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INCO-DC Project No. ERBIC18CT970162 Global Change and Subsistence Rangelands in Southern Africa: Resource Variability, Access and Use in Relation to Rural Livelihoods and Welfare
Project Partners:
Centre for Arid Zone Studies, Wales (CAZS)
National Botanical Institute, South Africa (NBI)
National University of Lesotho (NUL)
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway (NINA)
Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, Spain (IPE)
University of Botswana (UB)Visit Report
Prof R Gareth Wyn Jones, Project Coordinator
CAZS, Bangor, Wales
26 April - 12 May 1998
Contents
2.1 Discussions 2.2 Other Activities
3. South Africa (Johannesburg)
Annex 1 Update of Botswana Workplan for Work packages 3a, 3b, 3c, 4a and 4b Annex 2 BRIMP Information Sheet
Annex 3 List of Relevant Documents: Botswana<
Annex 4 Report on Meeting with Officers at the Bokong-Pelaneng RMA, 5.5.1998
Annex 5 Information Sheet: Drakensberg/Maloti Mountains Conservation Programme
Annex 6 List of Relevant Documents: Lesotho
Annex 7 An outline of the socio-economic research contribution by PLAAS
Annex 8 Copy Letter to Dr Moeketsi Majoro re services of Dr Dave MacDonald
In accordance with the overall workplan described in the Technical Annex, confirmed at the Gaborone Workshop (October 1997), Gareth Wyn Jones, as Project Coordinator, visited the three country teams in Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa in late April/early May 1998 (late autumn in the southern hemisphere).
The objectives of the mission were:
(i) to review progress at the three sites in line with the timing established at Gaborone
(ii) to work with the African team leaders and their colleagues to identify any constraints to the implementation of the agreed timetable and to assist in overcoming such constraints
(iii) to seek to ensure the continued inter-disciplinary collaboration within the teams
(iv) to ensure timely and relevant interventions from the European partners
(v) to identify possible collaborations between the southern African teams
(vi) to work with the teams to identify inputs cut out by the financial constraints and to seek to identify supplementary sources of funding to overcome these problems.
2. Botswana
Monday, 27th April to Friday, 1 May 19982.1 Discussions
2.1.1 Dr Jaap Arntzen and other members of the Botswana team
A series of meetings were held with the team members, including a formal team meeting on the afternoon of 30th April to discuss the project to date and to plan the field work for the coming season and future inputs (see Annex 1). A significant amount of time was spent going through and making suggestions for the Botswana Task 0 review.
2.1.2 Mr Gunnar Ring, EU Delegation
A very positive meeting was held with Mr Ring. He was fully informed about the project and wished to be kept informed about future activities. He indicated that small supplementary funds might be made available through the Delegation for specific inputs if they could assist in ensuring that future outputs meet the needs of the inhabitants of the villages.
2.1.3 Mr Richard Handley, Coordinator of USAID veld products project
This was a very positive meeting. Mr Handley has wide experience of the development of the market potential of veld products, and was aware of the problems and limitations of this line. His experience, enthusiasm and close liaison with Jaap Arntzen are clearly assets to the project.
2.1.4 BRIMP (Botswana Range Inventory and Monitoring) Project, (see Annex 2)
There was early criticism from London/NRI that our project overlapped excessively with BRIMP. Detailed discussions were held with Mr Raymond M Kwerepa, Principal Rangeland Ecologist, Ministry of Agriculture, whose unit is responsible for the project, and with Ms Catherine Arnold, seconded from University of Wales, Swansea, to work for NRI on the project.
The BRIMP project is entirely complementary to the INCO-DC project. The former involves no primary data-gathering or research, and is principally involved in establishing GIS for a pilot area immediately to the east of the Kgalagadi District. Nevertheless the GIS methodology and the exercise in data collation and presentation will be valuable for the final phases of the INCO-DC project.
