ELTOSA WORKSHOP – October 22-26th, 2007

ELTOSA meeting participants at Satara exclosure, photo courtesy of Joh Henschel

The annual ELTOSA (Ecological Long Term observation network of southern Africa meeting took place in South Africa this year in Paborwa, a mining town on the edge of Kruger National Park with invitees from Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. Following updates from the various representative networks (such as BENRON for Botswana) scientific papers demonstrated the successful integration of monitoring activities into mainstream science. An example of this is the Africa Array project which, while seeking to train geoscientists, is also establishing a seismic network throughout Africa. In fact, plans are currently underway to enhance long term seismic monitoring at the HOORC site.

Papers were also given by various funding agencies such as NEPAD, the NSF and the South African Department of Science and Technology. A number of grants for students are available from southern African countries, although registration at a South African University is often required. The workshop participants were charged with developing a proposal for integrated long term monitoring over several southern African rivers. Botswana’s contribution to the proposal will focus on augmenting and integrating monitoring activities through capacity building in the Okavango river basin.

Particpants also visited monitoring sites (exclosures and fire trials) in Kruger National Park (KNP) and heard a series of stimulating presentations by the Scientific Services group of SANParks. They introduced the concept of Thresholds of Potential Changes (TPCs), a monitoring indexing system now integrated into KNP management that enables them to respond to flooding and other aspects of change deemed detrimental to ecosystem functioning.

Government notices of interest to the Okavango community

From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLIII, no. 71, 26 October 2007

Tender: Republic of Botswana: engineering consultancy services for design, tender documentation and supervision of major villages sanitation schemes
5792

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.

Winning nature photo

A photograph taken in Chobe National Park has won an international wildlife photo competition. The Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, organised by BBC Wildlife Magazine and London's Natural History Museum, and sponsored by Shell, was given to Ben Osborne, a freelance photographer based in the UK, for his picture of a bull elephant kicking and spraying mud in a water-hole. You can see the prizewinning photo on the BBC's web site

Waternet symposium in Zambia

Three of HOORC's researchers -- Dr Lapologang Magole, Dr Dominic Mazvimavi and Dr Wellington Masamba -- are in Lusaka, Zambia this week attending the 8th WaterNet/WARFSA/GWP-SA Symposium, “IWRM - From Concept to Practice", that runs from 31 October to 2 November 2007. The regional symposium is held annually to facilitate the sharing and dissemination of research results in Integrated Water Resource Management and provides a platform for researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders to meet and exchange ideas. The 8th symposium is being hosted by the Zambia Water Partnership.

University of Cape Town freshwater specialists

Helen Dallas and Belda Mosepele checking invertebrate samples in the Okavango Delta

HOORC's library has visitors from the University of Cape Town's Freshwater Research Unit this week --- Dr Helen Dallas and Dr Jenny Day -- who have been discussing aspects of aquatic biomonitoring in the Okavango Delta. In HOORC's library you can find A preliminary survey and analysis of the spatial distribution of aquatic invertebrates in the Okavango Delta by Helen F. Dallas and Belda Mosepele.

Aluka digital library

Habenaria pasmithii, discovered by Okavango researcher Pete Smith, from Kew Gardens collection, Aluka site

Aluka is an international, collaborative programme that is building an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. Aluka seeks to attract high-quality scholarly content about Africa from institutions and individuals across the globe. By contributing their collections to the Aluka platform, content owners have a means of offering access to their collections to an international audience—without having to develop and support their own technology platforms.

Included among the pilot content resources are African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes, and African Plants. The African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes content area links high-quality visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites including photographs, 3D models, GIS data, site plans, aerial and satellite photography, images of rock art, excavation reports, manuscripts, traveller's accounts, historical and antiquarian maps, books, articles, and other scholarly research. The African Plants content area comprises scientific data contributed by the African Plants Initiative (API), a collaboration among more than 50 institutions in Africa, Europe, and the United States. Botswana content in Akluka includes images of rock art and herbarium samples.

