by such a bubbly young, loyal and hardworking colleague and friend. Though the wretched death has robbed us of such a fine young man, the indelible and beautifully engraved memories we have of him will live with us for ever.
Keoleboge was laid to rest in Boseja ward in Maun on Sunday 21st January 2007. The eldest of five siblings, he is survived by his mother, Mme Kolobetso Mmusi nee Kobe, a brother and three sisters. May his soul rest in peace.
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