IN a country as dry as Botswana, perennial water sources assume a
naturally heightened significance. Each year during the dry season,
concentrations of game along the Chobe River rise to almost unbelievable levels
- making this place one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. The
region's importance as a wildlife sanctuary could hardly be overstated, in
fact, particularly in terms of species like elephant, populations of which are
in steady decline across much of the rest of the continent.
The relative abundance of these animals
present a number of challenges, though. One of these was highlighted in a
recent paper by J. Tyler Fox and Dr Kathleen Alexander, published in the
journal PLOS ONE, in which they argue that these seasonal concentrations of
game - particularly large herbivores such as elephant - can result in the
deterioration of water quality.
These findings, based on three years of
water quality monitoring and data collection along the course of the river, are
surprising given the fact that we would expect a greater correlation between
human activities such as agriculture and industry and declines in water quality
than anything resulting from the presence or activities of wildlife populations
- particularly in an area where human population densities are growing as fast
as they are in the Chobe region.
In an interview with Science Daily, Fox
described these findings as follows: "Activities
of elephants and other large animals play an essential role in maintaining the
long-term integrity of river corridors in southern Africa, adding nutrients and
increasing patch heterogeneity of the riparian landscape. In areas where
wildlife concentrate in riparian corridors, however, this influence may extend
beyond the terrestrial environment to impact seasonal water quality
dynamics."
The shoe, it would seem, is on the
other foot for once. This would all seem to suggest that the health and
well-being of human populations along the river are actually being negatively
impacted by seasonal concentrations of wildlife: references to annual diarrheal
disease outbreaks (which are likewise the subject of ongoing research by Dr
Alexander and her team) and the role played by levels of Escherichia coli in
the waters of the Chobe, much of which is deposited in the faeces of large
herbivores, would seem to bear this out.
While this is partly true at least, this does not represent the
whole of the paper’s findings. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the work
takes the form of a series of recommendations around the issue of land-use and
development – and, once again, the seasonal availability of water resources is
at the heart of the issue.
In order to relieve the pressure on the region’s scarce perennial water
sources, Fox and Alexander argue, major efforts should be made in future to
make water sources available across a much greater area – including protected
areas. Indeed there are signs that this kind of thinking is gaining traction
among the country’s conservation-minded leadership, who have already done so much
to establish the country’s role as a wildlife refuge, and who seem eager to
ensure that this situation is managed sustainably in the future. Here human activities
once more take the fore given the lack of natural water sources across most of
the country. In practice this will most likely mean the installation and
maintenance of a system of boreholes across the arid expanse of the North, and
the good news is that this process has already begun with a
government-sponsored program of sustainable solar-powered boreholes already yielding dividends across large swathes of the North.
The potential benefits of this kind of work and this kind of
thinking are immense, not least of which are the reduction of seasonal
pressures on the delicate ecology of the Chobe River system and all who call it
home. It will also open up greater portions of the country to the benefits of
ecotourism, minimize human-wildlife conflict in areas where there is currently
competition for grazing areas and access to water, and contribute greatly to
the health of human and wildlife populations as a whole.
Read the full paper here:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0139936
For a synopsis and commentary from the first author himself, check
this article in Science Daily:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151013175958.htm#.Vh-argiixTc.blogger
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