Barclays responds to plant depletion owing to basketry

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Friday July 9, 2010 00:00

The plants include mokolwane (barchemia discolour euclea divinorum), which has been declining over the years as commercial basket weaving flourished.

Kalahari Conservation Society (KCS) says the areas between Shakawe and Gumare in the Okavango have experienced a decline in the populations of the vegetable ivory palm, vegetable dye plants (hyphaine petersiana) and many others over the last decades.

'The general observation made is that there is localised and selective depletion of preferred trees as material for craft production. The extent of scarcity is established through unit costs of extraction, changes in labour time for raw material collection, changes in distance travelled to collect raw materials and switching to less preferred substitutes,' says the chief executive of KCS, Felix Monggae in an interview with Mmegi ahead of the tree planting project they will launch this month in conjunction with Barclays Bank.

The bank has put aside P500,000, part of which will be used to replace depleted plants needed as raw materials in basketry. KCS believes the tree planting project has the potential to mitigate human induced depletion of natural resources used in basketry.

In the 1980s, Botswana Craft, the department of forestry and the local community undertook several studies to assess potential depletion of the natural resources through funding from the then Ministry of Commerce and Industry's Rural Industrial Office.

According to Terry (1987), local depletion of the plants was predicted within the next 10 years, which called for immediate action to counteract the problem.

'Evident by then was the increasing distances basket weavers had to travel to harvest the resources, at times putting their lives in danger of being attacked by wild animals and crocodiles,' says Monggae.  In the early 1980s, trials were conducted in places like Etsha 5,6,8 and 13 and Gumare to determine the feasibility of such a practice. However, Monggae says unfortunately, the initiative is currently operational at only two places, Etsha 9 and 13, of these initiatives.

'The failure can be attributed to lack of commitment on the part of basket weavers because of lack of a felt need to sustain the project,' Monngae explains.  'Most noticeable is that the fences have collapsed and only a few of plants can be found because domesticated animals ate most of them.'

 Realising the importance of agro forestry plots, the Every River Has its People project (ERP), in collaboration with the Forestry Department and Etsha basket weavers, agreed on the need to revive agro forestry initiatives in Etsha 1, 6, 9 and 13.

But due to budgetary constraints, only Etsha 9 and 13 agro forestry plots got funding.

The Etsha 9 agro forestry plot is shared by Etsha 8, 9 and 10 and has a membership of 44 people. About 479 palm nuts were planted at the site, Monngae says.

He explains that Etsha 13 has 124 members drawn from Etsha 11, 12 and 13. The group has planted over 1,386 palm seeds.'The proposed activity here is therefore aimed at reinforcing earlier efforts of mitigating resource depletion by reviving the Etsha 6 agro forestry plot,' he says.

'The plot will be used as a nursery and will assist in distributing and supplying craft making households and local institutions with indigenous plants used in the process.'

Mongage says the plot will also act as an education centre for propagating natural resources for the local schools and the community, in that way enhancing the sustainable utilisation of the natural resources.