Graduate students presentations

Yesterday three HOORC Graduate students made their presentations on various topics. The first presentation done by Moseki R. Motsholapheko was titled Rural livelihoods and adaptation to flooding in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, whilst Nqobizitha Siziba focused on the Implications of seasonal flooding of the Okavango Delta floodplains on microinvertebrates and juvenile fish production. Lastly, Gaolathe Tsheboeng 's presentation was on the Relationship between highflood regime and soil nutrient status in floodplain vegetation communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

New at HOORC Library: edible wild plants in Ethiopia

The book by one of HOORC's researchers, Dr. Demel Teketay documents and disseminates indigenous knowledge on edible wild plants, detailing amongst other things their scientific terms, local names, descriptions, phenology, habitat, distribution food and feed values and their other uses. Furthermore, the book paves the way for the plants' domestication and incorporation on farms both for domestic consumption and as sources of income generation for for smallholder farmers. The book is now available in the HOORC Library.

HOORC seminar: Soil, vegetation and land use interactions in Ngamiland

On Tuesday, HOORC researchers and members from the Botswana Wildlife Management Society attended a seminar presentation by Caroline Staub , a PhD student, from the University of Florida. Her research is on soil, vegetation and land use interactions, in the Ngamiland. The focus of her study is to examine the different soil properties in various regions and see how they change from area to area, what causes the changes (i.e.rainfall, etc). She also presented a study done by a colleague which looks at wildlife ecology and habitat use along the Chobe area, especially the habitat use by elephants and their interactions with other herbivores and mesohervivores i.e. impala, warthogs, buffalos and kudus.

BIOKAVANGO Community of Practice meeting

This month’s BIOKAVANGO Community of Practice luncheon held at BMS at 1300hrs on Wednesday, September 16th was a brief talk on modeling vegetation as a result of hydrological change in the Okavango Delta, by Dr. Murray-Hudson. The presenter stated that changes in climate affect the ecosystem pattern drastically. That is, the vegetation pattern and the vegetation species change depending on whether the flooding has gone up or down. To predict this, different models were used and the different findings from the models enabled them in finding the changes in the ecosystem patterns. Furthermore, it helped a lot in enabling the stakeholders to make tailor made plans based on the outcomes that may be brought in by changes in climate leading to changes in the plant species and patterns.

2009 Winter Course Work

Seventeen University of Botswana undergraduate students completed their work for HOORC's Winter Course this week, wrapping up six weeks of research training and fieldwork assignments with presentations of the results of their research.

This year's work showed an increased focus on environmental health with An assessment of the level of knowledge on malaria among Maun residents by Keletso Benjamin, The use of traditional knowledge to prevent livestock diseases in Toteng village, Ngamiland District by Moabiemang Gabalebatse, A case study on perceptions of Matlapana residents on the 2008 alcohol levy by Tsaone Goikantswemang, Assessing the potability of water at Xhobe watering point by Z. Kemmonye, Effluent quality assessment from Letsholathebe Hospital treatment plant by Mothusi Dikole and Impact of wetland vegetation on water quality by Aobakwe Kathleen Lubinda.

Tourism studies included The contribution of culture to sustainable tourism at Khwai Village in the Okavango Delta, Botswana by Gorata Maokanyane, Investigating the state of convention tourism in Maun : case of hotels and lodges by Phemelo Oabona and Impacts of accommodation facilities on the livelihoods of local people : case of Khwai River Lodge and Khwai Village by Dimpho Malebogo Matlhola.

Studies of the ecology of vegetation and soil in the Okavango included A comparative assessment of soil fertility on arable farming practices in Shorobe village by Onalenna Petros, The influence of ungulates grazing on nutrient status of the soil and vegetation around University of Botswana Maun Campus, Sexaxa by Chawata Moitlhobogi and A LANDSAT TM data based monitoring of pre-fire and post-fire vegetation recovery and dynamics at Xakao, Okavango Delta (2000-2004) by Kaone Rakhudu.

Economic studies included The impact of flood inflow of the Boteti River on livelihoods activities in Xhobe settlement by Tshimologo Andrias, Social dynamics of participating in labour intensive public works (LIPWP) program in Maun by Kesaobaka Molebatsi and Water demand in a rural set up: the case of Boro Village by Itumeleng P. Oageng.

