Institute full name:

University of Botswana

Institute acronym:

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Located in Botswana’s seat of Government, Gaborone, the University of Botswana was established in 1982 by an Act of Parliament. It is presently the only public university in the country, although a second one will be opening soon some 300km north of Gaborone. The University is closely involved in the development process of Botswana through human resource development, basic and applied research and consultancies. The principal UB partner Department for DESIRE is the Department of Environmental Science, but the team includes collaborating researchers from the Okavango Research Institute and the Botswana College of Agriculture. The Department of Environmental Science is a multidisciplinary Department with experts in both the human and physical environment areas. The Department has been involved in two previous 3-year EU-funded research projects on subsistence livelihoods and policy options for the sustainable development of communal rangelands and communities in Southern Africa.

Website

www.ub.bw

Address

University of Botswana
Corner of Mobutu & Notwane Roads
Private Bag 0022
Gaborone

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Involved personnel

Name	Contact details	Key qualifications	Photo
Prof. Dr. Raban Chanda	Tel: +267 3552526 E-mail: chandar@mopipi.ub.bw Fax: +267 3552908	Sustainable rural livelihoods, poverty alleviation and local perspectives on environmental change analyst. UB DESIRE Coordinator
Prof. Dr. Michael B.K. Darkoh	Tel: +267 3554131 E-mail: darkohmb@mopipi.ub.bw	Rangeland degradation/desertification, agriculture and biodiversity specialist.
Dr. Jeremy Perkins	Tel: +267 3554131 E-mail: perkinsjs@moipi.ub.bw	Range ecologist and biosphere analyst	pending
Dr. Julius R. Atlhopheng	Tel: +267 3554131 E-mail: atlhope@mopipi.ub.bw	Geomorphologist and geochemistry expert
Dr. Lapo Magole	Tel: +267 6861833 E-mail: lmagole@orc.ub.bw	Environmental management policy and water resource management specialist (based at Okavango Research Institute)
Dr. Kutlwano Mulale	Tel: +267 3552540 E-mail: mulalek@mopipi.ub.bw	Community-based resource management specialist
Mr. Reuben Sebego	Tel: +267 3552518 E-mail: sebegorj@mopipi.ub.bw	Vegetation ecology, remote sensing and GIS expert
Dr. Wanda Mphinyane	Tel: +267 3552514  E-mail: mphinyanew@mopipi.ub.bw	Range ecologist
Mr. Lawrence Akanyang	Tel: +267 71772041   Email: lakanyan@bca.bw	Vegetation ecologist, remote sensing & GIS, fuelwood biomass analyst (based at the Botswana College of Agriculture)

{mosgmap mapid=26|height=350px|zoomtype=small|showmaptype=true}

This site was the focus of Botswana's 1993 case study for the Intergovernmental Convention to Combat Desertification (INCD). It was picked then because it was one of the areas identified as desertification hotspots in the country and was also identified on the GLASNOD map as an area of extreme human induced wind erosion (Gov. of Botswana, 1994). The Boteti area has consequently been one of the foci of efforts to combat desertification and, between 2002 and 2007, was one of the sites for the Indigenous Vegetation Project (IVP), a five-year Botswana Government-GEF-funded pilot project for "community-driven rehabilitation of degraded rangelands" which could be replicated "throughout the arid zones of Africa" (IVP flyer). DESIRE was to build on these previous efforts, which were all in line with the recently adopted National Action Programme to Combat Desertification.

More details ... read the full study site description and an overview of all sites
	Read the full study site description
»Comparative overview of all study sites

Added value of DESIRE for stakeholders

• Documentation of current practices
• New technologies to explore
• Exchange between professionals and farmers
• With the project and building on previous projects
• DESIRE project can help people to prepare and get ready for future central government planning who will come and ask what to implement for the next year
• DESIRE empowers people through self-discovery and contribute to the planning; what and how to address

There is a high willingness to participate and community leaders were very supportive.

Study site stakeholder workshops

• Community leaders of about 5000 people in villages
• GBOs and NGOs

Limitations for spontaneous implementation of soil and water conservation practices

• Lack of knowledge transfer on new technologies
• Investment costs too high
• Lack of access to credit
• Perception of stakeholders

Stakeholder groups

• The Kalahari Conservation Society (KCS - an environmental NGO),
• The Ministry of Agriculture
• Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (implementers of the UNCCD)
• The Ministry of Local Government (charged with local development)
• The Ministry of Lands & Housing (charged with land administration)
• Extension staff for agriculture
• Extension staff for wildlife
• The Sub-Land Board in Boteti
• The Boteti Sub-District Council
• Tribal Administration (the Chiefs and Kgotla – tribal assembly)
• CBOs (e.g. Village Development Committees and the Mokopi Conservation Trust in Mopipi)
• Community members (land users)

Sustainability goals

The Boteti area is confronted by problems that pose a challenge to the attainment of the three sustainable development goals of ecological (environmental) integrity, economic (livelihood) efficiency and social equity. Several indicators support this claim. Thus, sustainability goals for the Boteti relate to securing livelihoods and environmental protection aligned to poverty alleviation. In this regard, through WOCAT workshops, land users identified several interventions that had potential to meet sustainability goals in their area. These were game ranching, water harvesting, biogas production and utilization and solar power utilization. This report discusses the opportunities (and constraints) associated with these interventions, partly as revealed by WOCAT workshops (e.g. Boteti Stakeholder Report No. 2).

