10 Jun 2018

Ngamiland Sustainable Land Management (SLM) project, which started five years ago and is coming to an end this year, has borne fruits.

Ngamiland SLM project is a collaboration between UNDP and Botswana government through the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism and the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security.

The project, which was named the Mainstreaming Sustainable Land Management (SLM) into Ngamiland Productive Landscapes for Improved Livelihoods, aimed at addressing farming challenges for better livelihoods in Ngamiland.

Speaking at the district World Environment Day commemorations recently, project coordinator, Mr Innocent Magole of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) noted that the Ngamiland SLM project supported protection of rangelands and improvement of livelihoods through natural resources.

He therefore said the project leaves behind a number of economic activities in areas of its operation such as Lake Ngami and Tsodilo Enclave, which would benefit the whole district.

Mr Magole said one of the successes of the Ngamiland SLM project was the ability to give the Ngamiland livestock farmers and employees from relevant departments an opportunity to benchmark from neighbouring countries of Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The communities as a result have acquired skills to improve themselves through the benchmarking processes.

The project, he said sensitised the communities and helped in coming up with solutions to challenges such as bush encroachment at the Lake Ngami, which bore the charcoal production project to utilise the bush.

Lake Ngami community has since began a charcoal project, which will help the community and allow skills transfer to the rest of Ngamiland District and the country.

He noted that some communities in the Okavango District had secured markets for wild fruits found in their vicinity such as mongongo, which produces oil through the Ngamiland SLM project.

The communities used to manually produce mongongo final product, but were later assisted with equipment that is less labour intensive and produces about 600 litres of oil per hour.

Mr Magole also noted that the Ngamiland SLM project leaves behind activities that would promote tourism in its area of operation.

Lake Ngami community, he said would host a Lake Ngami Fishing Festival and Fishing Challenge in September to promote recreational fishing and tourism in the area, while the Tsodilo Hills community would host a Tsodilo Hills challenge next month in line with sports tourism.

The five-year project was sponsored by the UNDP and piloted on three areas of the Ngamiland being Tsodilo Hills, Haenaveld Farms and Lake Ngami. ENDS