Project aims to reduce degradation of land

Productive land in Botswana is shrinking daily, but a new project aims to arrest the degradation of rangelands and address the deep poverty facing communities that depend on them.

Botswana is one of three African countries that will benefit from a US $13.4 million five-year programme aimed at helping rural communities restore local plant life, improve depleted soil and create new job opportunities. Kenya and Mali are the other two countries to benefit.

The governments of the countries, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) are providing funding for the project.

"The respective governments and the UNDP [UN Development Programme] country offices administer their respective national components, while UNEP is responsible for the regional component. The Botswana component is funded with US $2.3 million from GEF and US $1.1 million in kind from the Botswana government," Marx Garekwe, of UNDP in Botswana told IRIN.

It is estimated that about 17 percent of Botswana is desert.

"Climate in Botswana, particularly rainfall, has become so unpredictable in recent years... Sudden dust storms appear from nowhere removing fertile topsoil, uprooting trees, disturbing people and animals, damaging crops etc. The population is growing rapidly. More and more people are trying to make a living out of less and less land," Garekwe said.

"Large numbers of livestock, crops and people need to use the same land which was previously needed to support only a few. Poverty is increasing. This increases the number of live trees being destroyed. New trees are not being planted fast enough to rebuild lost woodlands. As a result, productive land is shrinking day by day," he added.

The rangelands project aims to strengthen local management of rangelands by helping communities draw up rehabilitation plans, improve livestock husbandry and marketing, and devise alternative livelihoods to reduce pressure on the fragile, dry environments.

The pilot sites are near Lephephe and Mopipi in central Botswana and Bokpits in the southwest. The project sites have had highly variable and unpredictable rainfall, pronounced dry seasons and recurrent droughts.

"Communities depend on rangelands for basic needs such as food, firewood, medicines and building materials. Traditional forms of land management have broken down, however, and expanding settlements have led to relentless grazing on fragile lands, without rest periods traditionally provided by [lost] nomadic lifestyles," a project statement noted.

It was hoped that a model could be developed and used throughout the continent.