Botswana's environmental policy on recycling

Recycling operations have become one of the primary strategies for waste management, worldwide. Especially, recycling operations are viewed as among the most effective techniques for reducing the amount of municipal solid waste disposed at landfill sites. Botswana's environmental policy on recycling stipulates, among others, that all waste management authorities should provide information on the classification and quantities of controlled waste targeted for recycling. This paper, therefore, examines the extent to which recycling operations in Botswana have either been conducted in compliance with or in violation of some major environmental requirements as enunciated on statutory guidelines. Compatibility between environmental policies on recycling and actual practice is evaluated focusing on two companies (Dumatau trading and Botswana Tissue) involved in recycling operation. Data from the two companies is complemented by one collected from the Gaborone landfill site. Finally, this study discusses on the role played by various stakeholders in policy formulation and implementation with particular emphasis being placed on a select number of non-governmental organisations (NGO).     

Bottom up and top down: analysis of participatory processes for sustainability indicator identification as a pathway to community empowerment and sustainable environmental management

The modern environmental management literature stresses the need for community involvement to identify indicators to monitor progress towards sustainable development and environmental management goals. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of participatory processes on sustainability indicator identification and environmental management in three disparate case studies. The first is a process of developing partnerships between First Nations communities, environmental groups, and forestry companies to resolve conflicts over forest management in Western Canada. The second describes a situation in Botswana where local pastoral communities worked with development researchers to reduce desertification. The third case study details an on-going government led process of developing sustainability indicators in Guernsey, UK, that was designed to monitor the environmental, social, and economic impacts of changes in the economy. The comparative assessment between case studies allows us to draw three primary conclusions. (1) The identification and collection of sustainability indicators not only provide valuable databases for making management decisions, but the process of engaging people to select indicators also provides an opportunity for community empowerment that conventional development approaches have failed to provide. (2) Multi-stakeholder processes must formally feed into decision-making forums or they risk being viewed as irrelevant by policy-makers and stakeholders. (3) Since ecological boundaries rarely meet up with political jurisdictions, it is necessary to be flexible when choosing the scale at which monitoring and decision-making occurs. This requires an awareness of major environmental pathways that run through landscapes to understand how seemingly remote areas may be connected in ways that are not immediately apparent.     

以Hartwick准则破解“资源的诅咒”

一些资源禀赋较高的国家或地区,一直以来经济社会发展未充分享受自然资源带来的红利,甚至陷入贫困和动荡,这一现象被称作"资源的诅咒";在我国,也有不少资源型城市在发展过程中由于资源的耗竭而陷入困境。经济学家Hartwick对资源枯竭区域发展进行了深入研究,并提出"Hartwick准则"对这一类区域的发展进行了理论指导。本文对Hartwick准则进行简要介绍,以这一准则在非洲国家博茨瓦纳的钻石开发中的应用进行分析,并依据理论和经验,对我国一些资源型区域的发展提出建议。     

Implementing the UNCCD: Participatory challenges

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) emphasizes the need for public participation in land degradation assessment and rehabilitation. While participatory approaches are supported by a growing body of research and practice, meaningfully involving the people affected by land degradation is far from straightforward. This paper investigates the challenge of using the UNCCD as a guide to influence community participation in policy‐making and practice at national and local levels by analyzing experiences from three southern African countries. We show that the UNCCD represents a useful normative framework for addressing degradation problems, but that the participatory ethos is difficult to enact at the national level. Whilst there is increasing evidence that combining local and scientific knowledge using participatory mechanisms can deliver the benefits that the Convention strives to achieve, communication between researchers and practitioners, and those involved in implementing the UNCCD at the national level needs to be strengthened. Broad lessons and best practices in incorporating participatory practices into policy development are elucidated. Our case studies show that a range of mixed‐method, interdisciplinary approaches can enable policy‐makers and practitioners to meaningfully engage those who are affected by land degradation in its definition, assessment and rehabilitation.     

Use of Landsat Thematic Mapper Data to Assess Seasonal Rangeland Changes in the Southeast Kalahari, Botswana

/ Management problems arise in semiarid rangeland that are characterized by marked wet and dry seasons because of forage deficiencies in the dry season. These natural vegetation rangelands can sustain livestock all year long when forage and senesced grass are available into the dry season. Seasonal range condition data are required to provide a basis for pasture management to help locate dry season cover and thereby minimize overstocking and degradation. The generation of seasonal data using Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery was undertaken to assess changes in natural vegetation cover in the southern Botswana Kalahari. Visual analysis of spectral reflectance curves, the development of spectral separability indexes, and conventional classification analysis techniques were used to identify and differentiate rangeland features. Results from reflectance curves indicated that most rangeland cover types could be preferentially distinguished using mainly wet season data, especially on the longer TM wavebands, and that range feature differentiation was more problematic on darker soils than on lighter soils. Spectral separability indexes (SSIs) confirmed that range feature separation varied considerably as a function of waveband and was more effective in the wet than the dry season. The SSIs also showed that range feature differentiation in both seasons was most effective using a combination of the chlorophyll absorpance band (TM3) and two mid-infrared bands (TM5 and TM7). Wet season data were more effectively classified in terms of range features than dry season data although some class similarity was inferred across the two classified data sets. The work shows that overall trends may be generated by comparing seasonal data sets, thereby providing an overall basis for dry season decision making. However, particular problems arise within the dry season data sets probably because of spectral similarities between shadow and darkened vegetation cover, thereby implying that further work is needed. KEY WORDS: Semiarid rangelands; Botswana; Kalahari; Spectral differentiation; Seasonal change; Darkened vegetation cover     

