Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

about appropriate action. Such factors also make effective and efficient communication and
information exchange, and especially reaching consensus, a very difficult task.
3.5 RESEARCH AND DATA MANAGEMENT
Information on the <strong>Delta</strong> is widely scattered, formats are not standardised and many data
are not easily accessible. There is a lack of updated information on present land use, socio
economic, hydrological and ecological conditions of the <strong>Delta</strong> for planning purposes and
some of the available data are of poor quality.
In addition, uncoordinated research activities and limited use of local knowledge for
resource management might lead to research results that are less useful for planning.
There are uncertainties around data updating and expectations during the implementation
of the ODMP.
There is need for continuous training of stakeholders on how to use the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong>
Information System (ODIS) given the staff turn-over and the availability of a GIS technician
at HOORC.
The ODMP research strategy proposed research activities which are designed to reflect the
closely interlocking nature of the three components, namely hydrology, ecology and socioeconomics,
with several cross-cutting themes and a common need for multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary approaches (ODMP – Research Strategy, 2006).
At present the long-term basic hydrological and water quality monitoring system are in a
relatively poor state both within the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> and worse in the upstream especially
in Angola. Monitoring in Angola has not been properly undertaken for the last 30 years
because of the civil war. The spatial and temporal coverage of the basic monitoring data is
relatively poor.
There is no systematic <strong>Delta</strong>-wide long term ecological monitoring carried out in the <strong>Delta</strong>
despite the extraordinary scenic beauty of the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> and its component
ecosystems except for annual aerial surveys of larger herbivores by DWNP, small
monitoring studies on rare and endangered species and limited bird surveys by Birdlife
Botswana. DWA has carried out limited monitoring on the occurrence of channel blockages.
Despite the fact that Botswana has a comparatively progressive and well-resourced
programme to combat HIV and AIDS, monitoring of the pandemic is still inadequate. The
most reliable data comes from testing pregnant women at ante-natal clinics. There is some
degree of monitoring the impacts of the pandemic through the provision of food baskets to
orphans and Home-based Care programmes but this does not extent to the broader
livelihood impacts such as households coping strategy.
There is very little research focused on poverty status and livelihoods trends in the
<strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> <strong>Ramsar</strong> Site despite the presence of the country’s Poverty Reduction
Strategy. The measure and prevalence can only be indirectly deduced from recent research
on livelihoods in the area.
There has been considerable research on governance issues at international and regional
level; however there seems to have been less governance research done at the national and
local level with regard to <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> (ODMP - Research Strategy, 2006). An example is
the perpetual tension between national and local interests in the ownership, governance
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