The relevance of the study to the economy of Botswana

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INTRODUCTION

This chapter gives the background of the study in terms of the world-wide problems that wetlands, including Botswana’s Okavango Delta wetland, face today. The chapter also gives the motivations of the study, objectives of the study and a short overview of the methodology. The structure of the thesis is presented at the end of the chapter.

Background

Botswana is well endowed with a variety of natural resources that include the Okavango Delta wetland, the world’s largest known Ramsar site in the north, which supports a rich biodiversity of wild biota. Despite the importance of wetland ecosystems in the social and economic development in the countries in which they occur, they are among the most threatened of all environmental resources (Brouwer et al., 2001). Their loss and degradation may be considered at two levels, which are the direct loss and degradation of the wetland itself, and the indirect loss and degradation, which occur outside the wetland (Brouwer et al., 2001).

Motivation

While international conventions such as the UN Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses and Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems advocate equitable sharing of water and sufficient conservation of scarce resources, any development in the form of wetland utilization such as water abstraction or hydropower generation, is bound to have an opportunity cost associated with such impacts.

Statement of the problem

While water development projects (for example, water extraction) in the Okavango Delta may be pursued for social and economic benefits, there may be negative impacts on the ecological integrity of the ecosystem that result in the impairment of the Delta’s ability to provide ecosystem goods and services. Although the fraction of the total economic value that may be lost or reduced due to the implementation of such projects cannot be estimated precisely, there is need to generate basic information about the economic values that are provided by the Okavango Delta to allow for more informed decision making by all stakeholders in the context of total economic value.

Chapter 1
1.1 Background
1.2 Motivation
1.3 Statement of the problem
1.4 Research objectives
1.5 Overview of methodology
1.6 Structure of the thesis
Chapter 2
2.1 Introduction
2.2 General characteristics of the country.
2.2.1 Physical characteristics
2.2.2 The economy of Botswana
2.2.3 The relevance of the study to the economy of Botswana
2.3 The Okavango Delta
2.3.1 Location and resources
2.3.2 Social and Economic Significance of the Okavango Delta
2.3.3 Property right regimes in the Delta.
2.4 Overview of Natural Resources Management Policies, Programs and Acts
2.4.1 Water Resources
2.4.2 Tribal Land
2.4.3 Agricultural Resources
2.4.4 Fish resources
2.4.5 Conservation and utilization of wildlife
2.4.6 Tourism
2.4.7 The conservation and management of elephants
2.4.8 National parks and wildlife conservation
2.4.9 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
2.4.10 Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM)
2.4.11 Conservation and utilization of wetlands
2.5 Chapter Conclusion
Chapter 3
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The concept of sustainable development and capital theory
3.2.1 Some indicators of sustainability
3.3 National Income Accounting and its deficiencies
3.4 What is Natural Resource Accounting?
3.5 Application of natural resource accounting in resource management
3.5.1 Mineral Resources
3.5.2 Forest resources
3.5.3 Water and fish resources
3.6 The status of natural resource accounting in Botswana
3.7 Biodiversity conservation and resource accounting
3.7.1 Definitions, value and loss of biodiversity
3.7.2 The structure, composition, and function of an ecosystem
3.8 Chapter conclusion
Chapter 4
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Conceptual framework
4.2.1 Physical accounts
4.3 General methodology
4.3.1 Direct consumptive use
4.3.2 Direct non-consumptive use values
4.3.3 Indirect consumptive use values
4.3.4 Non–use values (Preservation values)
Chapter 5
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Accounting for stock of wild herbivores and vegetation of the Okavango Delta region: Composition values
5.2.1 Wild herbivores
5.2.2 Vegetation
5.3 Direct use values from the Okavango Delta
5.3.1 Wild herbivores
5.3.2 Vegetation
5.3.3 Water supply and use
5.4 Indirect use values
5.4.1 Honey production.
5.4.2 Carbon sequestration
5.4.3 Livestock grazing
5.4.4 Milk production
5.5 Non-consumptive use values
5.6 Non-use values
5.6.1 Households’ willingness to pay
5.6.2 Tourists’ willingness to pay
5.7 Chapter conclusion
Chapter 6
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Summary of results
6.3 Discussion
6.3.1 Composition value for wild herbivores
6.3.2 Direct use value of herbivores
6.3.3 Direct use value of vegetation
6.3.4 Direct use value of water
6.3.5 Non-consumptive use value of tourism
6.3.6 Indirect use values
6.3.7 Non-use values
6.3.8 Comparison of the value of Okavango Delta with some specific land uses in Botswana
6.3.9 The expected impact of water abstraction on total economic value
6.4 Conclusions
References