Murphy who expressed pride over the support his government is extending to Botswana to secure a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage Site designation for the Okavango Delta, was speaking at the handing over of ablution blocks to Okavango and Sepopa secondary schools in the Ngamiland.He said the assessment reveals that in the medium term, escalating extraction of water resources in Namibia and Angola, as well as changes in land use in the catchment areas, pose serious threats to the integrity of the system and its associated biodiversity.
"The most immediate threats to biodiversity in the delta are human-induced habitat conversion and destruction, competition for rangeland between livestock and wildlife, mobility restrictions because of fences and escalating development, and illegal harvesting of wildlife. In recent years, poisoning and fishing pressures have escalated in both the Okavango Delta and Lake Ngami," he said.Murphy further emphasised that the assessment identifies tourism as having the greatest potential to exist in harmony with nature, greater than any other form of land use in the delta.
