From right Mogodisheng Sekhwela, Eagilwe Segosebe, Ben Acquah, Naomi Moswete, P. Kenabatho, B.P. Parida, seated in front, Sennye Masike and Elisha Toteng and far back, Pauline Dube.

Aim: - Build capacity in Assessing Impacts of Climate Change - Provide a pool of locally relevant information on: Impacts of Climate Change on food and Water, The degree of vulnerability & the capacity to adapt to climate change in the Limpopo basin locally based adaptation strategies & how these can be enhance Overall goal: Assist decision makers and international efforts to address climate change impacts, vulnerability& adaptation

Limpopo Basin

North East District – 11/01/01

North East District

Bobirwa Sub-District

Kgatleng District Site

Why Limpopo Basin? One of the 5 largest surface water bodies in sub- Saharan Africa found in Southern Africa - covers km 2 of Bots., Zim., SA & Mozambique. Subjected to frequent climate extremes e.g.:1991/92 droughts & the 1999/2000 floods. Forms all river systems in eastern Botswana - Major source of water and alluvial deposits for >70% of rainfed and irrigation agriculture. Over half of Botswana’s population and major urban growth centres occur in the Limpopo Basin

Crops/Forests Livestock Wildlife Water Demand Valuation + Vulnerability Assessment Fire Adaptation Strategies Options Rainfall Temp Climate Change Human Population Water Supply Land Use/Cover Change Nature Tourism Study Components and Inter-relationships

General Questions: What will be the impact of climate Change on food and water in the Limpopo Basin? How vulnerable is food production/ food security and water supply to climate change? What is the adaptation capacity/options for communities in the Limpopo basin?

Basic Approach : Establish past (20 years) and current status Model future trends - 20 years - under climate change Use findings from 1 and 2 determine vulnerability - discuss results with communities and other stakeholders. Work out adaptation strategies and implementation schemes at different levels – includes active stakeholder participation. Communicate results widely in the basin at national, regional and international level.

General objectives: Establish past & present status of food (F) production, water (W) supply & demand in the Basin Establish past & recent responses to climate variability in the F & W sectors. Determine impacts of climate change (CC) on W & F using a range of IPCC based climate & national socio-economic scenarios. Establish the level of vulnerability of Limpopo basin to CC on the F & W sectors Determine indigenous adaptation capacity & mitigation options against adverse impacts Contribute in increasing awareness to CC issues in southern Africa

Acquisition of relevant local scale data – A time consuming process Climate data – in digital format & available within a short time - this is exceptional For other data sets the situation is different – Phane caterpiller- No production figures for such forest products - Phane export figures from Government’s Customs & Excise Dept. are aggregated with other exported different types of small protein sources. - Original Phane records are destroyed every 3 Yrs -lack of storage & computerisation. Livestock Wildlife - locality statistics is lost -Aggregates over administration regions, not in digital form are kept -Problem of a basin study – the administrative regions usually overlap with other areas outside the basin.

Fire data - N o system of archiving fire data although visual based fire reports are made every year. - Existing records are inconsistent, incomplete in terms of seasons or for a particular fire report & available for recent years Areal extent and location of burn are only rough estimates. Estimates of Area burnt Francistown region

Kgatleng site fires records accessible from ARB - April-June 2002 Place Out break Date Area (km) RepoterCauseControlRemarks / Monametsana Police- Mochudi Not known Same day- Police &Volteers Cost- P196- putting out Dikgonne/Masu athaga 16/05 - Police- Mochudi Not Known 17/05-local &Botswana Police, Volteers & Wildlife employees Cost – P to put out Morwa/Ditejwa ne 26/05 - No dataNot known Public on 27/05 - * Current fire management systems is in-effective – If fire incidents increase in future communities will be vulnerable

Some progress Water supply : Past climate, evaporation and soil data assembled and a stable research assistant secured. Some Results: Declining trend in annual rainfall over 28 years but no clear trend for runoff coefficient. Water Demand : Hardcopy information converted to digital form. Results from one site: Domestic sector - 50% of water demand & within this Private Connections takes over 70%

Phane Caterpiller – adaptation option for periods of crop failure

Host Mophane plant in Southern Africa Fig. 5

Phane caterpillar = Larvae of Imbrasia belina Westwood moth (Emperor Moth) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) (Ditlhogo, 1996) Fig. 1 **The reproduction cycle is sensitive to climate

Vulnerability and adaptation Eco-tourism: An MSc students works on potential of ecotourism in the basin. Results- The basin is rich in cultural heritage sites but these under utilized. - Flourishing tourism is wildlfe based -has limited direct benefit to local communities Institutions & Policy: Msc student focusing on: Institutional and policy framework impact on vulnerability and adaptation capacity Results- Most policies do not consider vulnerability to climate. - There are some short-term drought relief schemes implemented from time to time - Another MSc student - Sources of rural livelihoods - vulnerability and adaption to drought over time

Vulnerability and adaptation sections provide a gateway to access & involving stakeholder Other links to stakeholders & National Communications : Stakeholder meeting - June 2002 AF42 – participated in 1st Meeting of the GEF/SGP on Climate Change Networking Group linked to the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC) AF42 PI represents the University of Botswana (UB) at NCCC & also at the National Conservation Strategy Board Research Permit – comments from Office of the Presidents At a regional – information on AF42 disseminated via the Southern Africa Network – AF42 fire component

Constrains Internet services IT services Institutional backing Manpower resources

Next Focus of the study: Determine impacts of climate change (CC) on Water & Food Climate & socio-economic scenarios. Establish the level of vulnerability of Limpopo basin communities to CC on the Food & Water Work out adaptation strategies & mitigation options against adverse impacts