Sustainable Management of Water, Wildlife and Agriculture in Botswana: The Case of Mmadinare Area

Abstract

This paper uses a case study, by the same authors, on the human wildlife interactions in Mmadinare, to assess to what extent sustainable management can be achieved. The authors of this paper conducted research on human wildlife interactions, mainly elephants, around Mmadinare. Human wildlife interaction describes how people and animals co-exist, interact and affect each other. People in the study area, like in many parts of the country, carry out subsistence agricultural production of basic food crops like maize, sorghum and beans. They also keep livestock mainly cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys, which are watered from open water sources, boreholes or the river. Several dams, which were necessary to address the national water need, are located in and around the study area. The dams inadvertently improved the water availability for wildlife, mainly elephants in the area. The elephant population in the study area has reportedly increased and their residence has become longer. Elephants destroy crops, agricultural equipment and are a threat to human life. This paper has five parts. The first part describes the Botswana environment. It explains the water developments around Mmadinare which were to improve the resource sustainability nationwide. The second part looks into the study area and the human wildlife issue. The third part details the findings of the case study conducted in Mmadinare and some of its proposed solutions. The fourth part shows how Botswana’s Vision 2036, the National Development Plan and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are integrated. The fifth describes how the human wildlife interactions issues in the study area may affect the country’s attainment of eight identified SDGs. Eight conceptual scenarios are developed to highlight how SDGs can be contextualised to deal with the development challenges in the study area.