As farmers' livelihoods continue to deteriorate, wildlife numbers disturbingly decrease and environmental stress grows unabated, the time for a solution is now, or never.A decades old failure to formulate a solution that will harmonise the conflicting cattle production and the booming tourism sectors seems poised to sink Botswana's natural resource-richest district into a bottomless abysm.
The wealthy tourism operators and the poor livestock farmers are not at peace. They apparently view each other with contempt. Farmers are disillusioned by the fact that wild animals, particularly buffaloes, infect their cattle with Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) while livestock veterinary fences irk wildlife conservationists. The fences were erected by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to prevent transmission of FMD by separating the district's cattle from wildlife. Conservationists are concerned that the fences impede migratory routes of wild animals and lead to unnecessary wildlife mortalities. However of late, lack of maintenance of the fences by the MoA has worsened divisions between the tourism and cattle sectors.
