NGOs role in limiting national sovereignty over environmental resources of global significance: the 1990 campaign against the Southern Okavango Integrated Water Development Project

This paper analyses the NGO campaign against the proposed development of the Okavango Delta in 1990, and the subsequent policy change by the Botswana government. Four explanatory factors are explored: the democratic attributes of the domestic political context; the internationalisation of the issue; the complementary role of different NGOs; and the relative lack of impact on major economic stakeholders. The limitations of the campaign are noted in relation to more recent developments. We conclude that confrontation and collaboration can complement each other. Framing environmental issues as international, mobilising communities and facilitating participation, and providing independent technical expertise, are all important NGO activities. However, whereas in 1990 these were carried out in opposition to government, nowadays they are likely to be undertaken in a co-operative framework of international agreements. NGOs may thereby gain more political space, but be in danger of co-option.