Restoring Southern Africa’s Greatest Wildlife Migrations
Written by: Dennis Sizemore, Executive Director for Round River
From Natural Selection travel catalog pages 44-45
“It is simply visceral. Witnessing northern Botswana’s multiplicity of life, it imaginably harkens to our collective savannah beginnings or directly to our childhood fantasies. The lands comprising Botswana’s iconic natural areas, the Greater Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan National Parks have for millennia sustained indigenous peoples, while simultaneously supporting abundant and diverse wildlife populations. Within the conscience of many elder Tswana people, however, it is a very recent time when this landscape supported far more, as herds of hundreds of thousands freely moved about this landscape.
“Less than fifty years ago, large fences were constructed to crisscross and stretch for hundreds of kilometres across northern Botswana to accommodate European standards for beef production. These so-called veterinarian fences severed migratory routes, resulting in immediate and catastrophic losses of thousands of trapped wildlife. Over time, the remaining and increasingly immobile wildlife populations were believed to be stable, even though they were forced to be ever more reliant to artificial water sources. There is no, however a growing awareness that the life-sustaining processes of this entire region are in jeopardy. Exacerbated by changing climates, unsustainable livestock numbers, reduced livestock grazing areas and wildlife habitats, the numbers and diversity of wildlife are declining, and agricultural productivity is lessening, whilst conflict between wildlife and the local communities is ever escalating. Presently, there are very few economic incentives for communities to coexist with wildlife. While tourism represents the most viable opportunity for much needed financial assistance, the viability of expanding the tourism industry to benefit local economies is in turn dependent upon increasing and expanding wildlife numbers.
“Fortunately, a spectacle recently witnessed by wildlife researchers is providing both hope and a way forward. During 2008-2009, after the removal of a veterinary fence blocking a migration route, 15,000 zebras walked from the Okavango Delta to the Makgadikgadi Pans.
“An additional study recorded zebra crossing the Chobe River on Botswana’s border with Namibia and traveling south to Nxai Pan National Park. This movement is the longest large mammal migration documented in Africa, greater than the well-known wildebeest migration of the Serengeti and Masai Mara.
“These migrating zebras had not made this journey before, but were simply following the routes of their ancestors. This phenomenon has led some researchers to suggest that the zebra may have ancient migratory routes genetically conserved within their memory. Others point to the zebra’s keen sense of smell and the onset of the rains being the trigger for the now unblocked long trek to the Pans. Regardless, these findings confirm that migratory routes can be utilized again once selected fences are removed.
“First focusing in the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans, Round River, along with partner organisations Natural Selection and Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, is working to identify the most feasible and useful migratory routes to reconnect this region with Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta, and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. We also recognize this work as a real opportunity to effectively improve local livelihoods and promote community and wildlife co-existence, whilst simultaneously re-establishing these critical wildlife movements.
“Opportunities exist to support sustainable land use for appropriate livestock stocking levels, elevating range management practices, and establishing human/wildlife coexistence practices in livestock and agricultural production areas. In addition, Natural Selection is currently reaching out to other safari companies, seeking ways in which to provide greater community economic well-being, wildlife acceptance and favourable scenarios to promote the return of large-scale wildlife migrations throughout northern Botswana.”
Khumiso Cosmos Rathipana, Botswana Programme Director for Round River:
“One of our biggest success stories is the Makgadikgadi Conservation Programme, which launched with a workshop run by Natural Selection, Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, Round River Conservation Studies, and the Okavango Research Institute. The workshop was aimed at collaborating with local authorities, headmen, researchers and government institutions focusing on the bigger picture of connectivity, landscape corridors and the importance of the Makgadikgadi migration.”
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