01 Feb 2017

Okavango Research Institute (ORI) deputy director, Professor Joseph Mbaiwa, has appreciated support from the tourism industry and other stakeholders in making research possible.

He said as a research institute, ORI could not make it alone since it needed a lot of money to put into research in order to achieve the end results.

He made the remarks during launch of The Peter Smith University of Botswana (PSUB) herbarium's data mobilisation project.

The project was funded by the UNDP-GEF supported Sustainable Land Use Management for Ngamiland (SLM) project together with Desert and Delta Safari (DDS). 

Ngamiland SLM is a government project with incremental support from UNDP and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) while DDS is a safari company.

He said it was pleasing to see various companies coming forth to partner with the institution towards the development, adding that they rely on partners to do research and appreciated friends in the tourism sector.

He said the two companies had shown commitment to the environment through their donation to PSUB herbarium. Prof. Mbaiwa pointed out that in the past, certain companies used to sponsor students to study at the institution, noting that they are still looking forward for the same arrangement.

He cited companies such as Kwando that have helped in the past, adding that now it is DDS, which he said made research possible.

He noted that if all stakeholders could be involved, they could easily tackle many issues in the Okavango Delta. Prof. Mbaiwa mentioned some of the key issues such as the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Human/Wildlife conflict, livestock predators and crop damage as some of the issues needing research.

“These are some of the areas which need to be researched on and long lasting solutions be found. There is a serious friction between agriculture and tourism and we as the institute could assist the conflicting partners because we are neutral,” he added.

Meanwhile, the PSUB herbarium project, which is part of ORI and the University of Botswana, will hold valuable vegetation data, in the form of plant specimens which have been collected from all over the Okavango Delta and northern Botswana.

This reference collection of plant material will now have the data extracted and entered into the Botanical Record and Herbarium Management System (BRAHMS).

The PSUB herbarium houses a comprehensive collection of plant specimens which represent the floristic diversity of Ngamiland and this data would be securely and thoroughly captured in the BRAHMS database.

Having the data in BRAHMS at PSUB will allow floristic information from the Ngamiland region to be available to anyone who is interested. BOPA