Boiling point: climate crisis, conflict and peacebuilding in Botswana’s vulnerable landscapes

Climate change increasingly shapes conflict dynamics and peacebuilding prospects in ecologically fragile settings. This article explores the ‘boiling point’ at which climate-induced pressures, such as ecosystem contraction, intersect with resource governance, contested access, and sociopolitical marginalisation in Boro village, situated in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Based on fieldwork that included interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis, the study draws attention to how climate stressors intensify vulnerabilities, increasing intra-community tensions, human-wildlife conflict, and discontent with formal governance. At the same time, it documents how traditional leadership, local innovations, collaborative resource management, informal negotiation, customary dispute resolution, and adaptive livelihoods represent key endogenous sources of resilience and peacebuilding. The analysis highlights the non-linear, context-dependent nature of the climate-conflict-peace nexus. Climate change interacts with existing governance arrangements, livelihood vulnerabilities, and resource access dynamics, intensifying certain conflict risks while simultaneously creating opportunities for cooperation, adaptation, and locally grounded peacebuilding. Recommendations include integrating climate adaptation/conflict prevention into local governance, establishing community climate-peace committees, investing in climate education/dialogue, and creating peace dividend funds from tourism to foster stability. This study contributes to growing Global South evidence on how community agency and governance shape peace outcomes under climate stress, extending the environmental peacebuilding literature into southern Africa.