Okavango Delta

The management system is complex and involves a large number of local and national agencies. The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism (MENRCT) provides overall coordination at national level as most of the seven departments within the Ministry are involved in one way or another with site management. The MENRCT’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks has direct management authority over about 23% of the area (Moremi Game Reserve) while the Department of Environmental Affairs is serving an important role in coordinating the various district and national agencies. The Tawana Land Board and Botswana Tourism Organisation are also key players in management. Whilst the existing system seems to be working remarkably well, consideration should be given to the possibility of establishing a single authority with overall responsibility for the World Heritage site to avoid problems which might otherwise arise from over-lapping mandates and poor coordination in the longer term.
Amongst the various land-use and development plans that cover the World Heritage site the 2008 Okavango Delta Management Plan is most relevant, and is used as the de facto management framework through which the OUV of the property is maintained. However, the focus of this plan is the RAMSAR-designated wetland of international importance, a much bigger area than that covered by the World Heritage site and pre-dates the sites inscription under the World Heritage Convention (State Party of Botswana, 2020). Therefore the need to develop a revised management plan for the site that incorporates the requirements of world heritage status and addresses the current reality in the site is well recognised (State Party of Botswana, 2020; IUCN Consultation, 2020). Such a plan is still yet to be formulated, due to delays in the tender process, however is at the scoping phase of development having drafted an inception report (State Party of Botswana, 2020).

In general, Wildlife Management Areas that are leased to commercial tourism operators appear to benefit from the highest standards of management and protection, while there are significant short-comings in the Game Reserve, Community Trust and Controlled Hunting Areas. This may be attributed to the disparity in financial and human resources available across differing governance and management regimes operating within different zones in the site. Whilst much of the area is inaccessible and requires little management intervention, there is a need for additional resources to improve the effectiveness of wildlife protection, tourism regulation, community-based resource management, visitor interpretation, ecological monitoring and alien plant control (IUCN, 2013; UNESCO, 2018; World Heritage Committee, 2018). There is also a need to involve community, NGO and private sector stakeholders in management decision making for the property through a multi-stakeholder Management Advisory Body (IUCN 2013; UNESCO, 2018; World Heritage Committee, 2018). The most recent State Party state of conservation report states that many of the previously identified issues relating to the effectiveness of the management system, including 'integration of wildlife monitoring protocols in the systematic wildlife monitoring programme, governance as well as access, cultural rights, and benefits will be addressed in detail in the revised management plan' (State Party of Botswana, 2020). However, given the significant and ongoing delays in delivering the tender for the management plan review, the effectiveness of the management plan remains of some concern. 

The boundaries of the core area of the property encompass most of the permanent swamps and seasonally flooded grasslands, and include a substantial additional area of adjacent deciduous woodlands. Five distinct management regimes apply to zones within the site. Moremi Game Reserve occupies about 23% of the core area and lies approximately in the centre of the property, surrounded by WMAs and CHAs. Thus the protected area design principles of having a totally protected core surrounded by zones designated for multiple uses are applicable in this case. The boundaries were modified after submission of the nomination dossier, and now cover a core area of 20,236 km2 with a buffer zone of 22,866 km2 (SoOUV, 2014). The main elements, species and processes characteristic of the delta could be sustained within this area.
It must be recognized that the property’s Outstanding Universal Value will only be maintained if the inflowing river and its tributaries in Angola and Namibia are kept in a natural state without abstraction of water, building of dams and/or the development of agricultural irrigation schemes. Therefore, effective trans-boundary cooperation among Botswana, Angola and Namibia on management of the shared Cubango-Okavango River Basin is critical for the conservation of the Okavango Delta World Heritage property. To this end, the States Parties of Angola, Botswana and Namibia have engaged in discussions to assess the feasibility of potential trans-boundary extension of the Okavango Delta World Heritage property (IUCN Consultation, 2020). To date, an Action Plan to take forward this trans-boundary initiative has been adopted and approval of Terms of Reference for the engagement of a consultant to do a Feasibility study for the project has been approved by the newly established Steering Committee (IUCN Consultation, 2020).
Furthermore, it should be recognized that much of the mega-fauna migrates to areas beyond the boundaries of the property and is consequently vulnerable to hunting and/or any change of status in the buffer zone and beyond. The modified boundary provides for the inclusion of most of an important elephant migration corridor along the ‘Selinda Spillway’ to the north of the delta, and provides important connectivity with Chobe National Park along about 60km of common boundary. However, the "Caprivi Border Fence" between Botswana and Namibia, in the north and northwest of the property continues to be of concern.

