Sustainable livelihoods for the promotion of human dignity
WHO AND WHERE WE ARE
Pabalelo Trust is a community-based, non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Samochima, Botswana in the Okavango Panhandle. Our mission is to support year-round environmentally-sustainable, climate-friendly food security and livelihood development. Pabalelo currently has seven team members who are supported by a board of interdisciplinary experts. Our staff live within the communities we serve and have years of personal farming and gardening experience. We primarily partner with women from the ||Anikhwe, Hambukushu, and Kgalagadi tribes.
Pabalelo Trust was founded in 2007 by Willemien le Roux and her late husband Braam, in collaboration with 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 work with local people to find ways to make a living while also helping them preserve their cultural practices. This includes using farming methods that are sustainable and work with the changing climate. This mission led to the name Pabalelo, which means to protect/preserve 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.
OUR HISTORY
Pabalelo Trust supports sustainable, environmentally conscious rural livelihoods in the Okavango Panhandle region. We primarily work with communities to develop responsible, climate-resilient food production practices and establish 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 a wealth of biodiversity, but also offers potential income generating opportunities through ecotourism and sustainable harvesting of natural resources. Working with local farmers and gardeners, we build on traditional agricultural knowledge to adapt permaculture and conservation agriculture principles to the environmental and cultural context of the region. We provide training and support for farmers implementing conservation agriculture and integrate permaculture practices into food production in backyard gardens. We pilot new conservation-minded food production techniques in our own field and gardens and have youth development programmes that provide environmental education and support out-of-school youth to return to school.
WHAT WE DO
Pabalelo Trust believes in investing in people. From our staff, to the farmers and gardeners we work with, we aim to build their capacity to engage in sustainable livelihoods and pass on their knowledge and experience with generations to come. We believe that traditional knowledge, practices and skills are the backbone to finding conservation and food security solutions. For many centuries these communities have been the successful protectors of this important World Heritage Site, and as such, we believe they should be recognized, empowered and encouraged to continue to play an active role. We therefore look to achieve food security by integrating traditional agricultural practices with permaculture principles and the three tenants of conservation agriculture— 1) minimum tillage, 2) permanent soil coverage, and 3) intercropping and crop rotation. However, food production in the Okavango Panhandle region has many challenges, of which, erratic rainfall/drought and human-elephant conflict are the most difficult. Other factors include poor and sandy soils, which attract couch grass (Cynodon dactilon) infestation when cultivated, monkey and porcupine raids, as well as free roaming cattle and goats. These challenges require unique solutions to achieve environmentally-minded food security. We work alongside our partner farmers and gardeners to find sustainable and affordable ways to overcome these challenges, for example through the implementation of living fences, nitrogen-fixing cover crops, agroforestry, grey-water recycling, solar lighting, chilli pepper fields and fires for elephant control, natural fertilizers and compost making to improve soil quality, and organic pest control.
OUR APPROACH
Though our longest-standing partnerships have been with the farmers and gardeners with whom we work, Pabalelo Trust has historically been funded by the Swift Foundation (USA), the Taaibosch Foundation and COV (Netherlands), SAREP (USAID), the United States Embassy, as well as SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund. We have successfully completed a pilot agroforestry programme with Forest Conservation Botswana (FCB) and collaborate closely with the Department of Crop Production and Ecoexist, a neighbouring NGO specifically focusing on human-elephant conflict. We are always looking to expand our network of collaborators, donors, partners, and supporters.