The Role of Environmental Education in the Development of Botswana

1. The Role of Environmental
Education in the Development
of Botswana Environmental education is a lifelong process of learning which
encourages awareness, understanding and appreciation of the
value of the environment.
 We live on a very small planet floating in space. Its resources
are limited but our wants are not.
 Our populations continue to grow. As such, we are using our
resources wastefully and thus damaging our environment.
 Therefore, it is important to know about the environment and
how it contributes to our country's development.

2. Three components of
Environmental Education
 (a) It is education about the environment and how it works that helps the
students understand the facts about their surroundings. It helps them to understand
and appreciate the relationships which exist in the natural world.
 (b) It is also education about the environment that helps students learn to
develop positive feelings, values, and attitudes towards their environment as well as
the skills necessary to take positive action towards its conservation.
 (c) It is also through education about the environment that students actually
learn from and through the environment itself as an outdoor classroom or resource.

3. (a) Natural resources
 Natural resources are materials that we find in their natural state.
 They include soil, vegetation, minerals, wildlife and others. Natural
resources provide us with the raw materials we need to make
goods. Each resource is useful to us in its own way.
 For example, vegetation provides us with timber and thatching
grass. Water is used for drinking and washing as well as for
industry.
 Soil is important for growing crops and for making bricks. All
these, learner, are some of our natural resources.

4. Natural resources cont.
 In spite of the importance of natural resources to our lives, we often use
them carelessly. This can result in the destruction of the environment.
 It can also lead to a shortage or depletion of these resources themselves.
When this happens, we say that the environment is being mismanaged.
Mismanagement of the environment takes many forms
 For example, bush fires destroy valuable grassland and trees. Cutting
down of many trees exposes the soil and this leads to the erosion of the
soil by wind and water. When factories release poisonous gases into the
air, they harm the environment. The gases that are released into the
atmosphere cause acid rain which kills vegetation. Even throwing litter
around makes our surroundings dirty and unhealthy.

5. Conserving our environment
 Environmental conservation is the careful management of natural
resources. The aim of conservation is to reduce the amount of harm we do
to the environment and resources. Simple activities such as cleaning the
school grounds and planting trees are part of conserving the environment.
 At the national level, the government has taken steps to conserve the
environment. One good example of this is the policy of controlled hunting.
 Under this policy, the government controls the number of animals that can
be killed each year by issuing licences to hunters. Poaching or killing
animals without a licence is against the law in Botswana and anyone
caught hunting without a licence is punished.

6. Conserving our environment
 In addition, the hunting period is controlled. Hunting is only
allowed between April and September.
 When the hunting season is over, all hunting licences expire
and people have to renew their licences when the time to do so
comes.
 Although certain animals can be hunted, animals such as
giraffes, rhinos and oryx-antelopes are protected by law.
 They are classified as preserved animals. This means that no
one is allowed to hunt, sell or buy their trophies.

7. Conserving our environment
 The Tribal Grazing Land Policy (TGLP) is another important conservation
measure taken by the government.
 The policy was introduced to prevent livestock from overgrazing the land.
It also aims to encourage better management of livestock farming.
 To achieve its aims, TGLP divided land into three zones, namely, communal
areas, commercial areas and reserved areas such as Game Reserves,
National Parks and Forest Reserves.
 The reserved areas in Botswana are protected by law and offenders can
be punished. The Ministry of Agriculture also advises farmers to limit the
number of livestock they keep in grazing areas.

8. Conserving our environment
 The government also warns people against starting
bush or veld fires. Posters and notices are placed along
roadsides to alert people about the dangers of fire.
 Similarly, people are requested not to cut down trees
but the message seems to be having very little impact.
 This is because people, even today, cut down trees for
firewood though they are encouraged to use coal
instead.

9. Sustainable development
 Sustainable development therefore is one which allows us to meet our
own needs fairly without preventing future generations from meeting
their own when their time comes. It therefore calls for careful use of
resources.
 If development is to be sustainable, we must satisfy the basic needs of all
people and provide for some of their wants
 We must maintain earth's natural resources now and in the future
 We must share resources and technology fairly and justly
 We must set up stable and just political systems in order to avoid
unnecessary wars and conflicts.