02 Jul 2015

Residents of Bokspits, Rappelspan, Vaalhoek and Struizendam (BORAVAST) have been enlightened on the importance of using geographic information system (GIS) and Management Oriented Monitoring System (MOMS).

A University of Botswana (UB) lecturer of the Department of Environmental Sciences, Dr Mulalu Mulalu said an interview that it was important for communities to understand their environment and the occurring changes.

Dr Mulalu said, “we realised that it is of great importance for communities to learn about their environment and all the changes that occurs. It is for this reason that we came to impart knowledge on them. MOMS shows all resources in an area in a map based form,” he said.

He said it was important for communities to know how to use it as this would help increase their participation in the whole exercise. Dr Mulalu noted that once villagers knew how to collect information about their nature, they would be in a better position to notice climatic changes and their causes.

“This will also help improve livelihoods for residents and they will be in a position to create employment for themselves through the knowledge acquired,” he said.

“GIS will help communities to adapt to their environment and its changes. They will be able to see changes and know what to do,” Dr Mulalu added.

Wildlife biologist officer, Ms Dineo Keithome said that MOMS actually started in national parks before being spread outside to communities.

“This system started in our national parks, then we realised there are communities who are within our range and could also use it because it deals with wildlife and other parameters direct to wildlife such as people, animals and nature,” she noted.

She added that the system had already been implemented at Okavango Delta and Chobe and was doing very well.

“We realised that the Southern part of the country had not been done yet and we decided to introduce it to BORAVAST.” She noted that the community received the news well and were eager to work with them to create the record books and fill in all the necessary data.

Rachel Esterhuizen, one of the members of the community who attended the course told BOPA that she was looking forward to putting all that she learnt into practice.

“This had been an eye opener about our environment which we often endanger unknowingly. As of today, we are going to start conserving our environment,” she said.

She further said they were also going to educate other residents on the system and environment conservation.

“We lack information on these issues, a situation which has resulted in us not caring for our nature. We are going to work hard to educate our fellow community members,” Ms Esterhuizen said. Ends