04 Aug 2015

The influence of human activities on biological diversity is not usually seen until after a significant time delay.

Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT), Mr Felix Monggae, said this affected all levels of biodiversity.

Mr Monggae said this when officially opening a stakeholder meeting of the project for enhancing national forest monitoring system for the promotion of sustainable natural resource management in Kasane recently. 

He said forests were a versatile renewable resource, providing a wide range of goods and services to people, especially in rural areas, though they were viewed as free resources and inexhaustible.

Mr Monggae noted that very little or no attention was directed to conservation or sustainable management of it. 

The DPS further said Botswana continued to suffer from lack of valuable information on the state of its forest resources. 

“Information on the extent of forest is necessary for among others the assessment of the state and change in forest resources, including goods and services provided by the forest at both national and global level,” he noted. 

Furthermore, Mr Monggae said in 2012, Botswana entered into an agreement with the Japan to develop capacity in the field of forestry inventory.

He said the collaboration was meant to enable the department to generate statistical data on the state of the country’s forest resources.

The project formulation advisor at Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) in South Africa, Ms Yuko Kanto said they are aware that the department of Forestry and Range Resources (DFRR) has been leading the project and it has obtained dazzling results, such as active participation of regional officers. 

She said JICA and SADC have launched a project on capacity development in sustainable forest management and conservation in Southern Africa. 

“We would very much like you to share the knowledge with SADC member states so that each of them could benefit from it,” she said. Ends