10 Feb 2015

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) in collaboration with the University of Botswana will host the Symposium on Wetlands and Wildlife in Maun from March 17-19, this year. 

A press release from the Ministry of Enviornment Wildlife and Tourism stated that the  objective of the symposium would be to provide an open forum for the exchange of views among natural resources professionals, academics and practitioners with regard to the implication of research findings on management and conservation of natural resources.

 It states that the forum will address issues on natural resource research: implication for management and conservation, with sub-themes that included ecosystem dynamics such as wetlands hydrology, biogeochemical cycling, vegetation and wildlife ecology, energy flow and managing ecosystems (Trans Frontier conservation.)

Other issues to be addressed would be managing natural resources, governance, monitoring of natural resources, evaluation of management practices such as translocation, compensation, fire, fences waterholes, ecosystems and people, sustainable tourism and human wildlife interactions, says the release.

Also to be discussed is game ranching, a conservation tool or threat on management, contribution to endangered species conservation, conservation risks, genetics, and tourism.

In addition, the release said there will be five round table discussions on selected critical management issues which include game ranching, human wildlife co-existence, translocation, Okavango Delta as a world heritage site, implication for management and conservation, climate change and Community Based Natural Resource Management. ENDS