Fauna

Bwabwata has been inhabited for millennia, but it is the more recent history that has shaped the Bwabwata National Park of today. Proclaimed in the 1960s as the Caprivi Nature Reserve, then as the Caprivi Game Park, no initial wildlife management took place because the area was a restricted security zone, occupied first by the South African police and subsequently by the South African Defence Force (SADF).

Game counts in Bwabwata and Caprivi; dry season, live sightings. showing Numbers seen by conservation area, habitat, compared to 2011, population estimates and trends

This report contains information on aspects of the ecology, conservation and management of crocodiles in North Eastern Namibia. It is intended to give an overview of the research work carried out by the Caprivi Crocodile Research Project over the last two years (2006/2007).

Game counts in Bwabwata and Caprivi (conservancies only); dry season, live sightings. showing Numbers seen by conservation area, habitat, compared to 2010, population estimates and trends

Standard cost-benefit analysis was applied to several future policy options for land use and animal disease management in Caprivi, Namibia. Emphasis was placed on the livestock-wildlife interface and Caprivi's role as central to the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) transfrontier conservation area (TFCA). Empirically-based enterprise models measuring private and economic values for livestock and wildlife sectors in Caprivi were used to measure returns to investment for policy options regarding animal disease management and land use allocation. Options included commodity-based trade (CBT) and veterinary control fencing approaches to animal disease management. CBT is a production and marketing approach, which assures product safety regardless of the disease status of the area of origin and therefore permits adaptation of conventional (geographically-based) animal disease control measures. The basic measure of economic efficiency was incremental change in net national income at opportunity cost. Local livelihood contributions were also measured.

The paper outlines the production system on the eastern floodplains in the Caprivi paying special attention to the fishing activities. Although there are already some indications that the resource may be overfished, this paper suggests that the situation could become much worse if the current trends continue - continued weakening of the influence of the traditional management systems; increasing availability of fishing inputs; market demand and prices for fish remain strong; and worsening problems in the agricultural sector (e.g. withdrawal of government subsidies for certain inputs, increasing incidence of wildlife/human conflicts, marketing problems). This paper calls for, among other things, further work to investigate the options and feasibility of developing some type of co-management regime (involving fisherfolk, government and other stakeholders in the management of the fishery) to ensure that the fishery is managed sustainably and continues to play an important role in the floodplain livelihood system.

The Caprivi Region is well supplied with natural pans and ponds and has numerous old "borrow pits" left from past road construction activities. This makes the Region suited to fish ranching that uses ponds stocked with fingerling to grow larger fish. Such ponds can be either ephemeral, where fish need to be stocked annually and harvested a few months later when the ponds start to dry out, or semi-permanent, where stocking can be less frequent provided naturally produced fingerlings are left in the ponds when harvesting of the larger fish takes place. From 2007, NGOs assisted local people to develop fish ranching activities at 30 sites in Caprivi. This is the only project of this nature in Namibia and has the distinct advantage over fish farming is that inputs are very low (mainly labour to clear ponds of unwanted plants and fish species, feeding with any garden or food waste and harvesting). The existing fish ranching initiative is viable. Annual records from half of the existing ponds show that the commercial value of fish harvested would be about a quarter of a million Namibian Dollars, if the fish had been sold at the Katima Market. As most of the harvest from the fish ranching was consumed locally, this is an amount that people potentially saved in not having to buy food to eat. As Mr Tsukhani from Machita said, "If the fish ranching project continues, our sons will eat". An estimated sales figure from the actual fish sold at all the fish ranching sites in one year was about N$ 40 000. Some of this fish sales income was reinvested in the fish ranching business through the purchase of fishing equipment (e.g. hooks were bought at Lyanzoka) or fish food (e.g. bran at Machita). Other income was invested in education. At Machita village, the fish pond committee opened a Nampost account with the N$ 1 500 they earned from selling big fish and also fingerlings to a neighbour. Most of this fish ranching income (N$ 1 000) was spent on school funds and uniforms for 22 orphans. The price for fish in Caprivi is high (N$ 10/kg at source or N$ 20/kg Katima Market) and market forces have the potential to provide the incentive for continued management of fish ranching at the community level.

Game counts in Bwabwata and Caprivi; dry season, live sightings. showing Numbers seen by conservation area, habitat, compared to 2009, population estimates and trends.

Maps showing live sightings of elephant, giraffe, kudu, roan, sable, buffalo, impala, reedbuck, tsessebe and zebra in the 2010 Caprivi game count

Profile booklet providing information on Mudumu North Complex with sections on resources and attractions, livelihoods and development, managing natural resources, Kwandu conservancy, Mashi conservancy, Mayuni conservancy, Sobbe conservancy, community forestry, the Kyaramacan association, the national parks, challenges, opportunities and the future.

With concerns regarding over-fishing in the Caprivi Region, the search for improvements in the fishery sector may lie in closer examination of the post-harvest sector. Opportunities need to be sought that emphasise maximising the benefits obtained from fish already caught. Improving the efficiency of post-harvest handling, processing and marketing can significantly improve the livelihoods of producers and traders. This paper describes the post-harvest marketing and distribution systems of fish on the eastern floodplains of the Caprivi region. A number of possible intervention points in the post-harvest chain are suggested, described and potential strengths and weaknesses of these interventions identified.

This study has provided baseline data on crocodile numbers from aerial and spotlight counts. These data can be used with the results of future counts to determine population trends. The census has also provided information on their distribution of crocodiles in the Kavango and Caprivi regions. And third, it has resulted in the first population estimate for crocodiles in the north-east wetlands of Namibia.

Although not threatened at present, the Namibian buffalo population is well below the level at which it should exist. There is a potential range of some 10,000km2 available for buffalo in the Caprivi and this should carry at least 15,000 buffalo. Because of the high value of buffalo in the international safari hunting industry, the potential net income from wildlife in the Caprivi could be raised from its present level of US$2.5 million to US$7.5 million if the buffalo population was at carrying capacity.

Areas surveyed: The Okavango River in Namibia, from just northwest the bridge on the Trans-Caprivi highway south to the Botswana border; the entire length of the Kwandu-Linyanti-Lake Liambezi-Chobe system, including the Mamili National Park; and the Zambezi river for its entire length on Namibia’s border, including parts of the adjacent East Caprivi floodplains.

The Caprivi Region is one region in Namibia where the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme has achieved considerable success, in terms of capacity building and natural resource management. However, the conflict between people and wildlife is perceived by local residents to have worsened since the advent of the CBNRM programme. This paper forms part of the WILD Project research, which is a Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) participatory research project investigating the change that the Namibian CBNRM programme has brought to people\'s livelihoods.

Protected and proclaimed areas in the Caprivi, Namibia, hold most of the economically valuable wildlife species in that region. This wildlife is presently being viewed as a potential resource base to support the many community-based conservation and development programmes in the Caprivi.