15 Nov 2021

About 40 per cent of Botswana’s land is protected from  land degradation.

These protected areas include wildlife management areas, national parks, game reserves as well as forestry reserves, said head of Natural Resources Management Portfolio at Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Mr Michael Flyman

Speaking in Francistown at a one-day consultative and stakeholders meeting on a project to restore degraded land and soil in order to achieve land degradation neutrality in Botswana recently, Mr Flyman who is the project coordinator said land degradation problem in Botswana was now increasingly becoming topical and continued to negatively affect important sectors of the economy.

He explained that land degradation was a major cause of the declining agricultural and rangeland productivity in Botswana.

“Land degradation is increasing in severity and extend to many parts of Botswana, affecting thousands of people, resulting in decreased food production, prolonged droughts, biodiversity loss, and decline in the quality and quantity of forests and range resources, fresh water, consequently affecting people’s livelihoods,” said Mr Flyman.

He said this had prompted government of Botswana to join global community to address land degradation by affiliating with United Nations Convention to combat desertification, whose objective was to address issues of land degradation and drought.

However, he said it was of paramount significance to define and understand the extent and dynamics of land degradation in the country for purposes of informed intervention in addressing the problem effectively and efficiently.

“If not controlled it will lead to the deterioration of biodiversity and food insecurity in the country,’ he added.

Mr Flyman therefore told participants that the main objective of the project was to address land degradation in a holistic and realistic manner by establishing baseline information on land degradation upon which appropriate interventions would be based in managing and monitoring the dynamics of land degradation.

He told participants from various village development trusts that Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 15.3) states that ‘by 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation neutral world.”

Mr Flyman said by embarking on this project, Botswana was committing to ensuring that the amount and quality of land resources necessary to support ecosystems functioned well.

He said the project comprised of annotated components of land degradation assessment and mapping, land degradation monitoring system establishment, land restoration strategy development, and land degradation neutrality target setting, amongst others.

He said the project, was a National Development Plan 11 project and was partially funded by the government of Botswana with the assistance of FAO.

Mr Flyman said Botswana had committed to setting a neutral voluntary land degradation neutrality baseline and formulated associated measures to achieve land degradation neutrality.

A FAO consultant, Dr Olatotswe Kgosikoma explained that land provided valuable ecosystem services for human wellbeing but land degradation led to a reduction in the provision of these services and economic costs to the country.

Dr Kgosikoma further said that the decline in ecosystems services could take different forms, including decline in food security and availability, soil fertility, carbon sequestration capacity, wood production, ground water recharge amongst others.

He hinted that the cost of land degradation for a country was measured in terms of changes in land productivity by considering certain aspects.

He said in Botswana, the total annual cost of land degradation was estimated at P353 million which was equal to 3.2 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

In addition, he said a considerable land degradation, which is about 73 per cent, was due to the decline in provisioning ecosystem services domestic.

“Therefore, there is an urgent need to address land degradation as quick as possible and come up with healthy ecosystem measures,” he added.

In his welcome remarks, Francistown Principal District Officer-Development, Mr Boyce Mangole said Botswana had signed many treaties but failed to make follow ups on their implementation.

He said the land degradation neutrality was one such treaty which Botswana needed to work very hard in order to achieve its goals.

Mr Mangole the stakeholder’s meeting came at the right time when land degradation was affecting all sectors of the economy. ENDS