Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

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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. 119
The maintance of this delicate balance against other socio-economic pressures that are in most cases driven by short-term benefits, is crucial. The economic valuation study has shown that the current use options and levels where tourism is the main economic activity are the economically efficient and sustainable use options. The strategy is for Botswana to be conscious of potential impacts of any water resources management intervention that may be implemented either nationally within the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> or by upstream riparian states. The strategy should be based on the precautionary principle of ecosystem management. 5.1.8 IMPROVEMENT OF LIVELIHOODS OF THE DELTA STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH IMPROVED SOCIO-ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES The strategy for addressing improvement of livelihoods should focus on the economic opportunities and incentives, traditional access rights, equitable benefit sharing and mainstreaming livelihood issues such as HIV/AIDS, gender and poverty reduction. Demonstration projects or activities, the result of which could inform livelihood enhancement strategies and provide lessons on best management practices, should be encouraged. 5.2 MANAGEMENT ZONES AND GUIDELINES The area delineated by the site boundaries will be treated as a single unit for the implementation of the ODMP. However, the impacts from the areas in the vicinity of the ODRS should also be taken into account during the implementation of the ODMP. There are several management zones in the ODRS. The zones are delineated according to the management objectives and strategies. They allow for the development, introduction and enforcement of regulations to avoid conflicting uses. These include planning zones, land use, controlled hunting areas, tourism, livestock and fire ecological zones. 5.2.1 ODRS PLANNING ZONES The planning zones in the <strong>Ramsar</strong> site are shown in Figure 5-1 and are described in Table 5.1 (NDDP6, 2003-2009). According to NDDP6, the planning zones have been useful in prioritizing areas for development and defining areas for land use and resources assessment studies. 120
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i OKAVANGO DELTA MANAGEMENT PLAN PR
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2.3 ECOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL FEATU
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5.2.7 FIRE MANAGEMENT .............
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TABLE 3-4: CRITERIA FOR FUTURE PRIO
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Ministry of Environment, Wildlife a
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It stands to reason that the ODMP s
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This chapter describes the strategi
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xiv FRAMP Framework Managem
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OKAVANGO DELTA VISION EXECUTIVE SUM
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physical subsystem. These are often
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Strategic Goal Stategic Objective K
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maintain them it accords prominence
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this, but sectors should continue t
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1.3 THE NEED FOR A MANAGEMENT PLAN
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Instrument Year Objective Relevance
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Relavant conventions which Botswana
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1.6.3.1 Project Design Phase Follow
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1.6.3.5 Final Management</s
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Part of the catchment in Namibia co
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Figure 2-3: The Okavango</s
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2.1.5.3 Tertiary stakeholders These
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2.1.6.7. Harry Oppenheimer
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The District Council is responsible
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The district is also affected by a
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which is itself an extension of the
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eastern from the central and wester
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Subsequently, flow from the Thamala
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capacity of these processes to elim
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dominated channel fringe and backsw
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grasslands which overlaps with the
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Figure 2-10: Distribution map of ra
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zooplankton biomass has been record
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40 All of the ardeids are primarily
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15000 in 1988 and 35000 in 2002 (Bo
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Figure 2-11: Spatial Distribution o
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Figure 2-12: Land use map of the OR
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Parks and Game Reserves provide for
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2.4.3.1 Angola Quantities of water
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Table 2-10: Tourism Enterprise Lice
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2.4.6 2.4.6 FISHING The Oka
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2.4.7.2 Tsodilo Hills World Heritag
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2.4.8.2 Arable Farming Arable farmi
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can the correct management question
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2.7 TOTAL ECONOMIC VALUE Total Econ
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household investors after deduction
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Table 2-16: Summary of the annual p
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Page 101 and 102: natural factors. There are two majo
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Appendix II. 3: Plan</stron
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Strategic Goal 3: To sustainably us
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Strategic Goal 1: To establish viab
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180 APPENDIX III: ASSESSING IMPACTS
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I.1.3 Manpower capacity of the fish
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Strategic Goal 1: To establish viab
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Appendix III. 2: Assessing Impacts
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B.2.4 The risk of Tsetse re-infesta
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Strategic Goal 3: To sustainably us
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Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

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