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The Kalahari: Where the wild things are

9/2/2020

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The Kalahari is a wild and untouched place. Isolated, arid and generous with wildlife, it has less human impact than almost anywhere else in sub-Saharan Africa. This is the playground for some of the Africa’s most celebrated carnivores, including the vulnerable lions, cheetahs, brown hyaenas and the endangered African wild dogs. An increasing number of people and the subsequent developments that have followed are threatening the still-existing contiguous nature of this wild space. The ancient Kalahari San Bushmen have lived here for time immemorial, posing no threat when they are living harmoniously and sustainably off the land. But the combined forces of eroding traditional lifestyles, the loss of their ancient knowledge of the land and its resources and poorly-managed farming starting to spread into the area threatens one of the world’s largest pristine landscapes. 
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​It is here that the Western Kalahari Conservation Corridor links two of the world’s most famed national parks — the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Two large farming communities have sprung up in the middle of this wildlife corridor, squeezing the wildlife around them in three distinct pathways. Two of the three pathways have recently been cut off by newly allocated farmlands and fences. Only one wildlife corridor remains unbroken, with two small communities — Bere and Kacgae — sitting in the center of it. These predominantly San Bushmen communities make for the most natural stewards and gatekeepers of this ecosystem. Their deep and inherent connection with this harsh environment equips them with skills that, if appropriately harnessed and honed, can be used to efficiently manage and benefit from their natural and cultural resource base, and mitigate conflict with wildlife.
 
It is based on this premise that Cheetah Conservation Botswana launched its new Communities for Conservation Programme in 2017. The first step was to understand the communities’ broader development aspirations and then, to see how we, as an organization, can help attain that vision – directly or indirectly, through partnerships. Too often in the past, these communities have been barraged with parachute development schemes — organizations that drop in, conduct workshops, hand out donations, cut and paste interventions from elsewhere and leave almost immediately. We hope to change this tide by being committed to a long-term development strategy that puts the communities themselves in the driver’s seat, acknowledging that this will require time, patience, perseverance, inclusion, participation and collaboration. 
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​For the farmers in the region, we have begun engaging them through our “Farming for Conservation” department — continuing our already successful Livestock Guarding Dog Programme with targeted placements in these hot spot conflict areas. Our rapid response units are on hand to deal with conflict situations in the area and have been classified as “essential services”, able to tend to these calls despite COVID-induced ongoing travel restrictions across the country. Our aim is to encourage farmers to farm with as little negative environmental impact as possible by improving veld management and animal husbandry, promoting effective, long-term, non-lethal carnivore management techniques. 
 
An area highlighted by the communities as one where they need assistance has been the community trusts, which are the legal vehicles through which they can participate in Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) related ventures such as eco-tourism, harvesting plants with different medicinal, nutritional and other use values and craft production. Largely redundant after years of stagnation, we hope to grow their capacity so that the community trusts can function effectively by identifying knowledge gaps and institutional challenges and working to address these. Fruitful discussions with various stakeholders have attested the potential for partnerships and exciting developments in this area. Institutional development activities, craft development workshops and veld product harvesting are some of the activities that are slated for the remainder of the year – all subject to the continuously evolving situation with COVID-19. Ultimately, by diversifying nature-based livelihood pathways, communities in the Kalahari can enhance their resilience to the impacts of climate change and utilize innate knowledge of the Kalahari ecosystem to benefit from and conserve this unique wildness for generations to come.
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This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union through IUCN Save Our Species. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Cheetah Conservation Botswana and do not necessarily reflect the views of IUCN or the European Union.
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