Management of the property is well supported by regional and national planning systems, but has no unified management authority of its own. The nomination dossier (GoB, 2012) identifies no fewer than 37 pieces of legislation, policies, protocols and plans supporting conservation of the property, ranging from Botswana’s Vision 2016 to district and area-based plans such as the Okavango Delta Management Plan (covering the RAMSAR-designated area). However, it is recognised that the ODMP needs to be reviewed to streamline it to other planning instruments. In particular, the current ODMP was not drafted in consonance with both the District Development Plan and the National Development Plan (NDP) (IUCN Consultation, 2020). The degree to which the outstanding universal value of the property, as inscribed on the World Heritage list, is addressed and managed under the existing management plan, which relates mostly to the much larger Ramsar site, is also an issue which would benefit from clarification in the management plan review. Encouraging progress has been made towards managing transboundary conservation issues which have potential impacts to the property's OUV, including exploring the possibility of a transboundary extension to the property through a feasibility study to be commissioned (albeit prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, which put such plans on hold) (IUCN Consultation, 2020) as well as under the structures of the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM), through which any proposed major developments within the Okavango watershed are subject to EIAs in conformity with IUCNs World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment in the three riparian states of Angola, Botswana and Namibia (State Party of Botswana, 2020; OKACOM, 2020), including the recent completion of the development of guidelines for ‘Assistance to implement the SADC Protocol on shared watercourses by the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission’s Member States’. The Okavango property lies in the heart of the KAZA region (the Kavango Zambezi Transboundary Conservation Area) which is also an active and integrated regional planning authority that includes the State Parties of Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia, and with the KAZA secretariat based in Kasane, Botswana.

A management zoning regime is in place through which the interests of local communities are addressed. Three small settlements, with a total population of 530 individuals, are located within the core area of the property. People residing in these settlements, as well as those living around the periphery of the core area, have user access rights to fish, reeds, thatch, medicinal and building products. There are restrictions on the type of resource use that may be carried out in particular areas (see below), but in general areas designated as Wildlife Management Areas that are leased to Community Trusts are managed on a ‘sustainable use’ basis by the communities concerned and land-use may include livestock keeping (outside of the Okavango Delta's Livestock-free Zone) and cultivation in addition to harvesting a range of wildlife products. The lifting of a nation-wide hunting ban on elephants in 2019 may have impacts on the focus of community-based conservation efforts. During the five year ban, introduced in 2014, communities were provided with technical assistance in support of their Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programmes, and those that were previously benefiting from commercial hunting revenues were being encouraged to re-align their CBNRM activities towards non-consumptive (tourism) activities. Many of the beneficiaries of these programmes are members of the San/Basarwa communities, the original inhabitants of the area (some of whom were displaced when Moremi Game Reserve was created). However with the lifting of the ban, and subsequent auctions for the hunting licenses taking place in 2020 (TIME, 2020), regulated commercial hunting may be re-integrated into management regimes implemented in the site. The degree of community involvement in the newly tendered commercial hunting licenses is uncertain and so therefore are the subsequent benefits derived from it. The UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights (Shaheed, 2016) on her visit to Botswana, was pleased to receive the Botswana Government’s assurances that there will be no fencing off of the area, nor eviction of local communities, nor disruption of their rights of access to natural resources. The Special Rapporteur noted that consultations with communities were on-going through, for example, a multi-stakeholders community consultative conference held in Maun in March 2015. It is noted that the outcomes of this participatory workshop held in Maun (Satau et al. 2015), included recommendations that the indigenous peoples should approach government to promote an Okavango Delta wide governance system for the Okavango site that would include all the different communities and traditional authorities, relevant government ministries, and the private sector. The Government of Botswana is currently implementing the Community Management of Protected Areas for Conservation (COMPACT) project in the panhandle area of the Okavango Delta with the aim strengthening community engagement in management and conservation of the site World Heritage sites by working to improve the livelihoods of local communities (deriving benefits) through community-based initiatives, and increase the effectiveness of the biodiversity conservation in doing so (IUCN Consultation, 2020).

