Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
The site comprises the large Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) and adjoining Khutse Game Reserve, lying between 21°00’S and 23°20’S and between 22°45’E and 25°20’E. Situated in central Botswana, it is part of the Kalahari Basin, the world’s largest continuous stretch of sand, stretching from the Orange river up to Zaire. The CKGR is bordered to the north by the Kuke veterinary cordon fence and to the south by the Khutse Game Reserve which was established in 1971 to protect its series of pans, dry river valleys and dependent game. The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is presently inhabited by traditional hunter-gatherers belonging to the San and Bakgalakgadi tribes (Remote-Area Dwellers), but people are absent from Khutse.Although there are large open grasslands, the Game Reserves are both largely covered with semi-arid shrub savanna and scrub. There are small patches or strips of
Acacia woodland, and larger areas of
Terminalia sandveld. Other common trees and shrubs include
Ochna,
Boscia,
Lonchocarpus,
Bauhinia,
Dichrostachys,
Grewia,
Commiphora,
Sesamothamnus,
Catophractes and
Rhizogum. Fossil riverbeds, as in Deception and Okwa valleys and in the Khutse Game Reserve, mark the positions of rivers which once drained into the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi. Pans, shallow depressions periodically containing water, are widespread. The floors of the pans are bare or covered with short grass and herbs, but may occasionally develop into wetlands after heavy rain. Herbs, notably annuals, are abundant over the sand in the rains. Hunting of birds and mammals and the gathering of plant and other animal material by Remote-Area Dwellers occurs in the CKGR. Exploration for diamonds and drilling for minerals also take place within this reserve in addition to wildlife tourism, which has only recently been encouraged there. Khutse Game Reserve is accessible from Gaborone in under four hours and receives more visitors.
See Box and Table 2 for key species. The Central Kalahari and Khutse Game Reserves support a bird community typical of the Kalahari–Highveld biome, and the large size of the reserves means that they contain significant populations of many of the characteristic species. In addition, the reserves hold good numbers of visiting
Falco naumanni,
Circus macrourus,
Circus pygargus and
Glareola nordmanni, as well as resident grassland species such as
Struthio camelus and
Ardeotis kori and regionally threatened or near-threatened birds of prey. Large numbers of
Lanius minor winter in this site.
Non-bird biodiversity: Populations of the larger, migratory ungulates are all suffering marked declines. There is concern too for the large predators, Panthera leo (VU) and Acinonyx jubatus (VU) and Hyaena brunnea (LR/nt).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The CKGR was established in 1961. The provision of water in the CKGR through drilling boreholes (since 1962) has allowed development of new villages around boreholes and an expansion of the larger settlement of Xade; this has resulted in an increase in the human population and in their livestock. Overgrazing is widespread at boreholes surrounding the Game Reserves and, although there are restrictions on cattle-grazing in the reserves, encroachment by cattle is not uncommon in the north-west and south-west corners of the CKGR, with sporadic strays in Khutse.The human and livestock populations in and around the reserves and also between the reserves and the Kgalakgadi Transfrontier Park (IBA BW012) (the former Gemsbok National Park), to which mammals formerly migrated, put pressure on the vegetation. This, together with disturbance to, and illegal hunting of, birds and mammals, and restrictions to migration by veterinary cordon-fences, have severely depleted game populations. A recent and current lack of water in areas such as the Boteti, Lake Ngami and Lake Xau to which the animals moved for water and grazing during periods of drought, has been an important factor in the decline. Predators are also killed, illegally within, and outside the reserve to protect livestock.Fires have always occurred, but repeated and extensive fires combined with browsing and grazing by goats and other livestock are detrimental. In 1996 almost 75% of the two Game Reserves was affected by fire, with the loss of many old trees. Concern over the degradation of the CKGR led to the setting up by the Botswanan Government of a Fact Finding Mission which presented its report in 1985. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (1986) duly responded to the report, accepting seven of the Mission’s recommendations, some albeit in a modified form, but rejecting the other nine recommendations. The Government committed itself to maintaining the boundaries of the Game Reserve, to freezing social and economic development in Xade and other settlements within the reserve and to identifying viable sites for economic and social development outside the Game Reserve and to encouraging, through appropriate incentives, but not forcing, residents of the reserve (Remote-Area Dwellers) to relocate there.Subsequently a management plan for the Central Kalahari and adjacent Khutse Game Reserve was prepared by the Kalahari Conservation Society (1988), with representatives of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, the Ministry of Local Government and Lands and the Tourism Development Unit sitting on a steering committee overseeing the plan’s development. The plan was, however, never implemented. Moreover, development of Xade continued and, up to 1996, no suitable new sites were found outside the reserve. In 1991 Ghanzi District Council passed a resolution that Xade should remain a permanent settlement with all residents of the reserve relocated there. A Working Group set up to resolve the conflicts in 1993 recommended that Xade should remain but have restricted economic development and no cattle rearing, that a new settlement should be established outside the reserve and economic development be enhanced in settlements in adjacent districts so that reserve residents could relocate to them. These recommendations were not accepted by the District Council. However, water was recently found close to the western boundary of the CKGR; this is now piped to a location 45 km from the reserve, new Xade, and most of Xade’s RADs have now relocated there. Discussions are still under way and a revised management plan is being drawn up by DWNP which will allow those San/Basarawa who wish to do so to remain in the CKGR. A new diamond mine is planned within the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Central Kalahari (Kgalagadi) and Khutse Game Reserves (Botswana). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/central-kalahari-(kgalagadi)-and-khutse-game-reserves-iba-botswana on 23/12/2024.
