Saving for the Okavango Delta - Through Culture and Care

Picture source: Photo by Wynand Uys on Unsplash

OVERVIEW?

The Okavango Delta forms part of the Okavango watershed across Angola, Namibia and Botswana (Riparian States). More than 95% of the water of the Delta originates from the Angolan highlands that is collected in the source lakes creating an ecosystem called the Okavango-Zambezi Water Tower that is critical to sustain life in the Delta.?

The Delta habitat is paramount for the existence of more than 2,000 species, many of these are endangered, such as the black and white rhinoceros, the southern ground-hornbill, the giant ground pangolin, and many more. Besides the fauna and flora, roughly 150,000 people live in and are reliant on the health of the Delta for their survival. Sustainable community practices were disrupted by war, civil unrest and uncontrolled hunting in the previous century.?

Currently farming, tourism, poaching and other extractive activities such as water abstraction, fracking, oil and gas drilling threatens this ecosystem. There remains a lack of scientific understanding of the Delta with many unknown species not yet documented. The water levels in the Delta are dropping and there are tremendous concerns about the sustainability of the Delta.

An analysis of the existence of a culture of Control versus Ecological Care is used to critically analyse the ODMP to be able to understand how the entrenched power relationship shapes sustainability or the lack thereof in the Delta.?

THE ACTORS, STAKEHOLDERS AND REGIONAL CONTEXT OF THE DELTA?

The Riparian States are signatories to the Ramsar Convention (an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands) and the tripartite agreement called the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) that formed the Okavango River Basin Commission (OKACOM). A portion of the Delta has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, however not all the water sources and areas in the Delta are protected.?

One of the successes of the ODMP is the community involvement through the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program. The ODMP advocates for the viable use of natural capitals whilst improving the livelihoods of communities. Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) were established to oversee the management of natural resources in the designated areas. CBOs are granted i.e. tourism or hunting concessions and the revenue generated is shared and used for community projects.

There are a multitude of actors and stakeholders in the Delta being the communities, the Riparian States through the OKACOM and there are several non-profit organisations (NPOs) involved in the Delta such as USAID and the National Geographic Society through their Okavango Wilderness Project (Wilderness Project).?

USAID is deeply involved by undertaking several projects relating to water management and? supporting the OKACOM to function as a multinational planning and collaboration platform for the management of the Delta. The Wilderness Project has been surveying and assembling scientific data and evidence on the water system and interacting with communities, NGOs and the Riparian States to secure sustainable protection for the Delta.?

All three Riparian States were colonised - Angola by Portugal, Namibia by Germany and Botswana by Britain - leaving these countries with a deeply entrenched anthropocentric and colonial modernistic approach to the environment as a resource. In fact, the eco-modernistic premise that the Delta communities were ‘backward’ disregarded the sensitive harmony that used to exist between these communities and nature for centuries prior to colonisation.

The result of the above is that there is a cultural perspective lock-in as the OMDP is a set plan with objectives born out of a view of ecological control over the environment as a resource in favour of social structures in the Delta. Shedding the skin of the narrow, anthropomorphic locked-in approach will be essential in order to truly be the guardians of the Delta in a wide, pluralistic, caring perspective.

THE WAYS POWER RELATIONS SHAPE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTShared Understanding of Sustainability

Lélé’s (1991) view is that defining sustainability is important to be able to have a shared understanding of the intended outcomes and the success factors of sustainability initiatives. This is true especially in a context where large projects are funded and undertaken by NPOs from the Global North in favour of a massively complex ecological and political arena.

The process that is undertaken to agree on a shared understanding of? sustainability for the Delta is of the utmost importance. Such an exercise has to allow for the divergence of sustainability concepts, the multiplicity of the pathways of intended actions, the iterative nature of the process over time to accommodate shifting realities whilst ensuring the inclusion of knowledge from different sources.

According to the ODMP (2008) the overall goal in the Delta is:

“To integrate resource management for the Okavango Delta that will ensure its long-term conservation and that will provide benefits for the present and future well-being of the people through sustainable use of its natural resources.”

The inclusion of the term “resource management” indicates an anthropocentric approach to the environment with an intention to control being an example of Modernity according to Stirling (2019). Due to the Modernistic ODMP goal there is a narrow view of what conservation of the Delta means and this pinhole approach and lack of political agreement and policies leaves the Delta vulnerable to extractive and degenerative activities. The inclusion of Modernity with inclinations to weave elements of control into the shared understanding of sustainability should be avoided by the Actors in the Delta if true conservation is to be achieved.?

In fact, commencing a Pathways Approach in the process of reaching a common understanding of Sustainability could be the start of a process for the OKACOM to evaluate its tendency to control versus care thereby expanding the scope, scale and impact of its efforts. Especially since the Delta is such a complex environment and only attending to water management as a single intention is not viable in any ecological environment nevertheless in the Delta.?

One thought is if ecological sustainability in the Delta might mean for everyone to merely and simply leave the area alone.?

Control versus Care

Seeing through the haze of the complexity of the Delta requires the establishment of a heuristic model to analyse the ODMP and whether there are conflicts, coexistence or interrelations in tendencies towards control and/or care, anthropocentric or ecocentric with what consequences.? Also whether sustainable development initiatives could be reimagined or multiplied through employing a Pathways Approach.