Okavango nature film clips

Barbel run photo from Earth-Touch.com weblog

The September 2007 issue of the Boteti Diaries alerted us to a new nature film clip web site, Earth-Touch.com that is encouraging submission of short videos about wildlife and other nature topics. There are already 50 Okavango related items in the form of clips about, for example, the barbel run, skimmers and bee-eaters on the Panhandle, and zebras at Meno a Kwenya's Boteti waterholes. The site allows comments and ratings.

Bilharzia study

Freshwater snails from Aquarap 2000 survey

HOORC's Library had a visit today from Professor C.C. Appleton of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who is working with Professor Fred Ellery on a retrospective analysis of the bilharzia epidemic in the Maun area during the 1970s and 1980s. The study relates hydrological data to the available disease prevalence data and suggests that there is a six year lag between occurrence of high water discharges into the Thamalakane River and the disease assuming public health importance. In HOORC's Library, you can find Professor Appleton's Freshwater molluscs of Southern Africa : with a chapter on Bilharzia and its snail hosts.

Government notices of interest to the Okavango community

From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 70 19 October 2007

Republic of Botswana: Government Notice No. 566 of 2007: Standards Act : Standard Specifications for Botswana (including storm water drainage, aggregates for natural resources, water quality sampling, environmental management systems, customer satisfaction)
5671-5673
Republic of Botswana: Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism : tender: consultancy for development of management plan for the Kwaii Conservation Trust at Khwee Settlement in Boteti area for the Department of Forestry and Range Resources (second publication)
5699
Statutory Instrument no. 69 of 2007: Statistics Act: Statistics (Family Health Survey) regulations, 2007
C.1319

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.

New in HOORC's Library: The Remarkable Baobab

Thomas Pakenham's The remarkable baobab is a pictorial survey of the Adansonia genus, accompanied by snippets of historical and ethnographic context and personal travel anecdotes. Two of the sites mentioned in the book are in our part of Botswana: Chapman's Baobab on the Ntetwe pan, and the trees at Kubu Island in the Makgadikgadi. For the researcher, there is an index and bibliography. You can find the book in HOORC's Library.

New tourism package

Tourists in Okavango Delta

National Geographic has added to its activities in the travel industry in a partnership with Abercrombie and Kent to offer a new upmarket product, Private Journeys, geared for travelers who want the option to travel on their own or with family and friends instead of a larger group. The new product offers fifteen itineraries, including Alaska, Botswana and Victoria Falls, Budapest/Vienna/Prague, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Italy, Morocco, Peru, Russia, Scotland, Tanzania, Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam and Turkey. In Botswana the programme includes stays at Baines' Camp, Chief's Camp and Chobe Chilwero.

Government notices of interest to the Okavango Community

From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 68 12 October 2007

Republic of Botswana: addendum: lease of lodge sites in the Chobe National Park, Makgadikgadi/Nxai Pans National Park and Central Kalahari Game Reserve
5586
Republic of Botswana: tender: consultancy for development of management plan for the Kwaii Conservation Trust at Khwee Settlement in Boteti area for the Department of Forestry and Range Resources
5403

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.

Botswana ecotourism best practices workshops

Stakeholder workshops for development of a manual of best practice for ecotourism in Botswana and a feasibility study for an ecotourism accreditation system are being held this and next week in Gaborone, Maun and Kasane. Participants will include representatives of tourism enterprises in Botswana. For information about the workshops, contact Mr Richard Mafila Malesu at Botswana Tourism. You can read the Botswana national ecotourism strategy : final report in HOORC's Library.

Meteorological capacity building in Botswana

HOORC's Library had a visit today from representatives of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) and the Botswana Department of Meteorological Services (DMS) who are working together in a capacity building project to train DMS personnel to provide a range of modern weather and climate services. Jointly sponsored by SIDA and the Botswana government, the project is ending the first 18 month phase of five and a half years of activities. The visit today was to discuss HOORC's use of climate data and possible collaborative data exchange activities. For more information about the project, contact Mr Balisi Gopolang, Principal Meteorologist. In HOORC's Library you can find From observations to simulations : a conceptual introduction to weather and climate modelling by Antonello Pasini.

