Case Study: Desertification in Botswana

1) Desertification is the process in which flourished, fertile ground undergoes environmental or human inflicted change such as drought, deforestation or inappropriate agriculture and becomes barren and desert.

2) Botswana is located just above the Tropic of Capricorn. Botswana's semi arid and drought prone environment is one of the natural contributing factors to it's desertification as well as soil erosion from wind, sheet wash and gullying. The Kalahari, isn't a true desert as one would presume, it is actually covered by a vegetation mantle that resides from woodland and close-tree Savannah in the north, to low tree and shrub Savannah in the south and west. Areas are also covered in sand dunes occasionally especially in the west and southwest, however except for an area in the North, the country suffers from lack of surface water. Rainfall varies considerably each year and is extremely unpredictable, usually falling in scattered showers. Due to high daytime temperatures, evaporation is typically very high at a daily open water evaporation rate of 7.5 mm.

3) Human causes to desertification in Botswana are overstocking and large-scale vegetation depletion. Commercial exploitation of Botswana's fragile eco-system such as highly concentrated cattle in certain areas results in overgrazing and trampled top soil, both contributing factors to desertification. Uncontrolled development of cattle posts in areas set aside for wildlife management, resulted in the emergence of land use conflicts and extensive degradation of the tree savannas. The local people of Botswana have degraded their own environment through intensive grazing by livestock and intensive use of the natural vegetation cover for fuel-wood and other veld products.

4) Some of the steps that have been taken in attempt to rehabilitate the environment and protect people of Botswana have been to make people publicly aware of the effects of their lifestyles and urging them to change or alter them, reclamation of gullies and dongas, woodlots and plantations, sand dune stabilization and newly planted nurseries. Some of the challenges that were faced by Botswanian people were limited community knowledge, limited capacity for human and infrastructure, the need to increase agricultural land at the expense of forest reserves and finally uncontrollable climate change.