2.1.5 Dr Chaban, Coordinator, Kalahari Transect Project
Given the overlap of personnel, no problems are anticipated. It was noted that the Paulshoek site lies only a relatively short distance from the southern terminus of the proposed transect. The transect project is not funded, and there are no clear indications of funding so it is likely to remain a method of liaising rather than gathering original data. It was decided that there were no compelling reasons for Prof Gareth Wyn Jones to return to southern Africa in June 1998 for the meeting of the Transect Group.
2.1.6 British Council
The Director, Mr Peter Mitchell, was away so I met Ms Lynn Booker who was temporarily in charge. She was informed about the U.K. contribution to the project. The possibility of a British Council HED Link between the Department of Environmental Science, University of Botswana and Centre for Arid Zone Studies, University of Wales, Bangor, to supplement the INCO-DC Project was discussed briefly.
2.2 Other Activities
2.2.1 A comprehensive list of relevant documents was drawn up and can be found in Annex 3.
2.2.2 A specific issue was the poverty of hydrological and hydrogeological data for the North Kgalagadi area. An additional source was identified through a company in Gaborone, viz ECOserv.
2.2.3 Due to pressures of examinations on the University staff, Prof Gareth Wyn Jones did not, most unfortunately, visit the field site as was his intention.
3. South Africa
Saturday, 2nd - Sunday, 3rd May 1998
The above period was spent in Johannesburg, and it allowed contact to be established with Dr Colleen Vogel. In the work plan, Dr Vogel was to contribute to the project by analysing the grey literature on land use practices and habitat descriptions, etc, in the three relevant areas. The communication between Dr Vogel and Dr Timm Hoffman, the South African Country Coordinator, was rather fragmentary. However, a very positive meeting was held with Dr Vogel and her involvement in this project confirmed. She was able to offer three students to undertake historical literature surveys on the project areas. Dr Vogel is an adviser to the Government of South Africa on land use policy issues, and is on the Executive of LUCC. Therefore, her involvement in the later stages of the project is to be encourage, and will be of benefit to the whole project.
Since this discussion, the liaison between Johannesburg and Claremont has been re-established.
Monday, 4th May to Friday, 8th May
Given the difficulties experienced by the Lesotho team and their lack of resources in comparison with the other groups, in this leg of the trip, it was of critical importance to seek to identify possible sources of additional funding. Preliminary work had established contact with the High Commissioner, Mr Peter J Smith. As Coordinator, I was also especially anxious to visit the field site and make direct contact with the management team of the Pelaneng-Bokong RMA.
4.1 Mr Peter J Smith, High Commissioner
Two meetings: Monday p.m.:Gareth Wyn Jones, Moeketsi Majoro & Makoala Marake
Friday a.m: Gareth Wyn Jones only.
The High Commissioner was very supportive and very unhappy at the response of the BSADA to the formal request from the Vice-Chancellor of The National University of Lesotho, Dr Moletsane, for a very modest funding support for a defined element of the overall project. Copies of the correspondence were passed to Mr Smith.
Mr Smith indicated that provided his funding allocation permitted it, and that Drs Majoro and Marake found other funding sources for their Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, he would seek to fund the essential field work.
Subsequent to this visit, funding for the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer has been identified from a World Bank project. The University itself has renewed its commitment to an allocation of Rand 20,000, and Mr Smith has confirmed funding over two years for the field work.
Dr Marake also undertook to supply Mr Smith with a commentary on controversial issues related to soil erosion and land degradation.
4.2 Field Visit on Tuesday, 5th May
A very useful visit was organised for the team to the RMA. In Annex 4, a detailed account of this and the information acquired is included.
4.3 On 6th and 7th May a series of meetings was held as detailed below to enable:
(i) sources of possible additional funding to be identified
(ii) sources of a wide range of relevant reports to be identified
(iii) good liaison to be established with other projects in other parts of Lesotho but relevant to this EC project
(iv) the analytical facilities of the University to be very roughly assessed.4.3.1 Dr Anne Breton, EU Delegation, Rural Development Junior Expert: Dr Breton was extremely helpful and assisted in identification of sources (see above). However, unlike Mr Gunnar Ring in Botswana, she was completely unaware of the project. Copies of various project documents were given to her. A specific issue was identified that EU funds in Lesotho were frozen awaiting the institutional needs assessment being undertaken and due to the absence of a senior EU Officer to take the matter forward. Dr Bretton’s post is temporary.
