Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

As the <strong>Okavango</strong> is a transboundary river basin, the strategy to counteract these
impacts should focus on effective engagement of the two upstream riparian states
of Namibia and Angola in the joint management of the basin and identification of
areas for possible trade offs.
5.1.6 SUSTAINABLE USE OF THE OKAVANGO DELTA WETLAND
RESOURCES FOR THE LONG TERM BENEFIT OF STAKEHOLDERS
The economic valuation exercise has demonstrated that people living in the ODRS
derive roughly equal benefits from natural resources and from tourism, the latter
being slightly higher (ODMP – Economic Valuation Report, 2006). The study goes
further to differentiate the form that these benefits take. Natural resources provide
subsistence value which contributes to peoples’ livelihoods, as well as some cash
income. Perhaps more importantly, they have the capacity to provide a safety-net
for households that suffer shocks and provide a risk spreading mechanism for poor
households that are vulnerable to the vagaries of environmental variability.
Tourism, on the other hand, generates hard, reliable cash income to households,
providing the type of income that most households aspire to having. Thus both
aspects are important. Tourism also makes a substantial contribution to
Botswana’s GNP, which in turn provides more revenue and social security to
households all over the country.
Therefore the strategy should ensure the sustainability of current resource use by
households so that they can continue to provide the livelihood and other social
benefits into the future, and enhance the value of the <strong>Delta</strong> for low impact – high
value tourism through maintaining the extent and integrity of the conserved area.
Unsustainable use of natural resources poses a major threat to the integrity of the
<strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> <strong>Ramsar</strong> site ecosystem. These include over-harvesting of the veld
products, overgrazing and unsustainable levels of hunting.
It is important that the strategy addressing aspects of unsustainable use of natural
resources should focus on regulating their use through setting of thresholds,
permit system and harvesting seasons as well as establishing monitoring systems.
5.1.7 SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES UTILISATION
The utilisation of the waters of the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> is a very delicate and sensitive
issue. The significance of water to the system cannot be over-emphasised. Water is
the main driver of the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> ecosystem. High species diversity and
habitat diversity is a result of the variability in flooding regimes, which lead to
different temporal saturation states of the system, i.e. flood extent, duration and
timing of flooding. This variability makes it difficult to be definitive on how much
water could be removed from the system without negatively affecting the
functioning of the <strong>Delta</strong>.
Water resources use and management in the <strong>Delta</strong> manifest itself in a variety of
ways such as dredging, channel clearing, obstruction (daming) and abstraction.
The magnitude of implementation of these water management scenarios has huge
implications on the survival and function of the <strong>Delta</strong> as a national resource and
international icon. The modelling studies under the ODMP have predicted future
scenarios that may occur under a variety of water development options.
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