28 Apr 2019

Botswana has developed a programme for sustainable management of forests with strategic objectives, senior lecturer at Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), Dr Joyce Lepetu has said.

“The national forest programme is a comprehensive policy framework intended to achieve sustainable forest management through coordinating the forest sector across all stakeholders and developing and managing forests to ensure sustainable and economic benefits, among other objectives,” she told a stakeholder consultation workshop in Kanye recently.

Dr Lepetu explained that the programme was meant to augment the 2011 Botswana forest policy which, she said, had to be upgraded by adding strategies that would cater for new realities and developments.

In addition, the programme would ensure alignment to international protocols to which Botswana was a signatory, she said.  Dr Lepetu noted that the United Nations Forest Forum had come up with a non-legally binding instrument comprising 25 measures for use by members which acknowledged the economic and social benefits of forests.

She called for the allocation of adequate resources for forest management and inclusion of the issue in national and international agendas.

However, she noted that even though the instrument was adopted in 2007, some developing countries were either unaware of its existence or did not have clear monitoring and evaluation plans.

“We want all stakeholders to be aware of this instrument and implement it even though we know it is not legally-binding,” she said.

Commenting on the presentation, Baalahi Association leader, Mr Onkutlule Thebe said there should be clear regulations on the use of some tree species to prevent their becoming extinct.

He said overuse of some plants especially for business was a threat. “As traditional doctors we use these plants for medicinal purposes, but other people harvest them in large quantities for sale.

This is a challenge not only in Botswana, but in other African countries as well,” he said.

He said traditional doctors, through the Dingaka tsa Setso Association, had long requested government to come up with a legal instrument prohibiting over-harvesting of such plants as a way of managing and protecting them.

The aim of the workshop was to give different stakeholders the platform to take part in the conservation and protection of forests to prevent extinction. ENDS