24 Sep 2020

Ms Matshelo Billy’s love for environmental conservation has compelled her to utilise her writing skills to promote environmental awareness.

Ms Billy (28), who holds a Degree in Environmental Science from the University of Botswana, said she was also planning to form an environmental club, which would help embark on environmental awareness in schools to promote conservation and utilisation of natural resources in a sustainable manner.

In an interview, Ms Billy, who is a temporary teacher at Tsodilo Junior Secondary School, said she was into writing research papers.

Through the research papers, she wanted communities to understand importance of the environment to healthy living.

She said the earth was home to different living species, while people depended on it for food, water, air and other needs, hence the need to conserve it

Ms Billy explained that she intended to pursue a Masters of Philosophy in Natural Resources Management with the Okavango Research Institute to pursue her dream.

She is also the winner of this year’s World Environment Day Competition, which was organised by the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Conservation through the Department of Environmental Affairs ij June.

It targeted people who were creative, good in writing, drawing, painting, poetry as well as artists and photographers.

The participants were expected to express their talent and advocate for the environment under sime topics.

Ms Billy, who could not hide her joy, noted that it was a blessing for her script to be selected as the best addressing the impact of COVID-19 on the environment in Botswana’s context.

She said her wish was to publish and expand it into a research journal paper.

She stated that the outbreak of the pandemic had affected, individuals, communities and nations, noting that both the natural and physical environments were likely to be affected.

Ms Billy explained that the topic was relevant and interesting, looking at the fact that the pandemic brought both positive and negative impacts.

She stated that it was a pity since non-governmental organisations advocating for environmental protection and conservation had been hit hard by the pandemic as their financial support had been affected.

In addition, she said some annual events that helped promote or create environmental conservation awareness had been suspended due to social distancing as one of the measures to prevent the spread of corona virus.

On one hand, Ms Billy said the pandemic brought positive outcome since some people ventured into manufacturing and distribution of hand sanitisers, face masks and fumigants.

Another positive impact, she mentioned was the reduction in harvesting of veldt products such as phane in the northern region.

Though she appreciated that the tourism sector was negatively affected due to movement restrictions, she stated that had given the tourism destinations a time to recover from overcrowding and pollution.

Ms Billy stressed the need for all to respect and love the environment, while taking all the necessary precautions to prevent spread of the corona virus. Ends