15 Mar 2018

 About 100 participants are expected to attend the Southern African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) symposium slated for 21-22 March in Maun.

Participants include principal investigators, students who were supported by SASSCAL, representatives from government departments, members of civil society, profit making organisations and the research community in Botswana.

Professor Nnyaladzi Batisane from Botswana Institute of Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) is expected to give the keynote address at the symposium which would be held under  the theme : From research to policy: Setting the scene for scientific knowledge-based response to changes in climate in the SADC region.

SASSCAL is a regional initiative executed through the Department of Meteorological Services (DMS) with guidance and support from the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT).

The initiative is a joint initiative which involves Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Germany.

The main objective of the symposium is to provide SASSCAL supported researchers with an opportunity to present their research findings and their contribution to scientifically informed responses to policy makers, representatives of local communities and the climate change research community in Botswana.

 The symposium would also provide a platform for engagement between researchers, policy makers and members of civil society.

According to a statement from the SASSCAL office, the symposium would also serve as a prelude to the main SASSCAL symposium that would be held in Lusaka in April.

It stated that the initiative aspires to establish a Regional Science Service Centre in Southern Africa in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to help mitigate the effects of climate change on land management and natural resources in Southern Africa

It further said the initiative was motivated by the fact that Southern African was among the regions most vulnerable to climate change with warmer drier climatic conditions predicted for the future by most models, and also demonstrated by existing recent records which reflect increasing temperatures. 

To respond positively to the threats and challenges posed by climate change on climate sensitive economic sectors such as agriculture and water, sound scientific knowledge is a necessity. 

The statement noted that in 2012 SASSCAL created a research portfolio made up of 88 regional projects of which 14 were implemented in Botswana. 

The projects focused on five thematic areas of agriculture, biodiversity and wildlife, climate, forestry and water. 

The first SASSCAL research phase is coming to an end next month.

It is in light of the upcoming closure of the first research funding phase that a mini-symposium research is scheduled to wrap up the research and capacity development projects from the first phase of SASSCAL in Botswana. Ends