Source: Stakeholder workshops.

To help understand this complex picture it can be helpful to think in terms the dominant socio-economic and environmental forces that are driving the process of land degradation. These place pressures on the land which have particular impacts. Human society may have already made responses to those impacts, or may have knowledge about how they could respond. Decisions about which responses to make may also be governed by a range of international, national or local policy regulations and agreements.

In the Boteti study site, the same stakeholder workshop and questionnaires that were used to identify existing and potential response strategies (»Identifying strategies: Stakeholder workshop 1) also discussed and identified these driving forces; pressures; impacts; and the policy and regulation environment. This information was then used to inform the choice of »Field experiments, the scenarios used in »Simulated biophysical impact of remediation strategies and their financial viability, and context for the study site-specific »Policy brief recommendations.

Bashingi Boingotlo	Bantshelele C. Basaleng	Sidney Botlhokobotsile	Letebele Motlogelwa	Dorine G. Tobela	Mothoemang Sebetwane

Local residents of the villages of Rakops, Mopipi and Mokoboxane talk about the environmental problems they are currently facing and their hopes for how the DESIRE project will help them.

(© 2009, University of Botswana, Department of Environmental Science and Kabelo S. Kgwarapi)

NB If you cannot see the video above this caption, make sure you have downloaded the latest version of Adobe Flash Player

The WOCAT tool for mapping land degradation and sustainable land management has been used in the Boteti study site. Using the tool, an interdisciplinary team of specialists has recorded observations of land degradation, sustainable land management and recommendations for further prevention or mitigation on a land use base map. 

Select map type

Land use: type Land use: trends Land use: intensity trend Degradation: type Degradation: extent Degradation: degree Degradation: rate Land conservation: groups Land conservation: extent Land conservation: measures Land conservation: effectiveness Land conservation: effectiveness trends

Comments

Map version: 4Oct11

Introduction
The Boteti study area has overgrazing as the degradation challenge. The extent of overgrazing in pastures, woodland and settlements is fragile to critical. Firewood collection adds to the range degradation, thus alternative energy in the form of biogas has been proposed by the stakeholders. Firewood is the main source of energy, not only in common households but also in schools and communal centers. Since cattle is one of the main sources of income, biogass might be a valuable alternative. The generated gas is expected to reduce heavy firewood use and even promote socio-economic activities which will reduce poverty – perceived to be one of the main drivers of land degradation other than droughts.

Desertification indices
The desertification risk analyzed here is overgrazing. Using the parameters for a flat poorly vegetated area with deep soil, the overgrazing risk is considered very high (4.76). The two main factors here are however to do with farm size. Since there are no farms but communal grazing areas the selected variables are larger than 100 ha and low fragmentation 1-4. If these variables are not included the overgrazing drops respectively to low (2.41). Biogas cannot be done directly. The only thing that can be assumed is that the cover increases, but this has little influence.

Conclusion
The communal razing cannot be correctly identified in Botswana, overgrazing is classified as  high risk but for the wrong apparent reasons (farm size), which overrule other changes in the desertification risk assessment tool (vegetation related). 

Authors: Dr. L. Magole, Dr. J. R. Atlhopheng, Prof. Chanda

Main degradation issues or problems in the area Water shortage Drought (prolonged periods of low rainfall) Poverty High livestock mortality Loss of vegetation cover

Conclusions: Strengths and Weaknesses

• Community willingness to participate in the project activities
• Local leadership support for the project initiative
• High participation and interest of literate youth
• An appreciable level of awareness regarding livelihood related environmental conservation issues in the area
• Low capacity to implement remediation strategies
• Non participation of Government extension officers in the workshop

More details ... download the full report and poster and see results and general conclusions from other study sites
	English: WP3.1 Stakeholder Workshop 1: Botswana (report) (1.35 MB) Setswana:  WP3.1 Stakeholder Workshop 1: Botswana (programme)_BW (402.33 kB) Setswana:  WP3.1 Stakeholder Workshop 1: Botswana (report)_BW (563.69 kB)
	English: WP3.1 Stakeholder Workshop 1: Botswana (results poster) (448.05 kB)
»Identifying strategies: Stakeholder Workshop 1 methodology and summary results from all study sites

Stakeholder Workshop 1 identified a number of existing or potential strategies to combat desertification and land degradation in the Boteti study site. In the months following the workshop these strategies (technologies or approaches) were documented and evaluated in a structured and standardised way and their descriptions were entered in the WOCAT Technologies and Approaches databases in order to share the information with other DESIRE sites as well as globally.

For details of all Technologies and Approaches documented in the WOCAT Database (from the DESIRE study sites and from other sites worldwide), see

• WOCAT Technologies Database
• WOCAT Approaches Database

For those relating to this study site, click on the Name of technology or Name of approach to go directly to the descriptions in the database.

WOCAT Technologies Database