Australian Young Scientists Explored the Okavango Delta

A group of Australian university students visited the Okavango Delta as part of a multinational partnership designed to inspire the next generation of conservationists, ecologists, and wildlife managers.

The visit highlights the importance of international collaboration in environmental learning, conservation, and the sustainable management of natural resources.

The visit was featured on ABC News. Watch the video on ABC News

The ORI Library encourages readers, students, and researchers to explore its resources on the Okavango Delta, ecology, biodiversity, and natural resource management.

Conservation Genomics & Biomonitoring Workshop_ Botswana 2024 ( ConGenBW24)

ConGenBW24 will be an introductory course that will teach students various ways in which genetics can be used to inform wildlife and biodiversity conservation. It will delve into the methodologies (study design, genetic sample collection, DNA extraction PCR, eDNA, population genetics, molecular ecology, and genomics toolkit), interpretation, and practical applications of genetic analyses in the conservation and biomonitoring of wildlife and threatened species. The course is targeted at undergraduate, graduate, and professionals with a background in biology/ecology, who are actively working on (or studying) conservation and wildlife related topics in Botswana and more broadly, Southern Africa. The course is taught by Dr. Pooja Singh and Dr. Tamara Schenekar who are experts in applying genetics tools to study biodiversity in Europe & Africa. The course will be held at the Okavango Research Institute (ORI) in Maun.

 
Participation requirements: The course will accommodate 16 students and will be limited to citizens or residents from Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa due to travel funding limitations.

Application: This course is free and includes accommodation, meals, and course-related transportation (rules apply).

For more information: https://poojasinghevogen.weebly.com/teaching.html   

 

Deadline to apply is 15th of July 2024

Traditional farming 'can save threatened species'

A study has found that traditional farming methods are crucial for protecting a number of threatened bird species in the developing world, including bustards, cranes, ibises and vultures .The study found 29 bird species threatened by the decline of traditional agriculture in developing countries. This number could be much higher if all organisms, rather than just birds, are considered, as evidence from Europe suggests that traditional farming also benefits reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and even plants. Farmers can benefit too from protecting biodiversity since it helps to justify traditional agriculture and could prevent big agri-businesses from forcing farmers off their land. Also, by offering farmers economic incentives to continue these beneficial practices, governments can ensure that conservation and development move forward together. Link to article available here.

Payments for ecosystem services as a framework for community-based conservation

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are an increasingly promoted approach to conservation. They seek to develop financial mechanisms that create economic incentives for the maintenance of ecosystems and associated biodiversity by rewarding those who are responsible for provision of ecological services. However, there are few cases in which such schemes have been used as a strategy for conserving wildlife in developing countries and very few operational examples of such schemes of any sort in sub-Saharan Africa. Wider adaptation of payments for ecosystem services approaches to settings where sustaining wildlife populations depends on local stewardship may help address current challenges facing conservation outside state-protected areas in savannah ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world.

Climate change and forest diseases

With climate changes, the effects of forest diseases on forest ecosystems will change. The authors discuss four types of forest and disease management tactics – monitoring, forecasting, planning and mitigation – and provide case studies of yellow-cedar decline and sudden aspen decline to illustrate how forest diseases might be managed in the face of climate change. The uncertainties inherent to climate change effects can be diminished by conducting research, assessing risks, and linking results to forest policy, planning and decision making. Report available here.

New Staff Members at ORI

Dr.Lucas Pius Rutina, has just joined ORI as a Research Scholar in Wildlife Ecology and Management (Carnivores) .A Phd holder in wildlife ecology from the Agricultural University of Norway, Dr. Rutina has worked for the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in different capacities namely, as a Biologist Researcher and later as Regional Wildlife Coordinator. His interest lie in how to use sustainable science and ecosystems to solve ecological problems relating to natural resource management.
Dr. Gaseitsiwe Masunga has also joined the Institute as a Research Scholar in Landscape ecology. His Phd thesis focused on ecosystem processes, nutrients, plants and fungal species diversity in Chobe National Park, Botswana. His interests are fire ecology, ecosystem processes, biodiversity and soil-plant herbivore interactions.

