Pabalelo Trust

Our History

The origin of Pabalelo Trust lies within the traditions, cultures but also the current situation of the Okavango Panhandle. Traditionally, the people of this region relied on subsistence agriculture, which included livestock and crop production. However, infrastructure development and population influx, as well as changing climate, cultures, and policies around land management, have threatened these practices, making them less productive and more difficult. Additionally, although the Okavango offers great natural resources, there is poor economic opportunity, limited service provision, and inadequate access to affordable and nutritious food.

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In the Beginning

Klipsop Farm, where Pabalelo Trust is now based, started off as a conventional irrigation farm with crop fields and orchards working to supply food to the region, but there proved to be too many barriers to food production in this area, coupled with the high cost of finding solutions to erratic rainfall, pests, poor soils, and intense wildlife interference. This inspired the creation of Pabalelo Trust, as it became clear that the surrounding communities encountered similar struggles, and had very limited solutions. The earlier efforts at commercial farming also fostered the conviction that drives the Pabalelo Trust, that it is essential to build on what people have successfully done for centuries in this environment, rather than impose new, mechanized, and potentially damaging agricultural methods. The principles of conservation agriculture and permaculture are rooted in and complement traditional farming methods of this region and work with rather than against nature. In recent years especially, the challenges of human-wildlife conflict and climate change have escalated dramatically, making our work more important than ever.

 

Setting a Foundation

The vision of Pabalelo Trust is to find solutions to the challenges inhibiting successful livelihoods in this region whilst also protecting the pristine Okavango Delta Panhandle environment, was supported by the Leseding Project on Fish Parasite Research of the University of the Free State, South Africa, and the Taaibosch Foundation in the Netherlands. The focus was to promote environmentally sustainable subsistence livelihood solutions, ensuring that communities thrive, whilst understanding the value of their natural heritage and their custodianship of it. These intentions inspired the name Pabalelo, which means preserve/protect in Setswana, the national language of Botswana. We selected the logo of the tortoise because it represents custodianship of the earth in the culture of the Naro San people of Botswana.

 

Expanding our Impact

Since its inception, Pabalelo Trust has implemented many projects with a variety of partners. Most notable has been the work on Conservation Agriculture, supported by the SAREP (USAID) programme for the development of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, and an agroforestry pilot project funded by Forest Conservation Botswana. The Taaibosch Foundation and Centrum Voor Ontmoeting der Volkere (COV), also in the Netherlands, have been Pabalelo’s longest-standing institutional partners.

What we do

 

​Pabalelo Trust supports sustainable, environmentally conscious rural livelihoods in the Okavango Panhandle region by assisting subsistence farmers to regain their standing and recognition as having had the most successful long-term livelihoods systems over centuries. We primarily support these communities to adapt to and develop more responsible, climate-resilient food production practices in the light of climate change, by establishing long-term food security as well as harmonious coexistence between people and wildlife. Our goal is to improve farmers’ crop yields while protecting the natural environment, which not only provides ecosystem services and access to their wealth of biodiversity but also offers potential income generating opportunities through ecotourism and sustainable harvesting of natural resources.

 

Working with local crop farmers, gardeners and livestock owners, we build on traditional agricultural knowledge to adapt how permaculture and conservation agriculture principles blend in with all the pillars of subsistence livelihoods in the environmental and cultural context of the region. We provide training and monitoring support for farmers implementing conservation agriculture and integrate permaculture practices into food production while helping to find solutions to human-wildlife conflict. We pilot new conservation-minded food production techniques in our own field and gardens and research and pilot alternatives for cash income, while forging partnerships with like-minded NGOs in the area to improve our reach and consolidate efforts to the benefit of all.

Our approach

Pabalelo Trust believes starts with investing in people. From our staff, to the farmers and gardeners we work with, we aim to build capacity to help people find their own solutions, owning past knowledge of sustainable livelihoods and integrating that with new information and experience, with generations to come. We believe that traditional knowledge, practices and skills are the backbone on which to base any conservation or food security solutions, acknowledging these communities to have been the successful protectors of this important World Heritage Site for centuries. As such, we believe they should be recognized, empowered and organised to continue to play an active role. 

We therefore look to achieve food security by integrating traditional agricultural practices with permaculture principles, such as introducing minimum tillage, permanent soil coverage, and intercropping and crop rotation, but simultaneously addressing strategic shifts in land-use application and the farmers’ need for representation to access government support and services. Food production in the Okavango Panhandle region meets challenges such as erratic rainfall/drought, human-wildlife conflict, poor and sandy soils as well as free roaming cattle and goats that compete with the farmer for food. Piloting and hands-on training and monitoring of unique solutions to achieve environmentally-minded food security, happens alongside establishing community-based organisations which can express needs for policy changes and qualify for government support. 

Working with partner/champion farmers and gardeners,  we try to enable them to find practical, hands-on solutions for their unique set of challenges. Looking at all the pillars of food security, being rainy season crop production, backyard horticulture and livestock ownership, we aim to re-introduce missing elements of their threatened existence, such as reinstating herding of livestock and investigating possibilities around natural resource utilization, in order to assist with the demands of a developing cash economy.