Pride in our prides: mitigating livestock conflict with lions in Botswana’s Okavango Delta

As first appeared in The Voice in Botswana, here. Produced by Innocent Tshukudu.

December 23 2022

A conservation organisation uses technology and tradition to conserve lions and improve livelihoods

A lioness names Secharo sporting a satellite collar which sends real time data to a text alert system that is reducing conflict between lions and villagers in the Okavango Delta.

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mage by CLAWS Conservancy.

Decimated lion prides in Botswana’s Okavango Delta rangelands are making a comeback, thanks to an innovative programme that helps reduce human-lion conflict in the area. When nations from across the globe made pledges towards achieving the world’s collective climate goals at the COP27 summit in Egypt in November last year, closer to home, a conservation organisation was already steps ahead. Communities Living Among Wildlife Sustainably, aka CLAWS, has responded to the urgent need to develop innovative approaches to promote people’s coexistence with animals. The non-profit organisation works with farmers to improve livestock management to protect rangelands and to reduce human-lion conflict in the northern Okavango Delta of Botswana.

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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.