Promoting long term conservation of the Okavango River Basin

In this article, ORI researchers, Dr. Murray-Hudson and Professor Piotr Wolski, maintain that cultural and ecological boundaries frequently follow watersheds. A classical example, the Okavango basin, which bisect river basins that transgress cultural linkages and divide ecological systems. This river links many ethnic groups of river and wetland-dwelling people. According to the authors, long term conservation of this ecosystem calls for the management of these resources within cultural and ecological frameworks and not within the artificial administrative boundaries imposed by political contracts and conveniences of the past. Organisations like OKACOM have been set up to come up with objectives to allow the development of basin-wide strategies for development and then assimilate these within the national and local planning. The full article is available in the 2010 Botswana National Commission for Unesco publication in the ORI Library.

New book: rural livelihoods, risk and political economy of access to natural resources in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

The book edited by ORI Professors, D.L.Kgathi and B.N. Ngwenya and M.B.K.Darkoh from the Department of Environmental Science, University of Botswana, is a compilation of chapters by different researchers( mainly from ORI), and covers a wide subject range pertaining to the Delta. Areas of research covered include livelihoods, indigenous knowledge, government policies on natural resources management, botany, property rights, conservation, land issues and conflict management. The book published by Nova is now available.

New at ORI Library: Large herbivore populations in changing environments

This book aims to reconcile theoretical models of population dynamics with what is currently known about the population dynamics of large mammalian herbivores. It arose from a working group established at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to address the need for models that better accommodate environmental variability, especially for herbivores dependent on changing vegetation resources. The contents provide a foundation for resolving problems of diminishing large mammal populations in Africa, over-abundant ungulate populations elsewhere, and general consequences of global change for biodiversity conservation. The book is available in the ORI Library.

Biodiversity Centre

For 10 years now, Kasane's CARACAL Biodiversity and Environmental Education Centre has been focusing on the health of Chobe District ecosystems and the human/wildlife interface, as well as sustainable rural livelihoods.Its various projects addresses the relationships between habitats, wild and domestic animals and people. In the words of the CARACAL President, Dr. Kathy Alexander of the Virginia Tech, USA : " We are trying to secure the health of ecosystems and to look at how people sustain themselves in these environments with a view to developing opportunities for rural dwellers". One of its key area of research is how disease is passed between humans and wild animals and the centre is currently working closely with the Ministry of Health to examine how animals contribute towards human contraction of TB and vise versa. Another project carried out in collaboration with the Botswana Predator Conservation Programme examines how human behaviour affects wildlife health, focusing on predator health.

Birdlife's World Bird Festival in Botswana

The Birdlife Botswana (BLB) celebrated World Bird Festival with more than 70 pupils and five teachers at primary schools in Mogobane and Otse Villages. These schools are located in the surrounding important Bird Area (BA). Since 1993, the World Bird Festival has been celebrated biennially by the Birdlife African Partners. It is an important event for the Birdlife Africa Partnership to raise awareness and educate the general public about birds and their cultural, economic and ecological values and these activities are planned to help people realise their connection between birds and their lives. Activities were based around IBAs and other sites valuable for biodiversity, which support major ecological systems that sustain people's lives.

Conservation Biology for all

Conservation Biology for All provides cutting-edge but basic conservation science to a global readership. A series of authoritative chapters have been written by the top names in conservation biology with the principal aim of disseminating cutting-edge conservation knowledge as widely as possible. Important topics such as balancing conversion and human needs, climate change, conservation planning, designing and analyzing conservation research, ecosystem services, endangered species management, extinctions, fire, habitat loss, and invasive species are covered. The book is available for download on
http://www.mongabay.com/conservation-biology-for-all.html

Blue Harvest: Inland Fisheries as an Ecosystem Service

The report focuses on the importance of inland fisheries as an ecosystem service that not only contributes significantly to food production and livelihoods in many parts of the world but at the same time depends upon a sustained supply of freshwater of appropriate quality and sustainable ecosystems functioning. The assessment looks at the pressures and the drivers of ecosystems degradation that affect inland fisheries, and reviews opportunities on how to manage inland fisheries sustainably through ecosystem management approaches. The publication aims at raising awareness about the importance of inland fisheries as they provide multiple benefits to humans but have been found to be in decline and about the relevance of developing capacities to improve the management of the environment required to protect and sustain this ecosystem service in the long term. The report is available on the UNEP site.

