26 May 2016

 

 Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) offers an opportunity for Botswana to determine the physical stock of its natural resources and prepare monetary accounts with a view to integrate results in economic development towards sustainable development.

The director of Department of Tourism Ms Kelebaone Maselesele said this when delivering welcoming remarks at the Natural Capital Accounts for Tourism training workshop yesterday.

The purpose of the workshop was to initiate capacity building for stakeholders who would be involved and were involved in the development of the tourism accounts.

She said the Botswana WAVES had a component prioritised accounts for water, minerals energy, land and eco-systems, tourism, as well as the development of macro-economic indicators of sustainability.

Ms Maselesele said under the Land and Eco-systems component, a decision was taken to start with Natural Capital Accounts for tourism as it was seen as a sector that had the potential to help in the diversification of the economy as well as job creation and business opportunities for Batswana.

Giving an overview of Waves Global Partnership Program in Botswana, coordinator of WAVES Botswana Mr Edwin Itshekeng, said water accounts were identified as key tools for the water sector reform and mineral accounts were helping to develop a fiscal rule on the management of mineral revenues which were the major components of GDP and governance revenue.

Mr Itshekeng said weighing trade-offs and management options was critical given the water scarcity and the importance of water for sectors targeted for economic growth such as coal mining and agriculture.

He further said in the road ahead they were planning to integrate the National Capital Accounting into National Development Plan 11 to ensure continuity and also develop a strategy on extraction of underground water.ENDS