13 Feb 2014

The Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism through the department of environment affairs will on March 3 commemorate Africa Environment Day (AED).

A press release from ministry stated that Africa Environment Day emanated from Durban Summit in 2000 where the African Union (AU) set aside March 3 as a day to create awareness on challenging environmental issues facing the African continent.

The release stated that 2014 Africa Environment Day was an opportunity to embrace the sustainability message more broadly in Botswana, as well as to share experiences on what was taking place in diverse areas of Botswana and other countries in the African continent.

The day would be used as a platform to promote sustainability using the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA) framework as an entry point. This could serve the purpose of tracking specific actions in Botswana on the sustainability value chain while preparing for the next GDSA summit as a country.

“It is also an opportunity to make the local track of the GDSA to involve the whole country, through awareness and sharing of practices and experiences.,” the release says.

The Africa Environment Day Commemoration will cover specific environment aspects as well as related developmental issues, and will bring together actors in the environment and non-environment walks of life. The theme for the event is “Environment for Sustainability is everyone’s call”. ENDS