Scientific support for sustainable land and resource management in the Okavango basin

The Okavango basin with its variety of savannah woodlands and wetland ecosystems linked by the central lifeline of the Okavango River is a global hot-spot of accelerating change and land use conflicts. The river has its source in the rainy highlands of Angola and terminates in the Okavango Delta, the world's largest inland delta and the largest freshwater swamp south of the equator. The TFO project will analyze ecosystem functions and services within this trans-boundary basin of high international visibility and high potential transferability of results to other tropical and sub-tropical regions.

Photo of the day - 21 May 2012  Namibia: Giant Baobab (Adansonia digitata) (Photo: Rasmus Revermann)  « yesterday tomorrow »

News TFO aired on Tagesthemen: Yesterday, the ARD programme "Tagesthemen" aired a broadcast on climate change and sustainable land use in Namibia and Botswana. The broadcast showed TFO's work, in particular the efforts of subproject SP03 (soil science) and SP10 (stakeholder engagement) who develop sustainable farming strategies together with local farmers. Watch TV broadcast The TFO progress report presents first results, achievements and next steps at the project and sub-project level to date and is now available under the Downloads section. TFO workshop on stakeholder participation “A conceptual framework for reflection and its application” (13 December 2011, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany): The subproject SP10 invites participants to support the TFO team in the process of identifying the most efficient stakeholder participation strategy while also enabling the participants to develop specific participation profiles for their individual research activities. more With more than 130 delegates, representing the three participating African countries Angola, Botswana and Namibia and Germany, the TFO workshop started with a keynote address given by the Hon. Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Botswana, Dr O.K. Mokaila. more The updated programme for the coming TFO workshop in Maun, Botswana is now available under the Events section. Upcoming TFO events and other relevant activities (international meetings, conferences etc.) are from now on retrievable under the Events section. Inaugural TFO "all participants" workshop (11-13 October 2011, Maun, Botswana): All participants are cordially invited to join the first all participants workshop to incorporate stakeholder involvement, consolidate interdisciplinary initiatives and plan the interim evaluation report. more An update of the TFO calendar 2011 containing travel data of all subprojects is now available in the internal area. The Future Okavango had been invited to present the project at the extraordinary meeting of Okavango Basin Steering Committee (OBSC) in Johannesburg on April 14th. A delegation of three TFO Project members, Prof. Dr. Wellington Masamba (ORI-Botswana), Dr. Patrick Klintenberg (DRFN-Namibia) and Dr. Thomas Falk (PUM Germany) travelled to Johannesburg and Prof. Masamba gave a 30 Minutes presentation and the participants then discussed project issues with OBSC.Information and minutes of the OBSC Meeting can be downloaded by project members internal area. On March 18th 2011 TFO subproject SP10 held a stakeholder workshop at Seronga, Botswana. Local stakeholders were informed about the project and participants discussed relevant aspects of future research. Minutes can be downloaded by projectmembers in the internal area. On March 15th 2011 a TFO Stakeholder workshop was held at Mashare Namibia. Local stakeholders were informed about the project and participants discussed relevant aspects of future research. Minutes can be downloaded by projectmembers in the internal area. The workshop 'Integration of ecological and socio-economic work in TFO: from ecosystem functions to ecosystem services’ was held from March 2nd to 3rd, 2011 in Braunschweig, Germany. Results of the workshop are downloadable for TFO members in the internal area. A flyer on the TFO project is now available in the download section. more Two new documents - a German brochure and an English presentation - introducing the background, aims and strategies of the TFO project can be downloaded in the download section. more The descriptions of three more subprojects are now available on the website: SP01  SP02  SPC The descriptions of the subprojects are now complete. The descriptions of four more subprojects are now available on the website: SP03  SP04  SP06  SP09.1   The descriptions of the following subprojects are now available on the TFO website: SP05  SP07  SP08  SP09.2  SP10   The minutes of the meeting of the German TFO consortium held in Pevestorf on the 9 and 10 September 2010 has been made available for download. more The report on the TFO kick-off-trip and the preliminary research site selection in Botswana, Namibia and Angola has been made available for download. more The website of "The Future Okavango" project (TFO) has been released on the 21 December 2010.