ODMP news

The Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) implementation team at the the Maun office of the Botswana Department of Environmental Affairs has sent out its first newsletter this week. The team reports progress with the international peer review of the plan being carried out by members of the IUCN network of experts, upcoming release of an ODMP video that documents the planning process, ODMP pilot projects and preparations for the official launch of the Plan in February 2008. You can get a copy of the newsletter from Mokgadi Monamati, 267-680-1237, or read it in HOORC's Library.

Fish parasite work

Trichodina magna parasite of Cichlid fishes

Professor Jo G. Van As and Dr Liesl L. Van As of the Dept. of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, South Africa, visited HOORC's Library today with copies of published work from the last ten years of their research on fish parasites in the Okavango system. The Van As team is looking at the interactions among parasites and their hosts in the natural system of the Okavango, unlocking the fish parasite diversity. The team has identified more than 20 unicellular organisms, roundworms, flatworms, blood parasites and parasitic crustaceans, including many that are unique to the Okavango system. Their research is also contributing to graduate studies at the University of the Free State, the University of Johannesburg and the University of Limpopo. You can find the published work of the Van As team and associates in HOORC's Library.

Spatial data resources for Africa

The latest Spatial Data Infrastructure - Africa Newsletter is, as usual, full of useful information related to GIS projects and tools in Africa. The October 2007 issue tells us about the Conservation Resource Centre wiki site based in Arusha, Tanzania -- a collaboratively edited compilation of news, images, job and training announcements and links about conservation issues in East Africa, alerts us to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility's web site and practical georeferencing guides, and reminds us of the upcoming GIS Day 2007. You can read the newsletter online or download it from the GSDI Association web site.

Salvinia molesta control workshop

Clearing salvinia molesta

BIOKAVANGO Project, HOORC and the Aquatic Vegetation Control Unit of the Botswana Department of Water Affairs are sponsoring and organizing a workshop for pilot tour operators in integrated control of Salvinia molesta in Moremi Game Reserve. Operator guides for five lodges in Moremi are learning how to implement control methods, including the use of porta pools for breeding the black weevil insect that eats the weed. The workshop will also train guides in monitoring of water quality. The workshop, being held from October 15th to 20th in Xakanaxa, is part of a three year pilot project to monitor the response of control interventions in a co-conserved area. For more information, contact Mrs Belda Mosepele.

Government notices of interest to the Okavango community

From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 65 28 September 2007

Republic of Botswana Ministry of Agriculture: request for expression of interest for consultancy service for agriculture sector review
5361
Republic of Botswana: re-tender: engagement of a legal expert to review and consolidate the Forest Act with the Agricultural Resource Conservation Act and Herbage Reservation Act
5403
Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act: Controlled Hunting Areas (Amendment) Order, 2007
C.1281-C.1312 This order describes the boundaries of the CHAs

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.

New edition of Ramsar Handbooks

HOORC's Library now has a complete set of the third edition of the Ramsar Handbooks for the Wise Use of Wetlands. The new publication replaces the series published in May 2004 and includes relevant guidance adopted by several meetings of the Conference of the Parties, in particular COP7 (1999), COP8 (2002) and COP9 (2005), as well as selected background documents presented at these COPs. There are now 17 volumes in the set, which includes guidances adopted by parties to the Ramsar Convention and supplementary material from COP information papers, case studies and other relevant publications that illustrate key aspects of the guidelines. The volumes are:

1. Wise use of wetlands -- 2. National wetland policies -- 3. Laws and institutions -- 4. Wetland CEPA (Communication, Education and Public Awareness) -- 5. Participatory skills -- 6. Water Related Guidance -- 7. River Basin Management -- 8. Water allocation and management-- 9. Managing groundwater -- 10. Coastal Management -- 11. Inventory, Assessment and Monitoring-- 12. Wetland inventory -- 13. Impact Assessment -- 14. Designating RAMSAR Sites.-- 15. Addressing Change in Ecological Character -- 16. Managing Wetlands. -- 17. International Cooperation.