The African food crisis of 1982-1986*

The crisis cannot be attributed to any one cause, but rather it was the product of a number of interacting factors whose precise combination varied between countries. Drought, internal political and economic factors and an unfavourable external economic environment were significant contributory factors. Civil war and externally financed insurgency were primarily responsible for propelling a food crisis into a famine in four out of the six worst affected countries. Within the literature, there is a tendency for writers to emphasize the relative contribution of factors within their own disciplines. So far the literature on the responses, both within country and internationally, is comprised of eye witness accounts by journalists and evaluations by aid agencies of their performance. The international response by governments and the public was massive and unprecedented, but the response by governments, indigenous NGO's and the public within affected countries is often overlooked by the journalistic literature. Generalizations about "the African food crisis" have obscured the considerable diversity amongst countries. This is well illustrated by the experiences of Ethiopia, Kenya and Botswana. This diversity indicates the biased perspectives that arise from focussing on the extreme famines, as in Ethiopia. Research priorities should include studies of systems that coped during the crisis, historical analysis of the crisis, the way early warning information is processed within bureaucratic institutions, environmental degradation and fully integrated analysis of food production and consumption systems.     

Population,Development, and Waste Management in Botswana: Conceptual and Policy Implications for Climate Change

Based on government and other relevant documentation, this paper explores the conceptual linkage between population, development, and waste management in Botswana and the implications of this relationship for global climate change. Population is increasing, albeit at a decreasing rate. Spatially, the population is becoming more and more concentrated as the rates and level of urbanization increase. Economic growth has remained consistently high. The combined effect of population dynamics and economic development are having a noticeable imprint on the environment in the form of increased waste generation. Poor waste management poses a real threat to environmental sustainability in general and climate change in particular because of inadequate technology, weak institutional mechanisms to enforce regulations, and low levels of sensitization among the public to deal with the problem. Mitigation measures are suggested to minimize the negative effects of waste management on climate change.     

Institutions and water governance in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

The goals of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) can be achieved by embracing the principles of distributive governance, which places both customary and statutory water institutions on the same pedestal in the governance of water resources. As culture and traditions constitute intangible aspects of water resources management in rural Africa, the recognition of water governance systems grounded in local norms, which correspond better with the aspirations of local water users as against the expert-knowledge systems is desirable. Following the introduction of the statutory institutions in postcolonial Africa, customary institutions, which were once effective in regulating water resources became relegated to the background in those countries, including Botswana . Adopting a critical literature review approach, this article employs the concept of legal pluralism to analyze the institutional factors that create the disharmony between cultural and statutory water governance and management institutions. Findings indicate that water has been abstracted from its social nature and transformed into a tradable economic good. Ultimately, the local meanings and images encoded in water as a nature-given resource are overlooked, thus generating conflicts in water governance. The paper recommends the adoptions of legal pluralism under which water institutions need to embrace both customary and statutory institutions.     

Utilization Characteristics and Importance of Woody Biomass Resources on the Rural-Urban Fringe in Botswana

This article examines the utilization characteristics and importance of woody biomass resources in the rural-urban fringe zones of Botswana. In the literature for Africa, attention has been given to the availability and utilization of biomass in either urban or rural environments, but the rural-urban fringe has been neglected. Within southern Africa, this neglect is not justified; the rural-urban fringe, not getting the full benefits available in urban environments in Botswana, has developed problems in woody biomass availability and utilization that require close attention. In this article, socioeconomic data on the importance of woody biomass in the Batlokwa Tribal Territory, on the rural-urban fringe of Gaborone, Botswana, were collected together with ecologic data that reveal the utilization characteristics and potential for regrowth of woody biomass. The analysis of these results show that local woody biomass is very important in the daily lives of communities in the rural-urban fringe zones and that there is a high level of harvesting. However, there is no effort in planning land use in the tribal territory to either conserve this resource or provide alternatives to its utilization. The future of woody biomass resources in Botswana’s rural-urban fringe is uncertain. The investigators recommend that a comprehensive policy for the development of the rural-urban fringe consider the importance of this resource. The neglect of this resource will have far-reaching implications on the livelihoods of residents as well as the environment in this zone.     

The development and applications of a Drought Early Warning System in Botswana*

This article describes the indicators and data sources used by the Botswana Drought Early Warning System formally established in early 1984, the main uses of the indicators in the assessment of drought conditions and the design of relief programmes are outlined. Limitations of the sources of data available are discussed, as is the feasibility of adding some possible further indicators. In conclusion, the importance of a functioning Early Warning System in a country highly susceptible to repeated droughts is stressed, in the context of die current effort to elaborate a comprehensive National Food Strategy and to establish a Regional Early Warning System for Southern Africa.