4.3.2 Dr Joanne Abbot, IIED; Dr Ehrenfriend Pohl and Dr Dawn Hartley working respectively on the Sustainable Agriculture Programme and EC Drakensberg/ Maloti Mountains Conservation Programme (see Annex 5).
Potentially useful links were established with both these projects.
4.3.3 Professor R Moletsane: His continued support for the project was reaffirmed and a parallel link between CAZS, Bangor, and NUL, Roma, funded through a British Council HED link to develop a curriculum on Environment Conservation, was discussed.
4.3.4 Assessment was made of the analytical facilities available to NUL. Subsequently, CAZS were consulted by a commercial company regarding the purchase of physical, chemical and biological equipment for NUL though a World Bank loan. Concern must be recorded whether this fund will be spent on items that can be properly housed, serviced or utilised in Roma. A reliable power supply is an essential prerequisite to make use of the new equipment.
4.4 Generally, it was felt that significant progress was made to identify the resources and skills essential if the Lesotho team is to achieve its objectives.
4.5 A specific problem was identified in relation to the ecological input into the project. It was expected that this work would be carried out by Dr Chaba Mokuku. However, he appeared to be withdrawing from academic work in favour of consultancy as Lesotho’s major expert on biodiversity. It was decided, as a precaution, to seek assistance from NBI in Claremont as well as seeking to identify other Lesotho sources of expertise although these seemed inadequate for the task.
4.5.1 A draft version of Task 0 for Lesotho was received.
4.5.2 It was suggested that the IFS in Sweden might be a good source for additional support for the Lesotho team and application papers were provided to Dr Marake.
4.6 A comprehensive list of relevant documents was drawn up and can be found in Annex 6.
Saturday, 9th to Monday, 11th May
As the team had just returned from the field site, which I had visited on both my previous visits, I did not attempt to make the journey to Paulshoek.
My objectives at NBI were to discuss the progress of the field work with Dr Timm Hoffman, identify ways in which the NBI or other organisation might assist in providing the ecological, especially the plant ecological, back-up to the Lesotho team, and to make contact with the EC Officer in Cape Town.
5.1 Over the weekend, several discussions took place with Timm Hoffman on the current state of the field studies.
Significant progress had been achieved with the rural appraisals and Work Package 3, ‘Socio-economic data collection and analysis’. Through the link to PLAAS, Timm had secured the services of Rick Rohde (see Annex 7).
Additional plant ecological research was also conducted at Paulshoek by students of Dr Peter Grubb, University of Cambridge, which addresses very specific ecological issues but will nevertheless add to the total programme.
5.2 On Monday, 11th May, detailed discussions took place with two students carrying out specific parts of the programme, viz, Anastelle Solomon and Ashia Petersen.
Anastelle had largely completed her work on fuel wood supplies and, as a fluent Afrikaans speaker, also acted as a good link through to the community leaders.
Ashia Petersen seemed somewhat overawed by the size of her task in carrying out the plant ecological surveys but was planning intensive field work in September.
5.3 On the advice of Timm Hoffman, I met Dr Dave MacDonald of the NBI staff, who was able to offer significant assistance to the Lesotho team (see Annex 8).
5.4 The EC representative in Cape Town was found to be Roberto Rensi. He was away on leave and it was not possible to meet him. A letter and project information has since been sent to him.
6.1 In general, satisfactory progress is being made in Botswana and South Africa. Possible solutions to the problems in Lesotho have been identified. Since returning to Wales, further progress has been made on the funding issue in relation to Lesotho.
6.2 It was decided that the mid-term workshop should be held in Paulshoek from 8th to 11th March 1999, and the final workshop in September 2000 will now be scheduled for Lesotho with the agreement of all parties.