Basing the heuristic model on the lecture by Stirling (2023), but emphasising that these are not bi-polar opposites as controlling transitions or caring transformations instead these can co-exist, be intertwined and may be polythetic.

There is a strong element of bearing witness in the Delta, however in order to entrench cooperation between the Riparian States there had to be an element of compliance.?

Reaching sustainability in the Delta is an aspirational goal that might never be achieved in full, but rather a dream state that requires continual improvement, humility and work. Also, the point is not to eradicate control, but instead to strike a balance, whilst recognising the existence of plurality, alternative paths and solutions and a multitude of other imaginations. The Delta requires a convivial society and tripartite nations where care is institutionalised more than control.

The governance in the Delta needs to ensure that the negative effects on nature are not treated as externalities, but harm to all.

Policy Process: Power Relations Approach

As outlined by Keeley and Scoones (1999) the drafting and implementation of policies are rooted in alliances of knowledge, power, and political practices. The power relations in the Delta and the formation of the ODMP are heavily Global North and South divided as well as within the three sub saharan countries. There is a wealth of natural resources, valuable metals, gas, oil, etc., in the Delta with the most valuable resource in that arid area being water.? The OMDP was shaped to ensure the countries continue to have access to it, but what are the benefits to the Global North Actors?

Metafix

As said by Temper et al (2015) environmental justice matters are complex, multifaceted and dynamic.? Even though a ‘Delta metafix’ is envisioned and in action, a higher degree of political ecological governance is required that recognises the extent of ecological control or care and as a result is more open to various pathways. A few positive benefits could be for the OKACOM to be a unique and valid source for an ecology of knowledge practices, improved fairness and transparency to ensure there is reduced inequality (SDG 10) in the distribution of resources and access to concessions and restriction of anthropogenic activities, especially the looming extractive mining and fracking activities.?

The Pathways Approach suggests that if questions are asked in a different way, making way for plural and conditional recommendations to wider democratic space and struggle allowing for a greater diversity of options to go forward to achieve sustainability and in specific the least powerful voices can be heard to open up alternative strategies.

CONCLUSION

By framing the Delta’s challenge as an ecological imperative undermines the social imperative as the question has been asked, are humans part of nature or do humans sit outside of nature?? In actual fact, based on the complexities the framing of the challenge is important to ensure it is all encompassing, pluralistic and caring.?

REFERENCES

Stirling, A. (2023) ‘Sustainable Development: Politics and Policies’, STI. Online: Online, 11 October.?

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/cracks-kalaharis-emerald-threats-okavango-delta/ [Accessed 21 Oct 2023]

Costa, K. and Luini, J. (2023) Guardians of the River Podcast?

Lélé, S.M. (University of C. (1991) ‘Sustainable development: A critical review’, World development, 19(6), pp. 607–621. doi:10.1016/0305-750X(91)90197-P.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2019). Okavango Delta. [online] Unesco.org . Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432/ . [Accessed on 8 October 2023].

Environment. (2023). Can UNESCO safeguard the Okavango from oil drilling? [online] Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/okavango-delta-unesco-world-heritage-site-expansion?loggedin=true&rnd=1696754463177 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2023].

OCF Study Material Module 2 Week 1

Centre, U.W.H. (n.d.). Angola, Botswana and Namibia co-manage shared river system of the Okavango Delta. [online] UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1987#:~:text=News- [Accessed 8 Oct. 2023].

www.okacom.org . (n.d.). The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM)|OKACOM. [online] Available at: https://www.okacom.org/permanent-okavango-river-basin-water-commission-okacom . [Accessed 8 Oct. 2023]

JOSEPH ELIZERI MBAIWA, J.E. (2008). TOURISM DEVELOPMENT, RURAL LIVELIHOODS, AND CONSERVATION IN THE OKAVANGO DELTA, BOTSWANA . [online] Texas A&M University: Texas A&M University, pp.1 to 202. Available at: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4277217.pdf [Accessed 8 Oct. 2023].

Clive Gabay & Suzan Ilcan (2017) Leaving No-one Behind? The Politics of Destination in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Globalizations, 14:3, 337-342, DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2017.1281623

Animals. (2020). Oil drilling, possible fracking planned for Okvanago region—elephants’ last stronghold. [online] Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/oil-drilling-fracking-planned-okavango-wilderness . [Accessed 8 Oct. 2023]

Raworth, K. (2017) Why it’s time for Doughnut Economics. IPPR Progressive Review. 24 (3), 216–222. doi:10.1111/newe.12058.

Dengler, C. & Strunk, B. (2018) The Monetized Economy Versus Care and the Environment: Degrowth Perspectives On Reconciling an Antagonism. Feminist Economics. 24 (3), 160–183. doi:10.1080/13545701.2017.1383620.

Temper, L., Del Bene, D. & Martinez-Alier, J. (2015) Mapping the frontiers and front lines of global environmental justice: the EJAtlas. Journal of Political Ecology. 22 (1), 255–. doi:10.2458/v22i1.21108.

Keeley, J. (1999) Understanding Environmental Policy Processes: A Review. https://www.ids.ac.uk/download.php?file=files/dmfile/wp89.pdf .

Andrew Stirling Module 5 Lecture.?