Okavango Research Institute

Remembering Pete Alexander Smith

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To mark on 2 February, this week’s image of the week features the Okavango Delta, captured by the Meteosat-12 satellite on 31 January.

Spanning around 22,000 km² in northwest Botswana, the Okavango Delta is one of the few major inland deltas that does not flow into the sea. Its wetlands support biodiversity, local livelihoods, conservation efforts and tourism.

World Wetlands Day marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted as an international treaty in 1971.

Learn more at: https://bit.ly/3LPYwcQ

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: Angola has designated Lisima Lya Mwono as its first Wetland of International Importance. This very large covering over 53,000 square kilometres lies in the central and southeastern highlands of Angola, within the Zambezi biogeographical region.

It forms a major watershed, feeding river systems that sustain downstream wetlands such as the Okavango Delta and the Zambezi Floodplain.

Details: https://www.ramsar.org/news/angola-names-its-first-wetland-international-importance

Welcome to ORI Ralph 🎉

A big welcome to Ralph Riley Torres, a U.S. Fulbright Student Researcher placed at the Okavango Research Institute of the University of Botswana_Official.

Ralph is an environmental chemist and a Ph.D. candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego.

Ralph will be teaming up with local researchers to study how arsenic reaches the Okavango Delta and how natural materials like peat help carry it into rivers and groundwater.

The Fulbright Program

Wetlands are rare and exceptional, even small ones.

While intrinsically valuable, they also:
🌱 Foster biodiversity, offering habitat for plants, insects, amphibians and birds
🌊 Absorb stormwater, buffering against floods
🌍 Filter and reduce pollutants, improving water quality

They make excellent scalable targets for conservation and restoration efforts 🤝

Learn how to protect and preserve them with The Convention on Wetlands 👇