Climate Change: A bane on the availability of Mophane worms :: Mmegi Online

The effects of climate change have hit hard on the livelihoods of many rural communities and have affected the distribution and or availability of the nutritious mophane (mopani or phane) worms or caterpillar in some places in the northern parts of the country. Poor rains have severely reduced the income of some rural households who depend on phane to sustain their lives. Mmegi Staff Writer LEBOGANG MOSIKARE recently visited some places in the Central District to see the extent to which climate change have affected phane harvesters

MATOBO/GOSHWE: With unemployment expected to hover around 19% this year from 18% last year, some people, mostly women, on the outskirts of Matobo and Goshwe villages, have pitched camps in the bush to harvest mopani worms.

Many of them harvest phane, a staple source of protein and nutrients for many rural communities in Botswana, for commercial purposes and to eat as relish.

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