Botswana invests more in natural conservation

14 Juillet 2020

Gaborone, Botswana, July 14 (Infosplusgabon) - Botswana's elephant management plans are at an advanced stage, the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism said on Tuesday.

The announcement followed a review of the blueprint that will guide management and conservation of elephants.

“In addition, government is investing in building local capacity for testing, to this end the ministry is setting up its own laboratory working alongside with stakeholders to acquire advanced testing equipment,” said Onalenna Moyo, spokesperson of the ministry.

The development comes at the backdrop of mysterious elephants’ death in Seronga, near the Okavango Delta, with 281 verified deaths against the 356 reported cases.

Investigations are ongoing regarding the unexplained deaths of elephants.

“Initial testing of samples was conducted locally and for further additional testing, the samples were sent to reputable laboratories abroad.

“However the movement restrictions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, have adversely affected the movement of diagnostic samples to foreign laboratories causing delays in receipt of the results. Nonetheless results from Zimbabwe are currently being analyzed and interpreted whilst results from other laboratories are expected in a week,” said Moyo.

Meanwhile, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in its latest Response to COVID-19 bulletin has challenged the bloc to consider providing minimum support to conservation during the ¬fight against COVID-19 in order to safeguard the ecosystem and services they provide beyond the pandemic.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/ANK/GABON2020

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