Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

predator proof bins. Secondary storage is provided through skips in major settlements and
transfer stations in small villages.
Most households do not use waterborne sanitation systems. The majority of waste water
comes from institutions, commercial enterprises and tourism operations, and is collected
and treated through septic tanks and soak away system.
2.5 RESEARCH AND DATA MANAGEMENT
2.5.1 AVAILABLE INFORMATION AND DATA
The available data categories include boundaries, climate, culture, demographics, ecology,
environmental hazards, flora, fauna, soils, transportation, hydrology, land use, geology,
landforms and geodetic features. These have been included into the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong>
Information System (ODIS).
Information about the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> and other planning processes (models from other
wetland areas) available in the HOORC library include consultants’ reports, news and
media reports, government documents and records, journal articles, web sites of
institutions, online bibliographic databases and clearinghouses, aerial photographs, books,
herbarium, archival sources such as records in the Peter Smith collection and an online
catalogue of the UB library.
The HOORC Library has a weblog service which is updated on a daily basis about new
documents acquired and catalogued.
2.5.2 RESEARCH
Limited research has been undertaken under the three broad categories at both <strong>Delta</strong> wide
and local scales (ODMP Research Strategy 2006) and these are physical and chemical
(hydrological) processes and features; ecological processes linking habitats to populations
of specific organisms; and social and economic processes that exploit or derive benefits
from the ecosystem. The following is an extract from the ODMP Research Strategy 2006
which contextualises the role of research within the context of management of the
<strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong>.
In the past, many studies were carried out on social, economic, ecological and management
topics related to the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong>. These studies extended the collective understanding
of the structure, functioning, and composition of the ecosystem components in the
<strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong>, and broadened knowledge of the ways in which local communities rely on
the system for livelihoods. However, the understanding of the different ways in which the
<strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> system responds to changes in the external driving forces (principally
related to climatic and hydrological features) and patterns of natural resource exploitation
(driven mainly by ecological and social processes) remains incomplete. This is due to the
fact that earlier studies followed individual research agendas, rather than forming part of a
comprehensive and carefully co-ordinated research programme. This has obvious
implications for the way that research is conducted in future, and presents a challenge to
the Government of Botswana who must manage the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> and maintain the
ecological integrity of its ecosystems.
Effective implementation of the ODMP will need information from two interdependent kinds
of research. Neither type of research is very useful to managers when considered alone, nor
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