Human Wildlife Co-existence Project in Northern Botswana

CCB was requested by the Department of wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) to participate in the Human Wildlife Conflict Coexistence Project in Northern Botswana. CCB provided support for improved kraaling, herding and the use of herding dogs to mitigate livestock predator conflict. The study area includes 13 selected villages located along the three primary wetlands in Northern Botswana, the Okavango Delta Panhandle, Chobe-Linyanti wetlands and the Makgadikgadi wetlands. The overall aim was to strengthen the capacity of rural populations to implement human wildlife coexistence strategies and facilitate coexistence. CCB carried out three components under the above mentioned project being to conduct 13 kgotla meetings in the selected villages in the focal areas, 3 training workshops for farmers and key community members in each focal are and oversee building of demonstration kraals in each focal areas. The last component being kraal construction was completed in August and three predator proof demonstration kraals were built in Parakarungu (Chobe), Moreomaoto (Boteti) and Beetsha (Okavango). The DWNP together with the village project committees facilitated the selection of the farmers with reference to their problem animal control reports. The kraals were fitted with shade net to create a visual barrier around the kraal fence. DWNP will benchmark on the demonstration kraals to build the remaining kraals for other selected farmers.
CCB was also invited to participate in the National workshop for Northern Botswana Human Wildlife Coexistence Project held in Gaborone. The workshop brought together the stakeholders to review and finalize the Draft Green Paper on Human Wildlife Co-existence and it was organized by Centre for applied Research in partnership with DWNP.