Senatla Gobopaone made a case study in Sankuyo of The role of taboos and totems in conservation of animals and vegetation while Baitshepi Mashabe produced an Assessment of livestock predation by carnivores and households adaptation in Shorobe. Natural resources governance was addressed by Dominic Tshiamiso in his study, Assessment of Tubu community's perceptions towards joint management system of natural resources management.

You can find the students' reports in HOORC's Library.

BIOKAVANGO community of practice meeting

In his presentation at the monthly BIOKAVANGO community of practice (COP) meeting this week, HOORC's Professor Lars Ramberg discussed the impact of flood pulses on vegetation. He pointed out that, in general, floodplains have a much higher productivity than permanent rivers because of the accumulation of nutrients caused by floods. However, he stressed that these activities pose a challenge in the collection of statistics, which is crucial for research purposes. That being the case, it is difficult to convince decision makers to change certain policies because of this lack of quantitative results. In his closing remarks, he hoped that the 2010 Floodpulse Symposium would address some of these issues.

For more information about these monthly meetings, you can contact Anastacia Makati or Olebogeng Suwe at the HOORC Library at 6817241.

New in HOORC's Library: Evolving Eden

Evolving eden : an illustrated guide to the evolution of the African large mammal fauna by Alan Turner and Mauricio Antón documents the emergence of the species-rich, distinctively African mammal fauna. Richly illustrated with drawings and photographs, chapters in the book discuss the impact of continental drift and climate change on mammal evolution, and describe fossil sites in Africa. You can find the book in HOORC's Library.

HOORC seminars: palm conservation and stakeholder communication

Hyphaene petersiana

Two presentations were made by HOORC staff in the HOORC seminar series this past week: Impacts of palm wine tapping on Hyphaene petersiana population in Shorobe by Bongani Sethebe and Relative effects of visualized and verbal presentation methods in communicating environmental information among stakeholders: Okavango Delta, Botswana by Olekae Thakadu. Mr Sethebe, Herbarium Assistant, is proposing to look at the offtake from palm trees due to wine tapping and to explore sustainable methods for harvesting the trees, which are also used for basket making in the Ngamiland area.

Mr Thakadu, a Research Scholar in the area of environmental communication and education, is exploring communication and information diffusion processes among community stakeholders in the Okavango Delta. Guided by communication theoretical frameworks and processes, his research is assessing effective communication approaches and factors necessary to promote environmental knowledge sharing behaviors among Okavango Delta stakeholders.

Grass identification and rangeland management course

A four day course in grass identification is being held at HOORC's Natural Collections facility this week. Taught by Mr Frits van Oudtshoorn of Bushveld Eco Services, South Africa, the course includes theory and practice in grass identification and grazing land management. The students, from various government departments and the University of Botswana, are participating in an excursion to collect grasses in the field. The grazing management component of the course also includes a practical session in assessment of rangeland condition and grazing capacity.

Kalahari vegetation

Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Deception Pan area, December 2008, courtesy of Richard Randall

Plant Conservation Report

HOORC's Natural Collections facility is hosting a visit today by students from the Botswana Wildlife Training Institute, who have come to see how plant specimens are collected, preserved and organized in the Pete Smith Herbarium.

The Plant Conservation Report, published this year by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat and the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation reviews progress in implementing the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, adopted in 2002 by the sixth Conference of the Parties to the CBD. The report says that two thirds of the world’s plant species, a vital component of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, are in danger of extinction with pressure from the growing human population, habitat modification and deforestation, over-exploitation, spread of invasive alien species, pollution and the growing impacts of climate change. You can find the document online.

New in HOORC's Library: Vegetable oils of tropical Africa

Vegetable oils of tropical Africa : conclusions and recommendations based on PROTA 14 : vegetable oils, produced by the Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA) Programme, is a summary of knowledge consolidated through the PROTA programme's review of nearly 250 African plant species known to yield vegetable oil. Aimed at rural development agencies, vocational training centres, entrepreneurs, researchers, students and policy makers, the report provides tables that describe the most promising plants and extraction technologies, development and research gaps (including possible thesis topics), conservation needs and related policy issues. You can find the report, and more PROTA publications, in HOORC's Library.

