Voices from the Frontlines in the Okavango River Basin: Towards a Cooperative Model of Environmental Activism in the Global South
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University of Cape Town
South Africa -
Namibia
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University of Botswana Botswana
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University of Botswana Botswana
Abstract
This article examines the interplay between local activism and external and elite actors in response to ReconAfrica's oil and gas exploration activities in Namibia's Kavango and Botswana's Okavango Delta regions. The research demonstrates local communities’ challenges with confronting environmental degradation, unfulfilled promises, and legal transgressions while striving to protect their ancestral lands and rights. The study, grounded in Southern green criminology, highlights the power imbalances between Northern corporations and Southern territories, underscoring the exploitation and marginalisation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. It advocates for genuine collaboration and prioritising local perspectives in environmental activism, calling for a shift in power dynamics to ensure equitable and sustainable outcomes. This cooperative model integrates local knowledge systems, amplifies Indigenous voices, and aligns environmental campaigns with broader social justice concerns. The traditional externally driven approaches are challenged, while ethical and inclusive environmental activism is also promoted.
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Author Biographies
Dr Annette Hübschle is a chief research officer in the Public Law Department at the University of Cape Town. She leads the Global Risk Governance programme's Environmental and Planetary Futures research group. She acts as an advisor to several national and international wildlife crime, community and gangsterism panels and sits on several editorial boards of academic journals. She has published widely for academic, policy-focused and general audiences. Her current research focuses on understanding the new, and emerging risk landscapes that are shaping 21stcentury securities, with specific focus on biodiversity crimes and the impacts of industrialisation on earth systems as well as the interface between licit and illicit economies and criminal networks.
NamibiaKakuna Kerina is a human rights and environmental justice advocate, philanthropic advisor, and consultant for community-based organizations and donors in sub-Sahara Africa and the United States who has served as Africa Program Director for the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International League for Human rights, and as Executive Director for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.
Emmanuel Mogende is a Lecturer in Human Environment at the Department of Environmental Science, University of Botswana. His research interests centers on political ecology and political economy of natural resources with a particular focus on wildlife conservation in Southern Africa.
Kekgaoditse Suping is a Lecturer of International Relations in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Botswana. His research area and interests are diplomacy and political ecology focusing on the Global South.