18 Jun 2013

Recent studies have revealed that 15.5 per cent of Botswana’s land mass is affected by land degradation, says Minister Lands and Housing, Mr Lebonaamang Mokalake.

Officiating at the commemoration of the day to combat desertification at Mosu on June 17, Mr Mokalake said desertification had a negative impact on the community and might lead to wide spread poverty, hunger and human migration.

He said environmental degradation and resource depletion had negative impacts on the rural economy. Therefore, the situation required a critical analysis of environmental problems to be undertaken.

“The negative impacts caused by the teeming populations of the livestock and wildlife herds on grazing land and forest resource exacerbated by the continual occurrence of droughts are significant rural development planning issues.”

Minister Mokalake said challenges associated with efforts to combat desertification, especially in rural areas where desertification impacted, were conspicuously severe because communities depended largely on livestock farming, cultivation, hunting wildlife and the harvesting of veldt products.

He said Botswana had since realised the significance of managing land degradation and minimised its impacts by establishing tree nurseries, plantations, backyard nurseries and community woodlots as early as the 1980s.

Mr Mokalake added that government recognised that combating desertification could only succeed through the participation of all those affected or cause desertification while trying to make a living from the limited resources.

With the assistance of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) secretariat, Mr Mokalake said projects had been established in various parts of the country such as Bokspits, Struizendam, Vaalhoek, Rappelspan, Lehututu, Mopipi and Mokobeng. He said objectives of the projects ranged from sand dune stabilisation, land rehabilitation, biodiversity conservation and income generation to poverty reduction.

He said in the late 1990s, a study was carried out for the mid-Boteti area to determine the extent and elements of desertification, assess local perception about desertification and its consequences as well as involve the local population in assessing the desirability of abatement measures and options for alternative sources of income. Ends