Botswana Museum Blog

 pic supplied by ryuichi ishida(JICA) one of the designers of the Okavango Delta dossier Since early 2011, the Government of Botswana as a state party to the UNESCO 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural heritage is working towards the listing of the Okavango Delta as a World Heritage Site.  Botswana ratified the UNESCO 1972 Convention on November 23 rd 1998 and thus committed to ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations, its cultural and natural heritage considered to be of outstanding universal value to humanity. World Heritage is an idea that was proposed by the United States in 1965 to preserve the world’s superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry. The idea was then presented by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to the 1972 United Nations conference on Human Environment i

  Within Botswana landscapes lies a green  oasis,  inland Delta estima ted  half the size of Belgium,  making it  Africas largest delta. It has permanent swamps approximately half the size of 6000 km2 Additionally it has 7000, 12000km of seasonal flooded grassland.It has permanent crystal clear waters with a sustainable ecosystem of remarkable habitat and diverse species. In world heritage terms, this area has outstanding values both naturally and culturally. The Okavango is exclusively unique as it originates from the Angolan Highlands, makes two rivers namely Cuito and Cubango which join to form the 15000 km long Kavango, flows briefly in Namibia along Caprivi Strip before it enters in Botswana, where it is called the Okavango Delta. Botswana through the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism is vying to  list this unique, magnificent feature to share it with the rest of the world.After  much  thorough research by all stakeholders  including communities  involved