The legal framework for protection of the property is weaker than would normally be expected for a conservation area of such outstanding value. Less than 25% of the area is designated as Game Reserve, through which it is protected against all forms of consumptive use. This area (the Moremi Game Reserve, 4,610 km2) lies at the centre of the ‘core area’ and its status was deemed likely to be upgraded to National Park designation at the time of inscription (IUCN, 2013), however this has never occured. The Game Reserve is surrounded by 18 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) and 1 Controlled Hunting Area, which make up three quarters of the world heritage property. WMAs are areas of tribal land held in trust for communities by a government agency, the Tawana Land Board (TLB). The TLB leases the land to commercial tourism operators and/or community trusts, and supervises the activities of lease-holders. The legislation governing WMAs and CHAs allows settlement, cultivation, livestock (outside of the Okavango Delta's Livestock-free Zone) and other activities that would not normally be expected within a ‘protected area’, so it is up to the TLB to determine lease terms, including any restrictions that it might impose for the benefit of wildlife. In practice, the TLB exercises its powers in a manner that ensures that ‘commercial’ WMAs (12 of the 18 WMAs making up the core area of the WHS) are used exclusively for high-end tourism operations where no settlement, cultivation or livestock is permitted, while ‘community’ WMAs are less restrictive and commonly include areas for cultivation and livestock (most associated settlements have been excluded from the core zone and are located in the buffer zone, except as noted above).
Whilst positive changes have been made by the State Party to remove extractives licences from within the property and its buffer zone, the possible exploration for petroleum and metal immediately adjacent to the buffer zone has the potential to impact on the OUV. An extension the legal framework at the basin scale to ensure any extractives project beyond the buffer zone to ensure an assessment of impacts on the OUV would help strengthen the protection of the property.
 

In terms of the legal framework being effectively enforced it is noted that concern was raised in the IUCN Technical Evaluation Report (WHN 2014) regarding the anti-poaching activities and wildlife management that are carried out by a very limited number of patrol staff at Moremi Game Reserve and by a number of other government, community and private sector operations. This has been evidenced somewhat by reports of increasing poaching activity, with an almost sixfold increase in frsh elepahnt carcasses between 2014-2018 within the area of the site (Schlossberg et al., 2019). It was found that overall, on-the-ground management of wildlife appeared weak, lacking necessary resources, and being somewhat ad-hoc. There was found to be a general lack of capacity (material resources, vehicles, staff and funding) to fully implement the management plan. The State Party State of Conservation report (GoB 2015) again highlights the limited resources (financial and human resources) available for implementing conservation programmes, including enforcement, as outlined in the ODMP. However, the State Party has confirmed its commitment to providing resources for the protection and management of the Okavango Delta and has since April 2014, made purchases and rationalised staff so as to strengthen management and monitoring of the site. It is also noted that the cooperation between DWNP and the Botswana Defence Force in anti-poaching enforcement is considered by many of the Tour Operators in the region to be effective (IUCN Consultation, 2016). Additionally, whilst the legal basis for ensuring water quality within the site exists through the national wastewater pollution standards there is widespread non-compliance amongst wastewater-generating facilities in the site (State Party of Botswana, 2020). 

