Fjölrit RALA - 05.12.1999, Page 67

MitchaelB.K. Darkoh
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is low, 2.2 p/km2, with district densities ranging from 0.5 in the west to 66 p/km2 in
the east.
The greater part of the human and livestock population is traditionally concentrated
in the eastern part of the country. The Kalahari sandveld has, until recently, remained
largely unoccupied (except for straggling communities of hunter-gatherers such as the
San and the BaKgalagadi) because of the absence of easily accessible, permanent wa-
ter. The region was historically used by Tswana herdsmen for seasonal and temporary
grazing, while its large wild animal herds provided game for hunting and supported a
valuable trade in skins, ivory, furs, feathers and trophies. These hunting and grazing
activities were controlled by the Tswana chiefs and their local overseers (badisa).
This situation changed radically with the introduction of colonial rule and imposi-
tion of a cash economy, and especially with the establishment of world beef export
markets since the 1960s. Until that time, the beef industry was confined to the regional
market outlets of the mining complexes of the Witwatersrand and Central African
Copperbelt from which it faced frequent exclusion as these areas tended to utilize their
domestic cattle whenever possible (Perkins 1991).
The development of overseas beef export markets, especially after independence in
1966, has given cattle a high market value which has increased ever since. Aggressive
efforts by the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), an export, slaughter and marketing
parastatal, to maximise supplier price and bolster overseas exports of beef, have paid
off. They have yielded generous European Union (EU) concessions which have raised
the price of Botswana beef up to 32% above world market price (Amtzen 1990). Ac-
cording to Morrison (1986) as cited by Perkins (1991), the aggressive marketing
stance taken by the BMC led to a 90% subsidy levied on beef exports by the European
Union (then the EEC) and increasingly privileged access to their markets since 1972.
Further assistance also came from the World Bank and various European donors. Be-
cause of these favourable developments, there has been a remarkable surge throughout
Botswana to exploit this high-income grazing industry.
Some recent studies (e.g. Silitshena et al. 1997) have linked the rapid increase in
cattle numbers to the EU beef subsidy or the so-called Beef Protocol. This subsidy has
given herdowners, both small and large, the opportunity to make more money and the
govemment to gain the needed foreign exchange from the sale of beef for export (see
Opschoor 1985, Darkoh 1989). Owing to the increasing pressure of the already
crowded communal grazing areas of the east, large herd owners have in the last three
decades been moving westwards, establishing permanent cattle posts in the Kalahari
sandveld and spreading conditions of overstocking and degradation of vegetation on a
large scale in this rangeland of low potential. The move into the Kalahari sandveld has
been facilitated not only by the lucrative EU subsidy, but also by the good rainfall
years of the 1970s and by the Tribal Grazing Lands Policy (TGLP), introduced in
1975. This policy encouraged larger cattle owners to move their herds out of over-
crowded communal areas, and into area where they would be given exclusive rights to
land allowed to establish fenced commercial ranches. Additional impetus was pro-
vided by the impact of modem science and technology that provided veterinary care
and new sources of water by means of deep drilling boreholes. As a result of the
movement, livestock numbers and the area accessible to grazing allegedly increased