25 Jun 2014

Various international stakeholders have hailed the listing of Okavango Delta as a world heritage site saying it came at the right time for Africa.

In an interview during the 38^th session of the World Heritage Committee meeting in Doha, permanent delegate ambassador of Senegal to UNESCO, Mame Fatim Gueye said she was delighted by the inscription of Okavango Delta as a world heritage site because it was the only site that was listed during the entire session from Africa.

“It was as if the whole of Africa was inscribed. As a symbolic number ‘1000’, the site has to be more cherished,” she said. Ms Gueye also expressed hope that the listing will open a new era for Africa to have more of its sites inscribed.

South Africa’s minister of environmental affairs, Ms Edna Molewa said she was excited that Botswana got number ‘1000’. She said the site was too exceptional not to have been listed before.

“It is really a magical number and this is actually a selling point and I think it would be a good marketing tool,” she said.

However, Ms Molewa noted that real work began here for the country to ensure that there’s sustainability continuously and that there was utilisation by those communities that lived around the site with real benefits to those communities.

“I know that Botswana can do it for the Africans, we are therefore very proud to have such a site in Botswana,” Ms Molewa said.

This meant that Africa was continuing to grow and that they were on the world map, she said, adding that many of the tourists would come to Botswana on the African continent to see this pristine place.

“It is exposure for us as a continent, it means more income, more economic growth,” she explained. It is now time that people must now come to Africa; we have been going outside the continent to see their places, now is our time", she noted.

Director of Environment Tasmania, an Australian conservation group, Dr Phill Pullinger said it was such a pleasure to witness the delta being listed after he had heard about it since he was 10 years old. He said that this was great news for both Botswana and Africa as a whole.

"Africa is so special in terms of its natural heritage and I think it is great what the government of Botswana has done to protect the delta as a world heritage and to decide not to mine", he added.

The 38^th Session of the World Heritage Committee meeting ran from the June 15 to 25. ENDS