01 Sep 2020

Review of the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) is expected to be complete by November.

ODMP articulates priority areas and management actions to secure the conservation and sustainable use of the Okavango Delta.

The plan has been used to inform other resource management frameworks.

Department of National Museum and Monuments (DNMM) has engaged experts from Okavango Research Institute (ORI) to review the plan and align it with the district development plan.

Speaking during a consultative meeting to solicit the community’s views, coordinator from DNMM in Maun, Mr Vasco Baitsiseng,  said the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the exercise because they were compelled to extend the completion date from June.

Currently, he said, consultants were at the scoping stage and he hoped they would do an excellent job.

The exercise, he said, was not easy, but appreciated that a lot had been achieved since last year.

Mr Baitsiseng explained that after soliciting stakeholders’ ideas, experts would consolidate a draft report, which would be discussed before being submitted to the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism.

The meeting attracted traditional leadership, representatives from community trusts, village development committees and government departments.

Some participants urged authorities to implement the management plan to produce the expected results.

The participants also called for an independent office to ensure smooth implementation of the plan.

They said the plan must be people centred and fully supportive of their livelihoods, unlike the current one that had neglected communities.

They said the current plan had failed to benefit Ngamiland as evidenced by the district being the second poorest in the country, although it was the richest in natural resources.

Participants recommended that the plan should propose equitable and sustainable use of resources and tourism development initiatives that would help develop Ngamiland region.

The plan, they said, should propose a variety of ideas to help potential tourism businesses and the community to optimally derive benefits from the conservation of their resources.

They also proposed that the plan should empower youth and women, noting that their participation should be visible.

One of the participants, Mr Keith Diako, concurred that the plan should have a strong people centred development bias.

He appreciated that the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site was well documented, but lacked the in-depth analysis or approach on the socio-economic development of its indigenes.

Botswana, he said, was known to have inordinately high levels of income inequality since there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor.

In addition, Mr Diako stated that poverty incidences in Ngamiland remained high at 46. 2 per cent, according to the Mapping Poverty in Botswana 2010 survey, despite the country enjoying upper middle income status.

He underscored the need for the plan to identify specific implementable and bankable projects for the indigenes of the Ramsar site, adding that the revised ODMP must be a blue-print for the socio-economic development of the communities.

He stressed that the plan must indicate profiles of the identified projects.

The analysis of the projects, he said, should also determine their feasibility and sustainability, adding that for the projects to be successful, complete cooperation and collaboration of all relevant authorities was critical.

Mr Diako said tourism in the delta should bring substantially greater benefits to the community and that additional investment in the industry should stimulate industries such as handicrafts, agricultural production and others.

The lead consultant, Professor Olekae Thakadu, stressed the need to review the plan taking into consideration climate change threats and impact on the environment, biodiversity and livelihoods.

The plan, he said had been overtaken by developments, hence the need to take emerging issues on board.

He agreed that it was critical to mainstream gender and poverty into the plan implementation processes. Ends