Africa-Press – Botswana. Communities play an integral part in achieving sustainable land management and natural resources conservation.
This was the opinion of different speakers at an inception workshop for Botswana Sustainable Miombo-Mopane Landscape Management project in Kasane on Friday, attended by stakeholders from government, NGOs, farmers associations, dikgosi, Community Based Natural Resources Management Organisations.
Giving a project overview, national project coordinator, Ms Dineo Gaborekwe stated that the project promoted integrated management of Miombo- Mopane landscapes in Chobe and Tutume-Mosetse sub basins, which would be achieved through implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) interventions designed to attain Land Degradation Neutrality targets.
She indicated that Botswana had targets aligned with Global Sustainable Development Goals, to end and reverse deforestation to combat climate change.
Ms Gaborekwe stated that the Miombo-Mopane landscape faced challenges of land degradation due to expansion of agricultural land, collection of firewood by cutting down trees and livestock grazing land.
She said the project office intended to craft policies to incorporate into land use management plans and offer capacity building of forest extension services for the two districts.
Ms Gaborekwe highlighted that the workshop intended to lay groundwork and spark conversation with all stakeholders in Chobe District in order to pave way for the technical work that would follow.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) environment project officer, Mr Lesika Basalumi said the objective of the project was to reverse, avoid, and reduce land degradation to attain sustainable land management.
He said FAO partnered with government through ministries of agriculture and that of environment and tourism, to offer technical support while Global Environmental Facility (GEF) financed the project at a cost of P66 982 900 (US$ 5 million).
Mr Basalumi pointed out that the project would come up with activities aimed at enhancing productivity of the land, which would include restoration aspect in order to reverse land degradation.He stated that through sustainable natural resources, there would be an improvement in food production that would combat hunger in these areas.
Mr Basalumi said this is a regional project because there are six countries in the SADC region covered by the dry land ecosystem known as Miombo-Mophane landscape,
He added that consultation with community leaders was an important component to help champion and rollout the project to their respective communities who co-existed with natural resources.
DAILYNEWS
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