Crowning the Jewel of the Kalahari :: Mmegi Online

“I want you to imagine 400 or so people in a spectacular hall, in a country where nothing is done in half measures, and we have been sitting there waiting since 0900hrs,” recalls Wildlife, Tourism and Environment minister, Tshekedi Khama. Khama and 12 other “Team Botswana” officials from environment, tourism, wildlife, mining, the University of Botswana, Brand Botswana and other sectors are in the state-of-the-art capital of Qatar, Doha.

The high-powered delegation has waited four years for this moment – the vote by 21 members of the World Heritage Committee to decide the Okavango Delta’s listing as a World Heritage Site.

All the groundwork, the consultations with 36 Delta villages and councillors, the workshops with various ministries, the tete a tetes with Namibia and Angola, the submission of a dossier and the Committee’s five-day evaluation mission last October, have all led to this moment.

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