The Okavango Delta became a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on December 9th, 1996.

You can find the handbooks online and in HOORC's Library.

Invasive plant study in Zambian wetlands

Mimosa pigra on Kafue Flats from Environmental Council of Zambia web site

SciDevNet has alerted us to a recently released study of the impact of the invasive shrub, Mimosa pigra, on the environment of Zambia's Kafue Flats, a Ramsar wetland of international significance. The study, carried out by the Environmental Council of Zambia, reports that the plant is interfering with the ecosystems by blocking access to water for animals and birds and displacing animals by reducing available habitat. In HOORC's Library, you can find more about Mimosa pigra in Invasive plant species of the world and Problem plants of South Africa.

Freshwater Biodiversity Meeting

Photo: courtesy Conservation International / Aquarap participant

The Okavango Freshwater Biodiversity Expert meeting will take place at HOORC in Maun from 24 to 27 October. The meeting will focus on data availability for species with potential value in monitoring the Delta’s water quality over a long-term horizon. Participants will be reviewing the available species data in a few key taxonomic groups – fish, mollusks, crabs, odonates, and some aquatic plants. They will make technical recommendations on baseline field surveys necessary for the eventual development of indices of biological integrity. Registration is essential. Contact Jessica Jones (jjones@orc.ub.bw) for further details.

Multivariate statistics course for aquatic biodiversity

A short course on multivariate statistics for biological and environmental data has just been held at HOORC through HOORC's project, Monitoring and simulating threats to aquatic biodiversity in the Okavango Delta, led by the Darwin Initiative project's principal investigator Dr Anson Mackay. Participants from Botswana's departments of Water Affairs, Wildlife and Fisheries as well as from HOORC, learned over two days how to use advanced statistical tools to analyze biological and environmental data from the Okavango Delta. In HOORC's Library you can find Multivariate statistics for the environmental sciences by Peter J.A. Shaw.

Transfrontier parks status

The Palapye.com News Blog has posted a recent story by Botswana's Sunday Standard about the President of Botswana's comments about Botswana's two transfrontier protected areas, the Limpopo-Shashe Transfrontier Conservation Area and the Zambezi-Okavango Transfrontier Park.

Human-wildlife conflict resource

The People and Wildlife Initiative web site offers a compilation of practical manuals on non-lethal techniques to alleviate human-wildlife conflicts, targeted to various stakeholders and specific problems. The site has more than 30 manuals for downloading, including Crop raiding primates : searching for alternative, humane ways to resolve conflicts with farmers in Africa.

New drinking water web resource

The National Academy of Sciences and the Global Health and Education Foundation have released an interactive educational web resource about drinking water, Safe Drinking Water is Essential. The site uses sliding panels, pictures and maps to allow the user to explore information about drinking water sources, distribution and treatment. For example, the Technologies Decision Tool shows recommended treatment options based on type of water supply. Links to other online resources and a glossary are included. In HOORC's Library, you can find The environmental science of drinking water by Patrick J. Sullivan, Franklin J. Agardy, and James J.J. Clark.

New in HOORC's Library: Wildlife Contraception

Wildlife contraception : issues, methods, and applications / edited by Cheryl S. Asa and Ingrid J. Porton, analyses the use of contraception for a variety of animal populations, with an entire chapter about contraception for free-ranging wildlife. The book addresses problems related to unrestricted population growth, the ethics of wildlife contraception, and regulatory issues for wildlife managers. You can find the book in HOORC's Library.

Tsetse task force for southern Africa

The African Union's Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) has set up a technical task force to plan for a multi-national project to eradicate trypanosomiasis in the common tsetse belt in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. HOORC researcher and tsetse fly spraying monitoring specialist, Dr Casper Bonyongo will join William Shereni and David Zinyengere of Zimbabwe, and Dr Patrick Kgori of Botswana, as a member of the task force, which will begin its work the middle of this month with consultations in the relevant countries.

