The Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism- Philda Kereng has accused Batswana of contributing towards land degradation.
“It has been observed that land degradation in Botswana can be attributed to excessive and indiscriminate cutting of trees; overgrazing due to overstocking of livestock; frequent and uncontrolled veld fires; over exploitation of forest and range resources; illegal mining (e.g. sand, gravel etc.); expansion of human settlements leading to urbanization; unsustainable agricultural practices; and recurring drought episodes associated with climate change.” she pointed out.
Kereng was speaking on the occasion of the commemoration of the Desertification and Drought Day. The day was officially declared by the United Nations General Assembly on January 30 1995 as a World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.
Its purpose is to raise awareness of the presence of desertification and drought, highlighting methods of preventing desertification and recovering from drought. Each year’s global celebration has a unique, novel emphasis that had not been developed previously. In that respect, this year’s theme for the commemoration is βRestoration. Land. Recovery. We build back better with healthy land.β
This theme, the Minister says, emphasize the potential to restore the degraded land back to life. By so doing, Kereng says, the degraded land can bring economic resilience, creation of jobs, raise incomes and food security.The Minister says It can help biodiversity to recover, and lock away the atmospheric carbon warming the Earth, thus slowing climate change. Moreover, she says it can lessen the impacts of climate change and underpin a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
With Seventy percent (70%) of the country covered by the desert, Minister Kereng says her Ministry has revised a National Action Programme (NAP) which was developed in the context of managing Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD). DLDD is in place to ensure that people participate in programmes to combat desertification.
