New in HOORC's Library: Small mammal responses to fire

Small mammal responses to fire in the Okavango Delta : a PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Cambridge by Militsa Plavsic is the second dissertation coming from HOORC's project, Effects of different fire regimes on the vegetation in southern African savanna and floodplain ecosystems. Michael Heinl's dissertation, Fire regime and vegetation response in the Okavango Delta, Botswana for the Technische Universitat Munchen, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany, was completed in 2005. The project is mapping fire frequencies over the past 15 years and conducting fieldwork in locations with variable fire histories, focusing on vegetation characteristics, soil characteristics and small mammals. More about fire monitoring in the region.

Wetland ecology and management course at HOORC

A three week course, Wetland Ecology and Management, is being held at HOORC from 30 July to 17 August 2007. Sponsored by Waternet and coordinated by HOORC ecologist Dr. K. Mfundisi, the course is covering biophysical structure and functioning, wetland management and monitoring, and sustainability and sustainable use.

Conserving cheetahs in Botswana

Cheetah Conservation Botswana is releasing an educational resource for secondary school students, a book about the role that predators play in maintaining the balance of nature and biodiversity. Cheetah: a predator resource for the students of Botswana, is being printed for distribution to Botswana schools with the assistance of Debswana, AZA and the People's Trust for Endangered Species. Illustrated in colour and with an activity section at the end of each chapter, the book is already available in electronic form from the organization's web site.

New in HOORC's Library: Wetlands, poverty reduction and sustainable tourism development

Wetlands International has produced a brochure about the relationship between tourism and sustainable management of wetlands that advocates an approach focused on existing flows of tourism, preferably domestic, on private sector development or – alternatively – community based developments that team up with the private sector, and on the creation of intra-sectoral and inter-sectoral linkages. You can find the brochure online and in HOORC's Library.

Goodbye to Herbert Kiberu

Friday was the last day at HOORC's Library for Library Officer Herbert Kiberu. HOORC staff members assembled on the library verandah to wish him well in his new field of project management. Herbert joined HOORC's Library in October 2003 and was instrumental in cataloguing the Library's Peter Smith book collection. Thank you for your contribution and companionship, Herbert.

Botswana Environment and Development Forum meeting

The Botswana Environment and Development Forum will hold a public meeting on Tuesday the 31 July at BTV Auditorium, Gaborone. The topic for the evening is: The implications of climate change on biodiversity and wetlands and adaptation strategies.

Short presentations will facilitate dialogue among government, research and the private sector, with discussion with the panelists.

Chair of the meeting will be Professor R. Chanda, Head of the Department of Environmental Science, University of Botswana. The panelists:

Stevie Monna, Director, Department of Environmental Affairs
Phetolo Phage, Director of Department of Meterological Services
Dr Piotr Wolski, Hydrologist, Senior Research Fellow, HOORC, University of Botswana
Wazha Tema, Regional Chair IUCN Commission on Education and Communication.

You can find several reports about climate change in Africa in HOORC's Library.

IRBM news

The USAID Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project (IRBM) has added a "what’s happening page" to its web site to link to short summaries of the project's most recent efforts supporting OKACOM, communities in Angola, and regional biodiversity initiatives. Included in recent news is HOORC's participation in training for tree species identification, mammal monitoring and and vegetation assessments. The Integrated River Basin Management Project (IRBM) is a four-year project to promote regional responses and coordination to ensure equitable allocation and use of water resources within the Okavango river basin.

HIV/AIDS and the environment

The New Scientist of 14 July 2007 published a story about the impact of HIV and AIDS on the African environment, based on interviews of researchers at the Society of Conservation Biology conference in South Africa. HOORC governance specialist Dr Rachel Demotts was among those who made presentations about the issue at the conference: her experience with AIDS and conservation groups in the Caprivi region of Namibia is mentioned in the article. You can find HIV's Killing Fields in HOORC's Library.

HOORC research at IHE symposium

Winning entry in UNESCO-IHE 50th Anniversary photo competition: children leaping into the river at Kolkata, India

HOORC researcher Professor Larry Swatuk presented Toward good water governance : knowledge is power? at the UNESCO-IHE symposium, Water in a Changing World: Enhancing Local Knowledge and Capacity as part of the IHE's 50th anniversary celebrations in June 2007. Established in 2003, the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education 's goal is to contribute to the development of adequate water supply and waste management services world wide by building capacity. You can find Professor Swatuk's paper in HOORC's Library.

