Water & Climate Resilience in the Limpopo Basin

Partners: Chemonics, Global Water Partnership Southern Africa, IUCN

The Limpopo River Basin spans the borders of four Southern African nations: Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This region is known for its rich biodiversity and a wide variety of landscapes and people. Unfortunately, the basin is also one of the most stressed river basins in sub-Saharan Africa. Current demand on water resources is increasing quickly, while climate change is likely to see rising temperatures and less rainfall in this area.

In response to these challenges the Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) was launched in June 2012. This programme aimed to improve and support the basin’s ecosystems and improve the overall resilience of the basin to climate change and extreme weather.

OneWorld conducted initial research and produced a strategy that integrates water management, biodiversity conservation and adaptation to climate change in order to build resilience to climate change for long term sustainability.

Specific activities included:

Building an evidence base on the status quo of the basin – its water users, development prospects, governance and institutions
Identifying hotspots – key areas of heightened vulnerability in the basin
Conducting consultations with stakeholder groups to validate the findings
Designing a climate investment platform for climate finance leveraging and an Investment Strategy for Resilience for the Limpopo River Basin
Identifying solutions for regional policy- and decision-makers.

Through the combined process of the R&V mapping and expert consultation, eight case studies (or ‘hotspots’) emerged as areas of heightened vulnerability. These case studies were used as a means of understanding more localised vulnerabilities across the LRB, as well as ways in which basin-wide resilience could be built through replication and scale