Pastoralists in Botswana’s Okavango Delta ready to coexist with lions

As first appeared in Weekend Post in Botswana, here. Written by Solomon Tjinyeka.

January 8 2023

Pilot programme supports livestock protection and ranger patrols to reduce cattle predation and retaliatory lion killings

A lion stalks its prey in southern Botswana.

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mage by Thomas Evans.

Quqao pastoral farmers in Botswana’s Okavango delta are now ready to safely share their land with lions and end their decades long conflicts with the dangerous predators and other carnivores thanks to an innovative conservation programme, implemented by Maun based NGO, Save Wildlife Conservation Fund.

The programme dubbed ‘Save Lions’ is piloted in Quqao settlement, located in the periphery of the cordon fence also known as buffalo fence, the boundary that separates cattle and livestock in the northern Botswana.

The area has the highest number of conflicts with lions compared to other neighbouring settlements in the delta. The project will enable people and lions to coexist peacefully in the long run.

Baseki Mohuwe, chairman of Save Wildlife’s lion project explained that as farmers living closer to wildlife areas, they were always in close proximity with lions and other carnivores and as a result, their livestock became easy prey for predators. He added that this affected their livelihoods and it forced many farmers to kill lions in retaliation. The killings of lions in large numbers around Quqao threatened the lion population in the Okavango Delta.

He said Save Wildlife’s project came at the right time as it will conserve lions and also benefit farmers by reducing the human-wildlife conflict.

Mohuwe also highlighted that since the beginning of the project there has been a lot of improvement and now many farmers understand the value of lions and do not kill them.

He explained the six people from the community have been trained as lion rangers and their duty is to patrol the area and inform farmers of the locations of lions and advise them where to herd their cattle to avoid coming into contact with the big cats. 

“Since the introductions of the project, we have the information about the lions unlike before where we were releasing our cattle to any directions to graze without the knowledge of the direction of lions,” Mohuwe stated, adding that there is an improvement as rangers patrol and monitors the movements of lions in the area.

He added that their cattle become easy prey to lions because of their proximity to buffalo fences. Mohuwe said although the project is at infancy stage, they have experienced positive development as most community members were engaged in capacity building on how to coexist with wild animals and the importance of wild animals.

He added that they were informed that the project at a later stage will introduce communal herding which will improve their way of taking care of their livestock. He added that the project is developing a sustainable model for the communities in the delta by targeted environmental education, enabling communities to raise awareness from an early age and showing new ways of dealing with wildlife.

Mohuwe stressed that the project will also include effective measures such as mobile and predator proof fences which will protect herds and lions.

Mohuwe further noted that some community members went to Eretsha village to learn from CLAWS Conservancy, a conservation organisation that has successfully implemented the same concept for livestock protection.

CLAWS has designed the programme to reduce the conflicts and promote coexistence. Another component of the programme is communal herding, introduced in 2018 to reduce conflict by increasing efficiency, whereby certified herders monitor livestock, and protect them from predators, allowing community members to engage in other livelihood activities knowing that their livestock are safe.

This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organisation Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Written articles from the Mozambican and Angolan cohorts are translated from Portuguese. Broadcast stories remain in the original language.