Government notices of interest to the Okavango community

From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 49 20 July 2007

Bill no. 16 of 2007: Plant Protection Bill, 2007
B.79

Tender announcements and documents may also be found on the Government of Botswana web site. The entire issue of the Government Gazette may be read in HOORC’s Library.

HOORC fact sheets

HOORC has recently added two new fact sheets to its series of publications that explain the workings of the Okavango Delta: Water Balance of the Okavango Delta and Fishes of the Okavango Delta. The fact sheets, written in plain language and illustrated, can be downloaded from HOORC's web site.

Imvelo awards

Tourism and hospitality businesses in Africa can now enter the 2007 Imvelo Responsible Tourism Awards programme. Imvelo, in its sixth year, recognises businesses and hospitality establishments that make a measurable and sustained contribution to responsible tourism.
Organised by the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (FEDHASA) with Absa and the South Africa Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Imvelo is open to any type of tourism and hospitality business. The awards are in line with the responsible tourism guidelines for the South African hospitality industry and the UN World Tourism Organisation’s code of ethics, and are supported by the Heritage Environmental Rating Programme.

University of Botswana 25th Anniversary celebrations in Maun

HOORC is hosting celebrations for the University of Botswana's 25th Anniversary today. A parade is making its way from HOORC's gates to the main kgotla in Maun for speeches, singing, dancing and lunch for all villagers. The winning entry in a contest for schoolchildren explains the origins of the university:

Letsema is the spirit of giving. Batswana traditionally have always believed in sharing whatever they had with their kinsmen who were less fortunate. This was always encouraged by the leaders, such as the chiefs who at the times when the rains have started and the chiefs felt that it was time to start to ploughing would call a general meeting. It will be at this meeting that the chief will announce for everyone to go out to the fields and start ‘helping each other’ to see how to go about finishing in the right time.

Letsema! The African Ubuntu! The spirit of sharing ! The construction or the building of the University of Botswana is one of the best examples of Letsema.

Batswana contributed in the building of the university. Back then people didn’t have much to give: Batswana did the best they could. They brought goats, cattle, chickens, sorghum, money and whatever they could bring in order for the university to be built.

We all love the result of our effort, we therefore salute the spirit of ubuntu and to everyone else, young and old, male and female, white and black, Motswana and non Motswana who made it possible for us to have our university. Thank you!!!

Gaogelwe Sedumedi
Class 2G
Tshwaragano CJSS, Age: 15

HOORC is a research centre of the University of Botswana.

UB Vice Chancellor, Professor Bojosi Otlhogile, and Kay Raseroka, Director, UB Library Services, join HOORC staff on float

Click on pictures to enlarge

New in HOORC's Library: Natural Resources Management and People

Occasional paper Number 15 in the IUCN's CBNRM Support Programme series, Natural Resources Management and People, is a collection of papers that focus on community based natural resource management programmes in northern Botswana. HOORC researcher O.T. Thakadu co-edited the volume with B. Schuster, and HOORC tourism specialist Joseph Mbaiwa authored one of the chapters, Local Community Attitudes towards Wildlife Conservation and Community Based Natural Resources Management in Ngamiland District, Botswana. You can find the book in HOORC's Library.

Two views of the Boteti River, July 2007

Okavango water at bridge near Segoro, Boteti River, and zebra and wildebeeste compete for a drink at muddy waterholes in Boteti river bed, down river near Khumago camp, Makgadigadi National Park

Landscape ecology research

HOORC hydrologist Dr Piotr Wolski has just returned from the Seventh World Congress of the International Association for Landscape Ecology, held in Wageningen, Netherlands at the beginning of July, where he presented Using multiple models to elucidate the effects of climate change on floodplain ecology in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, prepared with HOORC colleague Mike Murray-Hudson. Also presented at the conference was Modeling landscape connectivity for elephants in Botswana by Samuel A. Cushman and Michael Chase. You can find the books of abstracts in HOORC's Library.

