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GABORONE – Stakeholders are slated to gather in Maun next month to discuss one of the country’s most valuable asset – wetlands, Stevie Monna Director of the Department of Environmental Affairs told press on Monday.

Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism Kitso Mokaila is expected to official open the Wetlands conference scheduled for February 1 to 5.

Annually on the 2^nd of February Botswana joins the rest of the world to commemorate the World Wetlands Day.

According to the director, the five day international conference will be held in Maun and the department is working in collaboration with the University of Botswana’s Harry Openheimer Okavango Research Centre.

The day marks the signing of the Convention on conservation and protection of wetlands of international importance.

The conference chairman Dr. Ephraim Mbaiwa, senior research fellow for the UB/Harry Openheimer Research Centre in the Tourism studies said a lot of objectives will be discussed at the conference.

“We are expecting about 200 delegates and these are scientists, conservation NGOs, decision makers and our own bio-Okavango projects.” he said

“There will be presentation of papers and a plenary session. The challenge of this conference is that we don’t have a lot of space in Maun,” said Mbaiwa.

He advised that the direct benefit of the conference is the information sharing with those in the academia.

Mbaiwa told journalists that after the conference, proceedings of the meeting will be published and books made out them which will be used by students as well as other interested parties.

Botswana has taken initiatives to manage wetlands which recharge groundwater and provide grazing, food, materials for construction, employment and useful medicinal plants.

The value of wetlands also relates to their intrinsic properties such as beauty which appeals to tourists.