06 Mar 2022

Environmentally friendly policies adopted by government present numerous opportunities for Batswana, not only to safeguard their surroundings, but to also make a living through conservation activities. 

Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng said this Wednesday in an interview with BOPA at the end of a three-day session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The meeting was a prelude to the United Nations Environment Programme 50th Commemoration (UNEP@50) taking place Thursday and Friday, and attended by heads of government, among them President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi. 

Ms Kereng said government was looking to empower Batswana through environment preservation policies, “We have recently formulated the Integrated Waste Management Policy passed by Parliament. 

This offers an opportunity for individuals, communities and businesses to participate and earn a living through gathering and recycling waste, and government is looking to assist citizens to derive commercial value from this,” she said. 

UNEA came at the right time as Botswana started to implement the new policy, she said, adding the environment ministry would call stakeholders, including other ministries, local government, waste management businesses, civil society, and the youth to a Waste Management Pitso in Gaborone Wednesday and Thursday. 

She further mentioned that UNEA in its declaration resolved to formulate a treaty for states to work on ending environmental degradation caused by plastic pollution and added that Botswana was prepared to participate in that regard. 

“We are looking at developing a whole economic value chain from the recycling of plastics and to learn from countries such as Rwanda who have developed cleaner urban environments by drastically curbing the use of plastic. 

We will bring communities and stakeholders on board, to help coordinate such activity,” Ms Kereng said. She added that the country has had its plastic levy collected through the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) which then passed on the funds to the National Environmental Fund whose coffers supported eg; non-governmental organisations, research, education and other activities aligned to plastic waste management. 

The DailyNews observes that Some Batswana companies, such as Botswana Innovation Hub-funded Eco Hub are already on the desired path as they make plastic bricks out of plastic waste. 

Last February the company donated a classroom made of plastic bricks to Lobatse Secondary School. 

Ms Kereng further said UNEA also discussed other issues of concern including the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on sustainable development as well as climate change, which brought about adverse weather conditions including drought, desertification or extreme precipitation and floods. 

“In my statement on behalf of Botswana on Tuesday, we stated that our country had the largest concentration of elephants in the world, which we continue to carefully conserve, and that we pursue integrity in the management of our ecosystems, which is evident in our stewardship of wildlife, human-wildlife relations and natural resource management as well as policy formulation,” Ms Kereng said. 

UNEA, a gathering of environmental affairs ministers from the UN's 193 member states, civil society, business and other stakeholders, was established in 2013 as an organ of UNEP, set up to improve dialogue and coordinate states’ policies and share knowledge. 

The just ended meeting was the fifth of its biennial assemblies. BOPA