Waternet course at HOORC: Land and Water Interactions

As the Winter Course students wrapped up their final reports, five young water researchers from the SADC region arrived at HOORC to begin an eight week course about land and water interactions. The course, sponsored by Waternet, has begun with an introduction to remote sensing and GIS techniques.

Waternet was begun in May 1997 by the SADC-EU conference on the Management of Shared River basins in Maseru, Lesotho, where ministers of water from Southern Africa and Europe emphasized the need to ‘level the playing field’ between riparian countries and to develop capacity building programmes in order to achieve this goal. After extensive consultations in the region, eighteen institutions founded WaterNet in March 2000. HOORC and the Dept. of Geology, University of Botswana are members.

HOORC Winter Course student research

Winter Course Student Presentations

HOORC’s 2007 class of University of Botswana Winter Course students were completing their project reports this week, following six weeks of intensive study and fieldwork in the Okavango Delta and Ngamiland. Seanokeng Kedisaletse and Boikanyo Mokgweetsi looked at different aspects of solid waste management with Solid waste management in Maun, and Household perceptions on solid waste practices in Maun. Tebego Kgamanyane's and Olivia Nthoi's research at Tsodilo Hills is documented in The contribution of rock paintings to the economic value of Tsodilo World Heritage Site and Investigating the impact of World Heritage status on local communities' traditional production of crafts. Nametso Koloi and Benjamin Moya carried out surveys of tourism to produce An analysis of tourist perceptions at Moremi Game Reserve and The impact of the expansion of tourism on the socio-economic development of Maun. Tshiamo Mangole wrote Mineralogical, textural and geochemical analysis of calcareous duricrust deposits as paleoenvironmental indicators along Thamalakane fault, Maun and Reneilwe Thobosi , Investigation on impacts of salvinia molesta on macroinverebrates and effectiveness of its control (Moremi Game Reserve). Tshepho E. Mpolokeng wrote Human-carnivore conflicts : an analysis of the government compensation scheme and Masego Sam, Water use and management along Boteti River : the case of Moreomaoto. Two students looked at artisanal fishing issues: Elizabeth Rammai's findings are in Child fishing in Okavango Delta Panhandle : case of Mohembo and Kauxwi, while Bathusi Sakwape's are in Subsistence fishing as a natural safety net in Ngarange and Kauxwi. Okavango Delta livelihoods were studied by Monthusi Sethora who looked at Ethnic dynamics over access, selection and utilization of natural resources in Ngarange and Bame Esther Pule who studied Livelihood activities in Tubu Village.

All the students' reports may be found in HOORC's Library.

Winter Course Field trip

Government notices of interest to the Okavango community

From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 47 6 July 2007

Republic of Botswana, Ministry of Agriculture: Agrochemicals Act (Act No. 18, of 1999): registration of agrochemicals
3656-3657

Tender announcements and documents may also be found on the Government of Botswana web site. The entire issue of the Government Gazette may be read in HOORC’s Library.

HOORC research at Society for Conservation Biology

HOORC ecologist Dr Casper Bonyongo attended the annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) in Port Elizabeth from July 1st to 5th 2007, participating in the symposium, Declining Populations Of Large Mammals In African Protected Areas: Establishing The Causes, chaired by Professor Norman Owen-Smith. Dr Bonyongo’s presentation, Changes in Large Herbivore Populations in a Protected Dynamic Wetland Ecosystem; The Okavango Delta, Botswana, reported declines of populations of 11 species of herbivores in the Delta from 1995 to 2006 and recommended further research to better understand the population dynamics of major predators and predator/prey interactions.

The Society, dedicated to promoting the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity, offers links to Service Awards , Student Awards, and Post-doctoral Fellowships in the area of conservation studies.