The property was inscribed in 2014 and progress has been made on a number of issues addressed by the Committee (State Party of Botswana, 2020; UNESCO, 2018; World Heritage Committee, 2018) including:
- Developed protocols for wildlife monitoring in the Okavango Delta through the support of SAREP, including a web-based portal for analyzing the data.
- Relinquished all the prospecting licenses in the property and the cancellation of all petroleum and metals prospecting licenses in the buffer zone.
- - Continued and expanded implementation of livelihoods programmes in the Delta.
- Progress has been made in consulting the indigenous peoples on cultural heritage related issues.
- Addressing the governance, stakeholder and coordination issues for the effective management of the property.
- Continued with control and monitoring of invasive alien species within the property.
- Collaboration between the States Parties of Botswana, Angola and Namibia through the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) to ensure any proposed major development within the Okavango watershed is subject to an EIA and the development of a basin-wide Environmental Monitoring Framework.
- Reviewing the feasibility of a transboundary extension of the property to include key areas of the Cubango-Okavango River Basin in cooperation with the other riparian states.
- Aerial wildlife surveys carried out in 2019 to update species inventories of large mammals and provide baseline ecological data for future monitoring efforts.

Some outstanding actions still remain however, such as: finalising the Management Plan for the property; undertaking an EIA for the veterinary cordon fences; revising the EIA for the Mohembo bridge; and submitting the aerial wildlife survey results.

The Delta has been inhabited for centuries by small numbers of indigenous people, living a hunter-gatherer existence with different groups adapting their cultural identity and lifestyle to the exploitation of particular resources (e.g. fishing or hunting). This form of low-level subsistence use has had no significant impact on the ecological integrity of the area, and today mixed settlements of indigenous peoples and later immigrants to the area are located around the fringes of the delta, mostly outside the boundaries of the property. Six of the 18 Wildlife Management Areas in the core area are under lease to community trusts where community members use the land for cultivation and livestock rearing, and harvesting of wild products such as fish, thatching grass, reeds, medicines and building poles. The community trusts benefit from a good system of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) Technical Advisory Committees (TACs). At the time of inscription, local communities were directly managing and using natural resources through their Community Based Organizations (CBOs). Since 2014 local communities no longer sign theses leases with the Tawana land Board. The Department of Lands now signs concessions directly with tour operators. A leading motivation behind the change was to provide equitable access to resources for communities through the Tourism Development Fund which supports a fairer distribution of wealth amongst a greater number of CBO’s (GoB 2015). There has also been the recent commitment by the State party that there will be no fencing off of the area, nor eviction of local communities, nor disruption of their rights of access to natural resources (Shaheed 2016).

The nomination dossier (GoB, 2012) notes that most funding comes from government and there is a shortage of resources for the management of the site, which has continued to be reported since (State Party of Botswana, 2016; 2018). The various government departments involved in the site receive the equivalent of approximately US$1 million annually at district level (for all their district-wide activities, only a portion of which involves the Okavango Delta WHS). The DWNP submits all revenue from Moremi Game Reserve to the national treasury, so there is no direct revenue retention scheme for re-investment in the property (although a trial scheme is now underway in the nearby Chobe National Park). Land royalties have recently been increased to 6% of the gross revenues taken by all tourism operations in the delta, which must amount to a substantial sum (the nomination dossier records US$ 750,000 of royalties at the old 3% rate). Revenue from land royalties is also submitted to the national treasury and will go into a new National Environment Fund (it was previously administered by District Authorities). With such a substantial ‘high-end’ tourism industry operating in the delta it seems very feasible, particularly under the proposed review of the management plan, to design and implement a suitable mechanism to re-invest a portion of revenues in the management and conservation of the property, but this is not yet in place. And there remains an administrative issue as the area of the World Heritage site is not a recognised management unit under a recognised authority that could manage its own budget and resources.
The private concessions in some of the Wildlife Management Areas are economically driven entities which seem to be very successful (IUCN, 2013). The income is partly used to maintain and develop the concession sites according to the approved management plans, while land royalties are paid to government, thereby supporting (indirectly) government’s capacity to regulate and manage the property. The site continues to benefit from the GEF, whose Small Grants Programme has administered arond $5 million since 1992 in Botswana, of which a significant portion has been invested in projects in the site given that the Delta is perhaps the nations hub for conservation and natural resource management CBO and NGOs (IUCN Consultation, 2020). 

The Okavango Research Institute plays a significant role in training for monitoring and ecological management. Training has also been carried out for tour guides at various concessions for the implementation of a wildlife monitoring protocol.