African savannahs special issue

The February 2009 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Policy features a thematic set of articles titled, The sustainability of southern African savannas: threats and opportunities. The articles examine drought coping strategies and the effects of land tenure change in the southern African region. You can access the articles from HOORC's Library.

2009 IEEE International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium

The the 2009 IEEE International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 09) will be held at the University of Cape Town , South Africa, July 13th to 17th 2009. The African Association for Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) and EIS-Africa, are partners in hosting the conference. Special themes of the meeting include:

GEOSS - 5 Years On
African micro-satellites – technical
African micro-satellites – applications
Ten years of MODIS Earth Observations
Assisting African Development Needs
Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and Radiance Data Assimilation
Ocean Synoptics and Weather
Human and Environmental Health
Baseline Climate Identification and Global Change
Remote Sensing Education
Radar-based Earth Observation – the Next Wave
Atmospheric chemistry from space
Marine resources of Africa – the Benguela Project
Forest resources of Africa
Earth Observation and Governance.
You can find out more on the conference web site.

African Issues Symposium call for papers

The first K-State African Issues Symposium will launch a proposed series of bi-annual symposia sponsored by the K-State African Studies Center. The symposium will be held on the K-State campus March 30-April 1, 2009. Sponsored by Kansas State University, the K-State African Studies Center, the K-State Institute for Grassland Studies, and the K-State Office of International Programs, session topics include Africa and global environmental change, societal change, agriculture and food security, biodiversity and natural resource conservation. The Institute for Grassland Studies is sponsoring a special session on African savannas and grasslands. Deadline for registration is January 30, 2009 and the deadline for paper submissions has been extended to 23 January 2009.

Recent research from HOORC

Water resources management model for Okavango River Basin from Kiker, Munoz-Carpena, Wolski, Cathey, Gaughan and Kim article


Published results of research by HOORC staff and associates recently added to the HOORC Library catalogue cover a wide range of topics relevant to management of the Okavango.


A study reported in The effects of soil cover on soil respiration and microbial population in the mopane (colophospermum mopane) woodland of North Western Botswana by Mabiletswane P. Siele, Tabo Mubyana-John and HOORC ecologist Casper Bonyongo in Dynamic Soil, Dynamic Plant found that fungi contribute significantly to soil structure and respiration under mopane tree canopy.

HOORC Deputy Director Moses Chimbari and C.J. Shiff's investigation of the potential use of the fruit of Jatropha curcas to kill snails that transmit schistosomiasis, A laboratory assessment of the potential molluscicidal potency of Jatropha curcas aqueous extracts, was published in the African journal of aquatic science.

Incorporating uncertainty into adaptive, transboundary water challenges : a conceptual design for the Okavango River basin by Gregory A. Kiker, HOORC researcher Piotr Wolski and associates, published in the International journal of risk assessment and management, explores models for management of transboundary water issues in the Okavango River Basin.

HOORC researchers Philippa Huntsman-Mapila and Susan Ringrose joined associates Tiercelin, Benoit, Diskin, Cotten and Hemond in investigating the origins of the formation of the Okavango's alluvial fan, reported in the African journal of earth sciences, Sediment geochemistry and tectonic setting: application of discrimination diagrams to early stages of intracontinental rift evolution, with examples from the Okavango and Southern Tanganyika rift basins.

HOORC researchers Susan Ringrose, Philippa Huntsman-Mapila and Cornelis Vanderpost also contributed to a study of changes in sediments that sheds light on palaeo-environmental change in the Okavango, reported in Diagenesis in Okavango fan and adjacent dune deposits with implications for the reccord of palaeo-environmental change in Makgadikgadi - Okavango - Zambezi basin, northern Botswana in the journal Geomorphology.

HOORC associate Michael Heinl collaborated with Mike Murray-Hudson, Jan Sliva and Budzanani Tacheba to find that fire plays a secondary role to flooding in affecting vegetation structure and tree density in the Okavango floodplain, reported as The relevance of fire frequency for the floodplain vegetation of the Okavango Delta, Botswana in the African journal of ecology.

