Case Study: Desertification in Botswana

1) Desertification is when fertile ground becomes a desert and all dried out, usually caused by deforestation and droughts.

2) Botswana lies right across the Tropic of Capricorn and the majority of the land surface in Botswana is constituted for by the desert which does not hold surface water for longer periods of time and this has lead to an over reliance on underground water. The total geographical extension of Botswana is around 600.370 square kilometer. The Kalahari Desert occupies a 70% part of the country. With the affect of droughts in the country it makes it really hard for the water stay up on the land and since its really flat it can't flow very well through the country making it absorb into the ground really fast.

3) The desertification problems in Botswana mostly come from the severe times of drought. The drought caused 75% of the country’s human and animal populations to be dependent on groundwater which has eased the effects of the drought, but has left a greater impact on the land. Groundwater is retrieved through drilling deep holes, which causes erosion of the land. Surface water is very rare in Botswana and less than 5% of the agriculture in the country is sustainable by rainfall. Due to this 95% of the country raises cattle and livestock as a means for an income. Therefore only 71% of the country’s land is used for communal grazing, which has been a major cause for the desertification of the country. Mostly the factors such as deforestation, overgrazing, poor cropping methods and improper soil conservation techniques also have a significant contribution to desertification in the country.

4) The government has made new policies to the land use in Botswana. There are large scale and long-term action programmes such as the Second Livestock Development Programme, the Tribal Grazing Lands Policy (TGLP), the Arable Lands Development Programme (ALDEP), and the Remote Area Resettlement Scheme. These are some of the many projects on going to help the desertification in Botswana, they are aimed to achieve and help soil conservation, livestock production, rangelands and wildlife management, water and land management. Some of their goals are to keep it as cheap as possible and introduce ecologically sound to make it socially acceptable.