Some of the advantages of monitoring include the detection and understanding of environmental changes, and the maintenance of healthy ecosystem services. Monitoring should be done in wetlands to aid amongst other factors the evaluation of mitigation projects and to encourage wiser watershed planning, according to A.W.McKay from the University College London in his presentation at the plenary session.Techniques to be used include models like MAGIC( Model of Acidification of groundwater in catchments), palaeoecology for wetlands, peats and lakes. He concluded that the importance of this exercise has been recognised as enshrined in international conventions like the Oslo Protocol .On poverty and sustainable tourism, Drs Mbaiwa and Barbara Ngwenya showed how tourism in Okavango Delta has not made a dent on the poverty levels of the local people in Ngamiland. These levels have remained unacceptably high extremely high, despite the introduction of Community Based Natural Resource Management. Paucity of data in the management of ephemeral rivers remains one the biggest challenges faced. This is according to K.Schachtschneider (CSIR) in her presentation, "Neglected and difficult cousins of the river spectrum: ensuring ecosystem integrity and sustainable use of ephemeral rivers."
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