Training on Wetlands and Poverty Reduction

Wetlands International, in collaboration with its partners, is sponsoring the 2nd Anglophone Practitioners Training on Wetlands and Poverty Reduction on 5th August - 19th August 2007 under its Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project (WPRP). This training course is part of a series being developed within the Wetlands and Poverty Reduction project -- another was held in January/February in 2006 in in Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The main modules were developed in collaboration with various partners such as Wageningen International, UNESCO-IHE, Oxfam America, Kenya Wildlife Service Institute, Foundation for Sustainable Development, Ghana Environmental Protection Agency, Uganda Wetlands Inspection Division and Uganda Wildlife Education Centre through a series of stakeholder consultations and have further undergone processes to ensure their relevance to local contexts. Various sectors dealing with water, livelihood issues, development, gender based issues, and conservation either in government, NGOs, IGOs, training centres, universities and other relevant agencies are invited to apply. The full annoucement and registration form may be found on the Ramsar Convention web site.

Tourism Satellite Account for Botswana

Tourist boat, Okavango

The Botswana Tourism Board has contracted production of a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for Botswana. Tourism Satellite Account standards and methodology were developed by the United Nations; the World Tourism Organization; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission, and approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2000. The statistical tool offers a series of global standards and definitions that measure the tourism industry's contribution to national economies in terms of percentage of GDP, jobs, capital investment and the role of tourism in a nation's balance of payments. TSA runs alongside national accounts and aims to provide internationally comparable data developed by a country's own statistical institutions that puts tourism on an equal footing with other, less-diversified, economic sectors. The report for Botswana is expected to be finalized by November 2007. In the meantime, you can read the TSA for Namibia: The Impact of Travel and Tourism on Jobs and the Economy, in HOORC’s Library.

Zambezi fish disease

The Africa Science web log recently passed on a news story from SciDev.net about the disease that killed fish in parts of the Zambezi River last year. A team of scientists from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Thailand's Inland Aquatic Animal Health Research Institute, and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in the Asia-Pacific identified the disease as Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS), caused by a fungal pathogen. Infected fish develop large sores and die from secondary infections. The post says researchers still don't know how the pathogen got into the Zambezi, which flows through eight southern African countries. In HOORC’s Library, you can read about fish pathology in the Ichthyology handbook by B.G. Kapoor and Bhavna Khanna.

WIPO traditional knowledge meeting

The web site of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reports the 11th session of its Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, currently underway in Geneva to discuss draft provisions for enhanced protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions against misappropriation and misuse.

WIPO provides a forum for debate and development of legal mechanisms and practical tools to protect traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and the intellectual property aspects of access to and benefit-sharing in genetic resources. A report of WIPO’s stakeholder consultations about needs and expectations of traditional knowledge holders is available online. In HOORC’s Library you can find Banishing the biopirates : a new approach to protecting traditional knowledge by Krystyna Swiderska.

Government notices of interest to the Okavango community

From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 43 22 June 2007

North West District Council: tenders: gravelling on Shakawe internal roads, regravelling of Mohembo Gani road, gravelling on Maun-Boro road, gravelling on Phuduhudu internal roads, and processing of single layer gravel material for Mosyu-Xhatsitso road
3322-3325

Tender announcements and documents may also be found on the Government of Botswana web site The entire issue of the Government Gazette may be read in HOORC’s Library.

Wildlife conflict and biodiversity conservation consultancies

The Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks is soliciting expressions of interest for consultancies required for preparation of a World Bank/GEF supported project, Wildlife Conflict management and Biodiversity Conservation for Improved Rural Livelihoods. The project will be implemented in Botswana’s northern wetlands and related savannah ecosystems, and will focus on policy institutional reform as well as livelihood-enhancing community-driven activities to improve wildlife management and biodiversity conservation. Selected consultants will conduct three studies: institutional capacity assessment and strengthening, environmental and social assessment and preparation of an environmental and social management framework, and economic and financial analysis (community investments). More information can be found on the World Bank project site and from the Project Coordinator, Tel. 267-397-1405. Deadline for submission of expressions of interest is 30 July 2007.

Diamond mining in Ngamiland

Pan African Mining Corporation has reported that reprocessed geophysics data has confirmed strong diamond targets on the Company's license area in Ngamiland. A combined area of 5476 sq. kilometers -- the Okavango block, located to the west of the Okavango River, just south of the Namibia Caprivi strip and the Tsau block, adjacent to the north-south section of the Botswana-Namibia border -- were awarded to the Company's wholly owned subsidiary PAM Botswana (Pty) Ltd.

