Representatives of government of Botswana’s agriculture and energy portfolios (insert) descended into Habu on 3rd March 2022 to conduct a rapid community appraisal of energy and productive water needs. It was hoped that the feedback would inform design, supply, installation and commissioning of solar powered irrigation and water supply system as envisaged in the “Improvement of Livelihoods in the SADC Member States through the Adoption of Distributed Renewable Energy for Productive Use” project.

Implemented by the SADC Secretariat in partnership with SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE), Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CARDESSA) and the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA), the pilot project covers Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, and Zambia.

The appraisal revealed community support for development of Habu Trust’s vegetable garden. Asked to summarize the emerging project brief, Mr James Mulenga of the Department of Energy Affairs said that the project shall entail drilling and equipping a solar powered borehole to irrigate 2 hectares of farmland under shade netting. As such, the initiative will go a long way towards augmenting CO-EX’s Village Greens project currently supported by Xigera Safari Lodge.

Representatives of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) in Gumare led by Wildlife Warden, Mr Rampete, paid CO-EX program a courtesy visit on 3rd March 2022 in Habu.

Accompanied by two anti-poaching officers from Kasane, messers Kongwe and Leatswe, Mr Rampete, who is also a member of the Okavango sub-district Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) shared that they had come to receive updates on how the CO-EX program was fairing in Habu. Ben Hheermans, CO-EX’s Livestock and Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Technical Advisor then proceeded to update the team on project progress, opportunities and challenges to date.

Representatives of all five (5) Habu grazing clusters, that altogether make up the cluster grazing Steering Committee, convened at the Habu Trust Offices on the morning of 23rd February 2022 to elect their chairperson and secretary as well as discuss urgent business in the form of slaughter-head contracts and grazing plan/stewardship agreements.

Named after each of the participating main satellite cattle posts about Habu, the five grazing clusters of Habu, Boajankwe, Ntswirii, Gweedao and Kakanaga are informal and decentralized local institutions designed to lead the management of communal herds and the grazing resources they depend on.

Amongst other things, the SC was in the meeting informed about the planned first in-take of cattle intended for slaughter into CO-EX’s livestock program’s pioneering mobile quarantine. Messrs Uatjii Nguvauva and Sebogilwe Mathete were elected Steering Committee Chairperson and Secretary respectively.

Establishing and maintaining a community wildlife conservancy is hard work. An expansive road network reaching even the nethermost parts of the area, must be created not only to unlock tourism potential but also as a means of enabling wildlife scouts to patrol and guard the area against poachers day and night.

Meetings with stakeholders at regional and local levels must be attended in order to discuss and dispense off with administrative and other institutional arrangements germane to management of the conservancy. Traversing implied geographic distances requires vehicles suited to the terrain. To this end, CO-EX received brand new Toyota Landcruisers (x2) and an off road/scrambler motorbicycle from FAO (insert) at the beginning of the year (2022).

A quadbike, horses and donkeys are also soon to be acquired. Following handover of the vehicles to WEA CO-Director, Dr John McNutt, FAO Field Coordinator Ms Manon Mispiratceguy said that she was happy that the vehicles had finally been handed over and that they will be key in expediting the work of the SWM project.