Phemo Kgomotso

Dphil Candidate

Knowledge Technology and Society (KNOTS)Team

Institute of Development Studies

Brighton, UK

p.kgomotso@ids.ac.uk

Wetland ecosystems and their uses◦ Complex systems; multiple uses and services (i.e. provisioning,

cultural, regulating and supporting)

◦ ‘Fragile’ and ‘threatened’

◦ Contested resources- use and management

Okavango Delta wetland◦ Downstream of a transboundary system (both Botswana and

Namibia relatively dry compared to upstream Angola)

◦ Support over 100 ,000 people (incl. ethnic minorities ) and large populations of wild fauna and flora, including about 25% of Africa’s population

◦ Declared a Wetland of International Importance (Ramsar Site) in 1997

◦ Preparations underway to declare it a World Heritage Site?

Okavango Delta livelihoods

Local communities heavily reliant on traditional subsistence agriculture and fishing for livelihoods

Competition and conflict over land resources on the rise (access and control)

Conservation and tourism main beneficiaries

Marginalisation of traditional/ subsistence resource-use

CBNRM focusing largely on wildlife resource use for commercial purposes (tourism and recreational hunting)

Global environmental change discourses and narratives have highly influenced environmental policy and practice in the last 2 decades

Also , we have seen an internationalisation of environmental resources and decision-making that has subsequently resulted in loss of local control over and access to these resources, particularly in the developing world

Arable farmingFlood-recession agriculture

o competition for same river-front land with the tourism industry, Ramsar-related conservation measures initiated a 200m buffer zone

o Flooding and drying dynamics make this practice unreliable

Dry-land agriculture

o Environment-related challenges (low and unreliable rainfall; crop raids by wildlife)

o Competition for agriculture land (conservation vs. subsistence use)

o Access to draught power, labour

Pastoral farmingo Cattle and their importance to rural livelihoods (draught power,

status symbol, h/h income)

o Botswana’s beef produce and export to the EU

Role in shaping land use policies in general

Role in shaping policies towards cattle production in particular (e.g. subsidies to promote production; and controversial disease management policies)

o Okavango Delta for wildlife conservation/tourism (commercial use) or cattle production (subsistence use)? Conservation policies focus on increasing wildlife populations and area

of land under protection

Direct competition for grazing with wildlife; wildlife predation on livestock

Reduced subsistence production, direct impact on food production

Okavango Delta communities have historically fished A social safety net;

Cultural expression of the river communities

Primarily seasonal activity (availability regulated by flooding and drying)

Tourism industry brought new-entrants (users) into the sector (angling/sport fishing)

Late 1980s- Agricultural policies encouraged small-scale commercial fish production (primarily the use engine boats, fishing nets and refrigeration facilities)

Mid 2008- Official government regulation of the activity as part of wetland conservation and ‘biodiversity mainstreaming’ programmes Criminalisation of traditional fishing methods and practices

Closed season for fishing

Conservation discourses and narratives (fish as wildlife as opposed to food) 2003 transfer from Agriculture Ministry to Environment, Wildlife and Tourism

Reported decline in ‘commercial fishers’; a few poaching arrests…

Botswana’s modernisation project has seen a gradual process privatisation of the commons and ‘resource capture’ by the elite E.g. Subsistence livestock production vs. beef cattle ranching (subsidies for

commercial production)

Global conservation discourse provides a tool for this process Tragedy of the Commons thesis highly influential over land-use policy

Wetland degradation and loss; biodiversity loss…

Reduced access to and control over local environmental resources for traditional users, and transfer of these to other ‘new ’users (tourism, cattle elite…)

Household food security of rural communities threatened: reduced capacity to cope with environmental change

Botswana’s rural income poverty has increased in the last 2 decades, along with unemployment

Since ‘Rio’ the global environmental ‘crisis’ discourse and narratives have dominated the environment debate

The ‘north-south’ environmental management relations (donor funding, technical advice, knowledge transfer…) are characterised by this ‘crisis’ narrative

This framing of the problem has directly and indirectly contributed to a marginalisation of local people, and resource capture by the elite despite the ‘CBNRM’ rhetoric

Most policy solutions are restrictive and ‘protectionist’

Engagement of grassroots actors in the policy process largely cosmetic and lack political will

Power pervades all processes and levels of policy-making

Global policies that impact on the livelihoods of the poor need to be more reflective and grounded in the local contexts and understanding of the political dynamics shaping people-environment relationships