‘What’s in a Name’: Implications of Women’s Cattle Ownership for Transformative Gender Mainstreaming in Botswana

This paper uses a case study exploring women's access to and associations with cattle in Botswana to understand how gendered affiliations with cattle affects women's opportunities, both materially and ideologically. It explores female cattle owners' lived experiences and naming practices to illuminate the role cattle play in addressing women's individual gendered needs. It also considers the ways cattle access policies connect to these lived experiences. Findings highlight that women are gaining confidence in pursuing this traditionally male undertaking, but are also using it as a means to fulfill normative domestic roles. This implies that cattle could be a way to achieve transformative change regarding gender equality in Botswana through addressing practical and strategic gender needs simultaneously. An exploration of this nature is particularly salient given the Government of Botswana's renewed commitment to gender mainstreaming and their relative lack of baseline knowledge of women's involvement in cattle farming

Corrigendum: Farmer–African wild dog (<i>Lycaon pictus</i>) relations in the eastern Kalahari region of Botswana

No abstract available

Compassionate Conservation: Exploring the Lives of African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) in Botswana

This paper argues for a more compassionate conservation by positioning animals as subjects in research and scholarship. Compassionate conservation is a multidisciplinary field of study that broadly attends to the ethical dimensions of conservation by merging conservation biology and animal welfare science. However, animal geography is rarely discussed in the compassionate conservation scholarship despite sharing similar tenets. This paper argues that responsible anthropomorphism and animal geography concepts of animal subjectivity (lived experiences) and agency (capacity to act) positions African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) as subjects in conservation research and scholarship. It merges biological research, public communication, and interview and participant observation data to present wild dogs as thinking, feeling, self-conscious animals with agency, and whose welfare is negatively affected in human-dominated landscapes in Botswana. This paper argues for more attention to be paid to animal subjectivity and agency to foster more compassionate relations with wildlife. It argues that positioning animals as subjects in research and scholarship is an ethical starting point for moving compassionate conservation forward. This &lsquo;enriched&rsquo; scholarly approach moves us closer to appreciating the lives of wildlife and the complexity of their circumstances and experiences

Well-Being Impacts of Human-Elephant Conflict in Khumaga, Botswana: Exploring Visible and Hidden Dimensions

High densities of wild African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) combined with widespread human land-use have increased human-elephant conflict in northern Botswana. Visible impacts (e.g. crop/property damage, injury/fatality) of elephants on human well-being are well documented in scholarly literature while hidden impacts (e.g. emotional stress, restricted mobility) are less so. This research uses qualitative methods to explore human experiences with elephants and perceived impacts of elephants on human well-being. Findings reveal participants are concerned about food insecurity and associated visible impacts of elephant crop raids. Findings also reveal participants are concerned about reduced safety and restricted mobility as hidden impacts threatening livelihoods and everyday life. Both visible and hidden impacts of elephants contribute to people's negative feelings towards elephants, as does the broader political context. This research emphasises the importance of investigating both visible and hidden impacts of elephants on human well-being to foster holistic understanding of human-elephant conflict scenarios and to inform future mitigation strategies

Reassessing the "energy ladder": Household energy use in Maun, Botswana

In the context of Sub-Saharan Africa's rapid urbanization, improved insight into urban energy use is increasingly important. Based on the predictions of "energy transition" theory, a regional shift from biomass to "modern" fuels has long been expected to occur in tandem with urban growth. However, trends observed in the region's towns and cities have often not followed such patterns and fuelwood continues to be important in most areas. This paper examines the practical relevance of transition theory using a recent case study, conducted by the authors in Maun, Botswana, and results previously reported in the literature. It finds that, despite the long-term link between socio-economic development and increased modern fuel consumption at the national scale, the notion of "transition" does not accurately reflect ongoing energy-use patterns at lower levels of aggregation. This is chiefly because its model of household fuel switching largely dismisses the importance of active (and strategic) decision making by urban consumers and their responsiveness to structural factors such as relative fuel prices. As the Botswana case illustrates, this weakness can significantly distort expectations and policies around urban fuelwood use.