The company’s rationale for the work in Ngamiland is the presence of a surface secondary concentration of diamonds and G10 garnets to the West, near the village of Tsumkwe in northeastern Namibia. The company reports that in-house geomorphological reconstruction indicates that headwaters of a former pre-Kalahari river system were located to the southeast and northeast of the unexplained Tsumkwe kimberlite pathfinder anomaly, in areas covered by the two new license blocks.

Pan African Mining is an exploratory resource company with interests in Madagascar, Mozambique and approximately 5500 sq. km. of diamond licenses in Botswana.

Biofuels in Africa

The July 2007 issue of GRAIN's newsletter Seedling, a special issue about agrofuels in the developing world, contains accessible information about the growing biofuels business, including a linked bibliography of good background resources, Jatropha – the agrofuel of the poor?, and The new scramble for Africa, which points out that just 15 African countries have a combined arable land base larger than India available for agrofuel crop production. In the Okavango, the Namibia Agronomic Board is studying a jatropha project for the Kavango region.

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people's control over genetic resources and local knowledge.

New in HOORC's Library: domestic animal and wildlife interface

The domestic animal/wildlife interface : issues for disease control, conservation, sustainable food production, and emerging diseases edited by E. Paul J. Gibbs and Bob H. Bokma, is the result of a conference and workshop series, Wildlife and Livestock, Disease and Sustainability: What Makes Sense? held 22-27 July 2001 in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa. The volume includes much that is relevant to Okavango region planning, including: Wildife and Pastoral Society -- Shifting Paradigms in Disease Control, Relating National Veterinary Services to the Country's Livestock Industry -- Case Studies from Four Countries : Great Britain, Botswana, Peru and Vietnam, The Fencing Issue Relative to the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Serologic Survey of Selected Viral, Bacterial, and Priotozoal Agents in Captive and Free-Ranging Ungulates from Central Kenya, and Implications of Tuberculosis in African Wildife and Livestock. You can find the book in HOORC's Library, and more resources about livestock and the environment on the LEAD Livestock Environment and Development Virtual Centre.

MDG report 2007

The United Nations has released the 2007 Millennium Development Goals Report. 2007 is the mid-point from the time the goals were adopted to their completion date in 2015. The report notes that for Goal 7: ensure environmental sustainability:

• Deforestation continues, especially in biologically diverse regions
• Despite increased efforts to conserve the land and seas, biodiversity continues to decline
• Tree plantations increase while old-growth forest ecosystems continue to be lost
• Growing greenhouse gas emissions continue to outpace advances in sustainable energy technologies
• A global effort to eliminate ozone-depleting substances is working, though damage to the ozone layer will persist for some time
• With half the developing world without basic sanitation, meeting the MDG target will require extraordinary efforts.

For Goal 1, Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, the report finds that:

• Extreme poverty is beginning to fall in sub-Saharan Africa
• The poorest are getting a little less poor in most regions
• Poverty reduction has been accompanied by rising inequality
• Child hunger is declining in all regions, but meeting the target will require accelerated progress.

You can read the report online and more about the MDGs on the UN web site.

Rural livelihoods research

Okavango Delta fishermen, Aquarap 2000

HOORC researchers Professor Donald Kgathi and Dr Barbara Ngwenya, with associate Dr Julie Wilk of Linkoping University, have published their research about how Okavango communities have coped with disruption of their economies by illness and environmental events. Shocks and rural livelihoods in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, recently published in Development Southern Africa, describes adaptive behaviour of villagers in the face of drying river channels, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and livestock diseases, and suggests that understanding this behaviour can be used to develop diversification strategies that might reduce the impact of future shocks. You can find the article in HOORC's Library.

Sustainable Africa site

The AllAfrica Foundation has created Sustainable Africa, a site fed by news stories from AllAfrica.com, focused on content about water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity. Value added to the filtered new stories is a page of links to key documents and organizations mentioned in the stories: recent additions include the United Nations University's Overcoming One of the Greatest Environmental Challenges of Our Times: Re-thinking Policies to Cope with Desertification, the United Nations Population Fund's State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, and the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars' Report From Africa: Population, Health, Environment, and Conflict.