HOORC researchers Ketlhatlogile and Belda Mosepele worked with associates Peter Moyle, Glenn Merron and David Purkey to write Fish, floods, and ecosystem engineers : aquatic conservation in the Okavango Delta, Botswana in Bioscience, an argument for fisheries as a key issue when analysing environmental flows in the Delta.

Communicating integrated water resources management : from global discourse to local practice -- chronicling an experience from the Boteti River sub-Basin, Botswana by Larry Swatuk and HOORC researcher Moseki Motsholapheko, published in Physics and chemistry of the earth, reviews the challenges of influencing opinion and beliefs in the context of integrated water resources management.

The same issue of Physics and chemistry of the earth, edited by HOORC researcher Dominic Mazvimavi, featured an article by Mazvimavi and HOORC environmental chemist Wellington Masamba, Impact on water quality of land uses along Thamalakane - Boteti river : an outlet of the Okavango Delta, calling for increased monitoring of fluctuations in water quality of the rivers flowing from the Delta.

You can find all these resources in HOORC's Library.

Collection of Red List seeds

A partnership between the Botswana Department of Agriculture, the Botswana National Museum and the Millennium Seed Bank, part of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK saw a significant seed collection event near Pom Pom Camp in western Okavango Delta in the first week of December.

Alison and Roger Heath of plantsandpeopleafrica, assisted by Ofentse Brian, a guide based at Pom Pom camp, have collected seed of Eulophia angolensis. This terrestrial orchid is on the Red List of very rare plants under threat in Botswana. The team found sufficient plants to allow the collection of specimens for identification purposes and the collection of seed.

The first photograph shows Roger and Ofentse collecting a voucher specimen. The second shows Alison and Ofentse putting the specimens into a drying press under the watchful eyes of a herd of elephants.

“There have been several abortive expeditions from Gaborone to find this seed, including one that almost caused the loss of a Landcruiser in a flooded river, so this collection is seen as an important mile-stone” says Alison.

The Millennium Seed Bank, with its local partners, forms a world-wide initiative to collect the seed of all types of plants for preservation in specially built freezers to ensure that global biodiversity of plant life is preserved. Should a species die out in the wild for any reason then repopulation can take place where a suitable environment is found. Samples of the stored seed are germinated on a periodic basis to judge how well the seed has been preserved. Any species which falls below set germination standards is recollected.

Kuru ethnobotany database workshop

Members of the Kuru Family of Organizations from the Shakawe and Ghanzi areas attended a three day workshop about the use of databases in ethnobotany at HOORC early this week. Facilitated by plantsandpeopleafrica's Roger and Alison Heath, the workshop participants designed a database for collection of local beliefs and uses of plants and animals among San bushmen. The group will use the new tool to produce a book about bushveld food and medicines.

History of tsetse fly control in the Okavango Delta

Recently received in HOORC's Library, University of Botswana historian Dr Maitseo Bolaane's Tsetse and trypanosomosis control in the Okavango Delta, c. 1930s - 1970s looks at the relationship among tsetse fly control, the cattle industry and game policy in northern Botswana over five decades. The "bumpy road of trial and error" to control the pest described in the paper included destruction of game, selective bush clearing, and spraying of insecticides. The paper notes that, while there seems to have been little attempt to incorporate indigenous knowledge about tsetse fly on the part of colonial administrators, in Botswana Africans made sustained efforts to observe the fly environment and to experiment with its control. The paper was published in the South African Historical Journal in 2007: you can find it in HOORC's Library.

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

Jatropha from the Protabase

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA), an international not-for-profit foundation is synthesizing dispersed information about the approximately 7,000 useful plants of tropical Africa and providing wide access to the information through its web site and publications. Target groups for PROTA information are decision-makers in government, private sector, research, education and rural development, whose decisions affect people depending for their livelihood on plant resources. The organization's web site, hosted by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, provides access to Protabase -- its searchable database of plants, and a list of its commodity groups publications, links to partner organizations and other plant databases, and a news section that recently reported work of the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species (GFU).