Botswana and France have taken steps toward strengthening cooperation on geological sciences, says Ambassador of France to Botswana and special representative to the Southern African Development Community, Ms Valérie Baraban.

Speaking during the official opening of the two-week PanAfGeo+ programme at the Botswana Geoscience Institute (BGI) in Lobatse on Monday, Ms Baraban said already BGI and the French geological survey, a leading public institution for Earth Science in France, were working toward a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at building cooperation across the geological survey value chain, skills, geological mapping, research, technologies and data management, including responsible and sovereign use of Artificial Intelligence.

As Botswana moved toward economic diversification, she said such capabilities could help turn geological potential into new opportunities.

France, she said had longstanding commitment to Earth sciences, which started in the 18th Century.

“France’s particular strength is the breadth of this ecosystem: engineering schools, research laboratories, industry and a national geological survey. Together, they provide expertise across the value chain: exploration, resource assessment, extraction, processing, environmental management and rehabilitation. From understanding a resource to creating lasting value from it. This is the expertise that France wishes to contribute to our European and African partnership,” she said.

She highlighted that France was proud to take a leading role in the European partnership with Africa in a program that was targeted at strengthening geoscientific capacity across Africa through training, knowledge exchange, and long-term institutional collaboration.

“Geological knowledge carries real economic and political weight. Our purpose is to share expertise, strengthen institutions and support African priorities,” she said.

She said the two-week programme, which runs from October 12 to 23 and had attracted geologists from 13 African nations, was pertinent as geologists produced reliable geoscience data which helped countries negotiate investment, protect groundwater, manage environmental risks and retain more value from their resources.

For his part, BGI acting chief executive officer, Mr Puso Akanyang said the PanAfGeo+ continued to serve as a valuable platform for continental collaboration, knowledge sharing and professional development especially in today’s evolving global economy where geoscience data formed the basis for critical decision making.

He emphasised that effective geoscientific data management was critical as it brought to light existence of historic minerals.

He said it was thus necessary as it was used in managing ground water resources, addressing environmental challenges or planning major infrastructure projects, and robust national frameworks. 

In addition, Mr Akanyang said modernising how geoscientific data was collected, managed, stored, shared and analysed was essential for economic development.

He thus advised the participants, who were set to gain insightful knowledge on Geoscientific Information Management, that geology knew no boundaries, adding that it was pertinent for them to work together and form networks toward collective delivery. ENDS