Institutional challenges in pastoral landscape management: Towards sustainable land management in Ngamiland, Botswana

Policies, institutions, and governance structures have implications for the sustainable use of land resources. In dryland Africa, pastoral landscapes are faced with challenges of land degradation, livestock diseases, droughts, and land use conflicts. In order to enhance resilience and integrity of pastoral societies and landscapes, sustainable land management (SLM) requires that policies and institutions create an enabling environment that encourages sustainable use. This study analyses current policy, institutional, and governance challenges in relation to SLM in Ngamiland, Botswana. We use a series of expert interviews, local stakeholder workshops, document, and policy content analysis to analyse policy and institutional challenges. Key findings of this study include fragmented institutional and policy frameworks, conflicting policies and priorities, weak governance structures, lack of integrated planning and coordination between sectors, gaps in communication, knowledge gaps, and fragmented pastoralists lobbying institutions, all of which hinders prospects for SLM in communal areas of Botswana. Harmonisation of sectoral policies requires institutional and policy design to consider institutional coordination and enhanced learning on other actors' perspectives and constraints. Findings in Ngamiland show that collaborative comanagement approaches can play a role in facilitating intersectoral data sharing to enable successful development of pastoral landscapes and a supportive decision-making system for SLM.