BUAN, Wildlife Trust collaborate on communal herd, wildlife protection

The Herders training project has been approved by Botswana Qualifications Authority ( BQA). It is anticipated that it will help improve Batswana’s skills in land degradation management, as well as livestock and wildlife protection, as Government tries to introduce a cost- effective and inclusive model of communal herding for livestock and wildlife protection.

The challenge of free- roaming animal attacks on livestock and the destruction they cause farmers have cost Government over P5 million in compensations in the past years. It is hoped that the skills attained from the course close this gap and increase skills and vigilance. The Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources ( BUAN) recently entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Wildlife Trust to roll out the herders’ course with the hope that the trainees would gain key critical skills and return to their communities with improved knowledge on how to implement solutions to wild animals and livestock management.

Acting Deputy Vice- Chancellor of BUAN, Professor Jerry Seleke expressed hope that the partnership would yield the desired results, saying that the anticipation is that the acquired skills and training would improve and sustain the biodiversity of rangelands and predator species.

He explained that the mandate of the course is to enhance conservation and reduce the mortality of apex predators and large carnivores.

“This will be done through improving net livestock in subsistence pastoral production systems through the reduction of livestock mortality due to predatory large carnivores.” The aim is to enhance livestock husbandry practices that are predator friendly, and also reduce the risk of livestock predation, and initiate farmer- based livestock monitoring systems. According to BUAN, the course will also help improve the health and welfare coordination of livestock and the condition of rangelands for long- term ecosystem health and sustainability. Livestock predation by free- roaming wild animals such as buffaloes, rhinos, and elephants is a recurring challenge in many communities across Botswana, particularly in the north where there is a large presence of wildlife.

The attacks are largely due to climate change impacts that have seen a scarcity of food and water as rangelands and water- lands decline. USAID findings have established that sometimes wild animals are forced to move for longer distances in search of food and water, which sometimes leads to them entering homesteads and agricultural land and causing havoc as they drink from boreholes and kill livestock. Sometimes to protect their lives and livestock, some farmers kill the wild animals while others lose their lives in the process.

In efforts to remedy this situation, the Government intervened by erecting fences in areas where wildlife intrusion is prevalent, however, some wild animals damaged them, and it is too costly for the farmers to restore them. In fact, this is one reason outgoing Ambassador Craig Cloud donated fences to residents in Maun and surrounding areas last week.

A report by the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis ( BIDPA) released last year indicates that about 50 farmers had been killed in wild animal attacks and about 100 faced injuries, due to increased encroaching on agricultural land by wild animals. Mogadi Masedi, founding director of Habu Elephant Trust ( HET), pointed out that communities in dense wildlife animal areas have had to find ways to reconcile biodiversity, wildlife conservation, and livestock protection to avert costs. He cited an example with HET initiatives, noting that in efforts to arrest the challenge of animals encroaching in human settlements, particularly on agricultural land, they had developed three boreholes: the first for vegetable farmers, the other for cattle, and another for wildlife.

He explained that they had also implemented a grazing management system that includes rotational growing and production of fodder.

“These are all systems that we believe will add value to sustainable environment management because we want to inculcate co- existence and also protect our natural eco- systems.”