Elephants for Africa: conservation through research and education

In a talk, hosted by the Kalahari Conservation Society, Dr.Kate Evans , a zoologist and founder of the research project on elephants in the Okavango Delta, talked about the vision of the project and its focus. The project focuses on research to address the conservation issues faced by elephants locally and throughout the African continent. These issues include :human elephant conflict, fragmentation and loss of habitat, poaching, climate change and the conservation of viable populations. The article is available in the latest issue of the Kalahari, available in the ORI Library.

Prospects for Mainstreaming Ecosystem Goods and Services in International Policies

This study shows how local delivery of ecosystem goods and services (EGS) is closely linked to international policies on development cooperation, trade, climate change and reform of international financial institutions. Integrating or mainstreaming EGS considerations into these policies provides significant opportunities to contribute to reducing poverty while simultaneously improving the quality of local EGS.

Botswana Ecohealth Project: student seminar

At the recently held Ecohealth project seminar at Maun Lodge, students from the programme made their presentations. Chandapiwa Molefhe presented a thesis on Hydro-Climatic factors and Molapo Farming dynamics in the Okavango Delta. The main objective of this project is to investigate the relationship between Hydro-climatic factors and the development of molapo farming in the Okavango Delta. Neelo John's presentation was on the Impacts of molapo Farming System on the Environmental Sustainability of the Okavango Delta. His interests lie in investigating the impacts of molapo farming as a system, the current practices, on the vegetation resources and floodplain soils. From the Health component of the Botswana Eco-Health project, Mrs Akuzike Gerrard presented a proposal on Dynamics of malaria transmission in Shorobe, Tubu and Xobe villages. What came out of her presentation was the crucial role that identification and analysis of factors affecting or leading to malaria transmission is. In her paper, Assessment of Iron Deficiency Anaemia on Children and Women of Molapo Farming Communities in Tubu, Shorobe and XobeGa, Galase Ramolefhe tries to assess impacts of lack of iron among children and women involved in molapo farming practices in the communities of Shorobe, Tubu and Xobe villages. There were also presentations from the Agricultural and policy components of the project by Mrs Lambani Bosekeng and Mr Sekgowa Motsumi respectively.

Killing the cures: how biodiversity loss is harming medical science

Biodiversity is essential for the functioning of ecosystems that sustain all life on Earth. The ongoing and escalating disappearance of that diversity will harm society in myriad ways. One way that is often overlooked is the damaging impact on medical science. For more on this report visit the UNEP site

Going Green: revealing the Delta's secret season

In this article, the author maintains that the Okavango Delta is a strange beast. Fed by a river that arises in the Angolan Higlands, its annual flood takes up to eight months to penetrate the furthest reaches of famous fan, by which the dry season is at its height. Paradoxically, this means that when it starts to rain, bringing an emerald of flush to the islandas and savannas, the water levels are at their lowest. The article is available in the latest issue of Africa Geographic in HOORC Library.

World Governments miss 2010 biodiversity target

According to this article, world leaders have not only failed to deliver commitments made in 2002 to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, but have instead overseen alarming biodiversity decline. According to Dr. Stuart Butchart of Birdlife International and the monitoring centre (UNEP-WCMC), the paper's lead author, " biodiversity is still being lost as fast as ever, and we have made little headway in reducing the pressure on species, habitats and ecosystems". Compiling over 30 indicators -measures of different aspects of biodiversity, including changes in species' populations and risk of extinction, the study found no evidence for a significant reduction in the rate of decline of biodiversity and the pressures facing biodiversity continue to increase. He goes on to say that 2010 will not be the year that biodiversity loss was halted, but the year in which the issue was taken seriously. More on this study is available in World Birdwatch journal in the HOORC Library.

New at HOORC Library: wildlife: destruction, conservation and biodiversity

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems, Deserts, rain forests, plains, and other areas—including the most developed urban sites—all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that wildlife around the world is impacted by human activities.This new book examines the destruction, conservation and biodiversity of wildlife. The book is now available at the HOORC Library.