Presentation at the STEPS Conference 2010 - Pathways to Sustainability: Agendas for a new politics of environment, development and social justice http://www.steps-centre.org/events/stepsconference2010.html

1. Phemo Kgomotso
Dphil Candidate
Knowledge Technology and Society (KNOTS)Team
Institute of Development Studies
Brighton, UK
p.kgomotso@ids.ac.uk

2.  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?

4. Okavango Delta livelihoods

7.  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

8.  Arable farming
 Flood-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

9.  Pastoral farming
o 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

10.  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…

11.  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

12.  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