Few images invoke the feeling of Africa's natural beauty more than the Okavango Delta. Yet this environmentally sensitive and economically significant area of Botswana is under threat due to climate change.

The Okavango Delta is the world's largest inland delta, a permanent swamp that covers over 15,000 square km. The Delta floods yearly, between January and February, but the water, originating in the Angola highlands, evaporates and never reaches the major body of water.

The Okavango, surrounded by Moremi Game Reserve, is a protected area due to its diversity of flora and fauna. Abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalos, hippos, giraffes, crocodiles, lions, leopards, zebras and various antelopes are found throughout the wetlands. The diversity and abundance of wildlife are directly correlated with the amount of rainfall received in Angola traveling down into the Delta.

Consequently, the area has become a very popular international tourist destination. The Delta has many game lodges, which must follow strict low environmental impact regulations. Tourism represents the second largest industry in Botswana, after mining, totaling $753 million of the  GDP.

The Delta is also used by locals for fishing, agriculture, and plant gathering (such as those used for medicines and wild food), creating a substantial vulnerable community in Botswana's rural citizens.  

Scientists and policy organizations agree that both the rise in population around the Delta and the subsequent strain on water supply, as well as reduced rainfall due to climate change, are set to have a detrimental impact environmentally and consequently, economically.

In particular, Botswana's lucrative tourism industry is under threat, says Wame L. Hambira, lecturer in environmental economics at the University of Botswana and author of a new study on climate change and tourism published in the International Journal of Tourism Policy. This study "screens for climate change vulnerability" and determines that the Botswana tourism industry is in fact vulnerable to the threat of climate change.

Specifically, the Okavango Delta is used as a case study in Hambira's article, as it is the number one tourist attraction in the country; however, she argues, there is a need to look at all nature-based tourism in Botswana.

The macro-economic threat is significant, due to the proportion of GDP that tourism accounts for in Botswana. Yet there is also a micro-economic threat, Hambira explains, both to those employed by tourism (10.6 percent in 2007) and through the Community-Based Natural Resources Management program, which benefits local communities through the proceeds of tourism activities such as photographic safaris.

It is clear that climate change is set to have a profound effect on the Okavango Delta, Botswana's tourism industry and the local people. And these effects can be seen similarly throughout the vulnerable region of Southern Africa.

Climate change is a hot topic internationally, but it holds particular significance for the countries of Africa, where people are the most vulnerable.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Bonn, Switzerland in August to discuss the growing threat of climate change to developing nations. Estimates of the long-term costs vary, but it is most certainly in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars for investment needs.

There is also the need for international support, but it varies by country and opinions range widely. More specific studies are needed in order to determine exactly how to mitigate damage in developing countries and prevent serious consequences.

Hambira agrees that the first line of defense in battling climate change in the region is unquestionably "Information!" The major issue right now, she argues, is that "there is just no[t] adequate data."

In response to this lack of data, the Botswana Government is now in the process of developing a national policy on climate change and a response strategy. Similarly, the University of Botswana's Okavango Research Institute has devoted much of its energy in studying and developing adequate response mechanisms.

The Research Institute's programs - ECOHealth, The Future Okavango, International Water Management, and the Climate, Land-Use, Institutions and People - all address different aspects of climate change in partnerships with the international community.

The problem of water shortage, particularly in relation to climate change, will also be discussed at the upcoming fourth International Association of Science and Technology for Development African Conference on Water Resource Management at the University of Botswana in September.

As Hambira explains, "Information is crucial in informing appropriate adaptation measures to be adopted by the industry."  And for the Okavango Delta, time is of the essence.

(The author is a historian, writer, and editor who divides her time between Lusaka, Zambia and Suzhou, China)