There are various government departments and non-governmental organizations implementing programmes for local communities such as the Community Based Natural Resources Programme (CBNRM), Poverty Eradication Programme, Youth Empowerment Schemes and Youth Development Fund, Funding programmes such as Citizen Entrepreneurship Development Agency (CEDA), Technical Capacity Building programmes for small enterprises through Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) and the revision of the Tourism Policy of 1992 to provide opportunities for citizens to participate in the tourism sector (GoB 2015). It is also noted that although the State Party is committed to continuing to empower different stakeholders in the conservation of the site, for example through the ongoing COMPACT project which will conclude in 2021 (IUCN Consultation, 2020).

Tourism is a substantial industry in the Okavango Delta, generating significant revenue and employment. At the time of inscription, there were 100 camps and lodges within the property, 33 establishments in nearby towns and villages, as well as 86 registered mobile camping safari operators (GoB, 2012). In general tourism operations are high-end, low-volume activities with small tented camp facilities located in exclusive concession areas reached by private charter aircraft. Management of concessions and the tendering and award of leases is carried out by the Department of Tourism (soon becoming a self-financing parastatal, the Botswana Tourism Organisation) and the Tawana Land Board.

Monitoring of some parameters related to the ecological function and management of the delta is carried out by various government agencies and parastatal organizations. The Department of Water Affairs has maintained an extensive network of hydrological stations throughout the delta since the late 1960s, providing invaluable long-term information on the flooding cycle and changes in water quality. The University of Botswana’s Okavango Research Institute (ORI) has been monitoring various environmental parameters, on a rather ad hoc basis, for the past 16 years and has recently established a monitoring section. The State Party, through the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) continues to work with researchers from the Okavango Research Institute (ORI), independent researchers and University of Botswana to conduct research on wildlife in the Okavango Delta. In March 2015, DWNP in partnership with ORI, held a symposium on Wetlands and Wildlife in Botswana which was attended by researchers, scientists, independent research organizations, NGOs, Community Based Organizations and government departments to share their research findings. The research results will contribute to the effective protection and management of the property. Aerial censuses of large mammal populations have been carried out sporadically by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks and non-governmental conservation organizations, while Birdlife Botswana monitors populations of globally threatened bird species. In general, far greater effort is required towards the development of a comprehensive, systematic monitoring programme that provides the data required to inform adaptive management of the delta (GoB, 2012). Despite maintaining these partnerships, the State Party has not yet managed to establish the population baselines for key species and tracking long term trends. Current monitoring is therefore informed by the population census conducted in 2012. The State Party has however signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Okavango Research Institute to ensure collaboration in research in the Okavango Delta. Also, and in partnership with the Southern African Regional Environmental Programme (SAREP), DWNP has managed to establish a wildlife monitoring programme. The monitoring programme is aimed at collecting data to address the issue of the decline of wildlife populations in Northern Botswana as shown by the population census conducted in 2011 and 2012 by DWNP and Dr Mike Chase respectively. The programme has established Standardized Monitoring Protocols for the basic monitoring of flora and fauna within the Ngamiland concessions. As part of this monitoring tool, SAREP has also designed an Interactive Web-based Database and Basic Analyzing tool for Concessions (Bourquin and Brooks 2014). Hydrological monitoring data is also collected, presently there are twenty four sampling sites in the Okavango Delta of which nine are in the Core Zone (State Party of Botswana, 2020). Aerial wildlife sruveys have been carried out in 2019, the results of which wil be reported to UNESCO and the advisory body. These surveys represent positive steps forward and will be important for evaluating whether wildlife populations have been maintained since the previous 2012 survey, and should serve as a baseline for establishing a regular monitoring programme of wildlife populations (IUCN Consultation, 2020).

The Okavango Research Institute carries out a range of research activities some of which have a direct bearing on management. Research tends to be project-related and determined by the availability of funding. A research strategy has been developed as part of the Okavango Delta Management Plan (DEA, 2008). A targeted research programme that feeds into an implemented adaptive management system of the site, needs to be developed. Meanwhile there are numerous private and Non-Profit research projects currently underway in the Okavango WHS.