Environmental impact assessment of commercial forestry in forest reserves in Chobe District, Northern Botswana

Abstract

This report summarizes the conclusions of a four week consultancy undertaken to assess the ecological sustainability of forestry practices in five forest reserves in Chobe district in NE Botswana. The terms of reference (appendix I) included assisting an ongoing forestry project in formulating a management plan forthese reserves, as well as outlining various scenarios under different management options. The assessments and recommendations are based on short field surveys of the reserves and surroundings, consulting with relevant government and nongovernment authorities, literature reviews and analyses of preliminary data produced by an ongoing forest inventory project. Other reports from this project and the forthcoming management plan will contain more detailed descriptions of land use history, socio-economic conditions, and previous and current forestry operations. What follows are extracts of main features of this part of Chobe district that are considered particularly important when discussing management options for the forest reserves from an environmental point of view.