Agriculture, Water and Forestry Minister Nickey Iyambo officially inaugurated the N$40 million project at Drimiopsis last Wednesday.

The project, with financial support from the German government, aims to promote local skills and capacity building, income-generating opportunities and to fight unemployment.

Speaking at the event, Minister Iyambo said the importance of forests and forest products could not be over-emphasised.

"All along, technical staff claimed to be in a better position to manage and regulate such resources.

As a result, local communities have been excluded from forest management and denied direct involvement for them to derive income from such resources," the Minister said.

"Trees and shrubs of forests provide habitat to many organisms like fruit-bearing plants and large mammals.

Forest products like wood and charcoal are essential for the livelihood of communities to generate income.

Forests store large quantities of carbon dioxide and release oxygen, thereby sustaining life on earth, and thus require protection," Dr Iyambo added.

The Country Director of the German Development Bank (KfW), Olof Cramer, said his government was supporting Namibia in its efforts for the sustained utilisation of natural resources.

"Increasing the productivity of land and water resources and ensuring their sustainable use is at the centre of this support", he said.

"Looking back to our co-operation since Independence, I can say with great confidence that many of the programmes which we have supported resulted in substantial benefits to the Namibian people.

"So far, 45 community forests are supported, of which 13 have been officially gazetted.

Within the community forests, the sustainable and productive use of forest resources is done on 2,2 million hectares.

"Over 150 000 rural Namibians have directly or indirectly benefited from the project, contributing to poverty eradication," Cramer added.

According to him, community forests also play a vital role in the establishment of buffer zones between intensively used agricultural areas and national parks.

He said that together with conservancies, community forests allow the establishment of co-management areas which benefit both nature and people.

Two earlier community forest project projects are already running in the Otjozondjupa, Caprivi and Kavango regions.

Partners such as the governments of Finland, Denmark and Germany have participated in the forestry sector since 1990.

Nampa

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