With one of the highest lion populations in the world, Botswana is no stranger to farmer-lion conflicts. Although Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB) focuses on Africa’s most threatened large cat species —cheetahs — increasingly, landscape level conservation efforts have led the organization to assist communities in dealing with a range of carnivores, including lions. In September, our Farming for Conservation team, along with representatives of the Ghanzi Farmers Network, paid a visit to the Communities Living Among Wildlife Sustainably (CLAWS) project site in Eretsha village in the eastern Panhandle of the Okavango Delta to learn more about how they are working to reduce farmer-lion conflict.
In the eastern side of the Okavango Panhandle, a population of approximately 50 lions overlaps with historical grazing lands of the villages between Seronga and Gudigwe, resulting in an average predation rate of 120 animals per year and lions being killed in retribution for these losses.
The cattle population in the area has grown 76% since 2006 to 16,000 head, and this increase, combined with the fact that cattle move into the delta to graze, means that conflicts with lions are a common issue for the farming community. Another problem faced by these communities is that the over-utilization of the delta for watering cattle has led not only to overgrazing in the areas south of the villages, but decreasing cattle condition due in part to an abundance of diseases and internal parasites present in these water-dominant environments.
CLAWS applies a dual-pronged approach to addressing conflict in this area. Firstly, the use of technology allows a better understanding of cattle and lion movements. Placing GPS tracking collars on cattle have shown that the animals move up to 10km into the delta to graze, putting them at greater risk of predation. Placing GPS tracking collars on lions allows the creation of a geofence around the affected communities so that when lions cross the invisible geofence, an alert is sent to all interested farmers in the area, stating which lion it is, where it is located and how close it may be to any collared cattle. This allows farmers to kraal their livestock to keep them safe, or to send out patrols to push the lions away from the communities.
This technique alone has been able to decrease predation by over 50%. Secondly, CLAWS is working to revive the age old tradition of active herding in partnership with the Herding for Health programme of Conservation International and Peace Parks Foundation, in a bid to reduce overgrazing, improve herd productivity and build community capacity. Through this programme, the first communal herd in Botswana, comprising over 80% of the village cattle (approximately 1,000 head), has been established; community led rotational grazing plans have been designed; and herders have been professionally trained to monitor livestock health and implementation of the grazing plans. At night, the herd is kraaled in lion-proof mobile kraals which allow the recovery of the rangelands. Furthermore, with the issues of conflict, overgrazing and disease exacerbated in the southern areas, CLAWS has plans to drill boreholes in the northern grazing lands to allow for more diversity of grazing areas. By switching from continual grazing to rotational grazing, the veldt is given a chance to recover, which is especially important after drought years – a feature that is becoming increasingly common with climate change. As a consequence of these measures, the communities have seen a reduction in conflict of over 70%. In addition to the provision of boreholes further up north, ultimately healthier more productive cattle herds, and rejuvenated rangelands, the programme is working with tourism lodges in the area that have shown an interest in procuring “wildlife-friendly beef ” from farmers active in the programme, thus offering them a market – something livestock farmers in the foot and mouth red zone welcome. CLAWS is also supporting the communities to open up an abattoir in the area for those farmers participating in the communal herds, reducing the dependence on Maun’s BMC and negating the need for quarantining in Makalamabedi, which is a cost shouldered by the farmers themselves. Programmes such as this are becoming increasingly common, and seek to secure positive outcomes not only for the wildlife (in this case, lions) but for livestock as well. Ultimately, whether at a fine scale at the village level or at a gross scale, humans should be seeking out ways to coexist with the wildlife endemic to our specific areas. Not just for the sake of the wildlife biodiversity but also, as explained in previous articles, to enable nature to continue to provide critical ecosystem services on which we rely for our survival – such as the provision of clean air and water, healthy rangelands and productive soils. One often finds that if the choice is available, host communities are happy to share their home ranges with wildlife – but fundamental to this is to have means and ways in which farmers can concurrently secure their livelihoods and be recognized (by participating more fully) in the management of the natural resource base.
CCB’s team learnt a lot from the visit to CLAWS and is keen to apply relevant lessons to the local scenario in the Ghanzi District in collaboration with their partnering farming communities.
For more information about the CLAWS programme, visit www.clawsconservancy.org
For more information about the work that CCB does, visit www.cheetahconservationbotswana.org
