Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Botswana Wildlife Training Institute Tour of Peter Smith Herbarium



As part of their training programme, a group of students from (BWTI) were taken on a tour of the Peter Smith University of Botswana (PSUB) herbarium. The herbarium, established in 1995 was primarily based on the donations of plant specimen by the late Peter Smith, hence the university honouring his contribution by naming the herbarium after him. The herbarium aims to include the collection and preservation of plant specimens with adequate labeled notes, provide a standard reference collection to verify the identification of newly collected plant specimens of taxonomic and other botanical uses. The BWTI students received a lecture on “herbarium, its uses and type specimens” and had a chance to see the labelled trees around HOORC premises. PSUB will be actively involved with educating the public (all ages) on matters of plant identification and biodiversity management and conservation. In a nutshell, herbaria are not mere static collections; they are important management tools for environmental issues. They interconnect with industry and also play an educational role.

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