Overview : The Chobe-Kwando-Linyanti area covers Chobe District with its protected areas, i.e. forest reserves and Chobe National Park and adjacent areas of Ngamiland District. It is hinged along the Chobe and Kwando-Linyanti river systems that also mark its northern boundary and international boundary separating Caprivi of Namibia and Botswana. As the Kwando-Linyanti river systems extends beyond administrative boundaries of the Chobe District, additional land units (wildlife management areas - WMAs) of the Ngamiland District also make part of the CKL area, i.e. all WMAs adjacent to the river systems. The CKL area encompasses the iconic Chobe National Park, all (six in total) of Botswana’s forest reserves and more than seven wildlife management areas (WMAs), some of which are communal (human settlements) areas as well. Therefore, due to its location, constituent land units, and, water resources and biodiversity significance, the CKL area is of high national, regional and international importance. Multiple land uses are characteristic of the CKL area; these include community based natural resources management concessions, protected areas, human settlements and accompanying livelihood activities, safari hunting and photographic tourism. Also, to a very large extent, human livelihoods in the CKL area are very closely tied with biodiversity and water resources. In the District, 79% of the land falls within three categories of protected areas, that include Chobe National Park (9,540 square kilometres), Forest Reserves (4, 555 square kilometres), and Wildlife Management areas (2, 305 square kilometres). Only 20% of the land in Chobe District is reserved for human habitation where subsistence agriculture also takes place and it also has the wildlife corridor areas. The remaining 1.5% is for the freehold Pandamatenga farms. The scarcity of land in the Chobe District has led to various environmental, cultural and economic challenges which are compounded by an acute shortage of land. Those challenges include; uncoordinated planning efforts by different organisations dealing with management of natural resources in the District; shortage of land for livestock and crop production because of the gazettement of a large portion of land in favour of conservation and human-wildlife conflict due to the fact that there are over laying land uses that are not well planned. This situation could be improved by the development and implementation of an Integrated Land Use Plan for the Chobe District. The Integrated Land Use Plan will help to facilitate the delivery of public responsibilities by individual resource management departments. In addition to these it will guide departments and result in such outcomes as acceptable balance between protection, conservation and development objectives. In response to the situation explained above, the Chobe District Land Use Planning Unit (DLUPU), Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT), through the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP), Department of Forestry and Range Resources (DFRR) and Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has taken the initiative to promote and develop opportunities for an Integrated Management Planning (IMP) for the area’s biological and other natural resources. In light of this, UNDP is seeking to engage the services of a Land Use Planning / Management specialist to facilitate the development of the Integrated Land Use Plan in the Chobe-Kwando-Linyanti Matrix of Protected Areas/ Chobe District. |