African Water Resource Database

The African Water Resource Database (AWRD) is a set of data and custom-designed tools, combined in a geographic information system (GIS) analytical framework aimed at facilitating responsible inland aquatic resource management with a specific focus on inland fisheries and aquaculture. The AWRD was designed based on recommendations of the Committee on Inland Fisheries for Africa (CIFA) and is both an expansion and an update of an earlier project led by the Aquatic Resource Management for Local Community Development Programme (ALCOM),Southern African Development Community Water Resource Database. You can access information about the database from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s The GISFish Global Gateway to GIS, Remote Sensing, and Mapping for Aquaculture and Inland Fisheries (GISFish).

New Birdlife periodicals in HOORC's library

Bird Conservation Newsletter Photo of the Month: Martial Eagle with Steenbok prey by Victor Horatius

The September 2007 issues of both Familiar Chat and the Bird Conservation Newsletter arrived in HOORC's library this week, alerting us to the avi-tourism work of the Bosele Lake Ngami Conservation Trust, the Trans-Okavango Transect expedition in that took place in September, a useful new resource from the United Nations Environment Programe (UNEP) --Environmental Reporting for African Journalists: a Handbook of Key Environmental Issues and Concepts -- as well as mention of many local bird sightings. You can find the publications through Birdlife Botswana's web site or in HOORC's Library.

Recent HOORC research publications

Percentage of Botswana district communal land available for use after reforms, from Magole

Recent publications issued by HOORC academic staff and associates make a multidisciplinary contribution to natural resources issues relevant to Okavango Delta planning and management. Dr Lapologang Magole's paper in the conservation and human rights special issue of the IUCN's Policy Matters, The history of conservation evictions in Botswana : the struggle continues, with new hope provides an account of land use issues in the context if the recent CKGR-San court decision. Dr Barbara Ngwenya and Keta Mosepele write about the value of fisheries to HIV/AIDS affected households in HIV/AIDS, artisanal fishing and food security in the Okavango Delta, Botswana in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. The same issue of the journal contains The challenges of supplying water to small, scattered communities in the Lower Okavango Basin (LOB), Ngamiland, Botswana : an evaluation of government policy and performance by Dr Larry A. Swatuk and Phemo K. Kgomotso; Assessment of environmental flow requirements for river basin planning in Zimbabwe by Dr Dominic Mazvimavi, E. Madamombe, and H. Makurira; and A study of fluoride groundwater occurrence in Nathenje, Lilongwe, Malawi by K.W.M. Msonda, Dr. W.R.L. Masamba and E. Fabiano. Dr Cornelis Vanderpost, Professor Susan Ringrose, Professor D.L. Kgathi and Wilma Matheson published The nature and possible causes of land cover change (1984 -1996) along a rainfall gradient in southeastern Botswana in Geocarto and Dr Vanderpost looked at how to measure the impact of human sprawl in Protected areas in Ngamiland, Botswana : investigating options for conservation-development through human footprint mapping in the International Journal of Environmental Studies.

Histogram of Okavango Delta visitors’ income from Mladenov et al.

HOORC researchers Joseph E. Mbaiwa and Dr. Gagoitseope Mmopelwa joined colleagues Natalie Mladenov, John Gardner, Nicholas Flores and Kenneth Strzepk in an economic analysis, The value of wildlife-viewing tourism as an incentive for conservation of biodiversity in the Okavango Delta, Botswana published in Development Southern Africa. Dr Piotr Wolski made contributions to two conference proceedings with Interaction of density flow and geochemical processes on islands in the Okavango Delta, Botswana and, with Mike Murray-Hudson, Managing water abstractions for preserving the Okavango wetlands, Botswana.

Scanning electron microscope analysis of Kalahari soil particles from Wang et al.

And Professor Susan Ringrose participated in the review article, Biogeochemistry of Kalahari sands in the Journal of Arid Environments as well as in the International Journal of Remote Sensing's Proposed methodology for georeferencing and mosaicking Corona photographs with H. Hamandawana and F. Eckardt. All the publications may be found in HOORC's Library.