Land conservation efforts stepped up

NAMIBIA will soon be seeking financial assistance from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council for its programme on sustainable land use management.

Stakeholders in the Country Pilot Partnership for Integrated Sustainable Land Management (CPP-ISLM) met in Windhoek this week to put the finishing touches to the project’s framework document before it is submitted to the GEF Council in August. The workshop gave the opportunity to all stakeholders to review, discuss and verify the findings and information in the draft document.The Government had contracted the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) to consult and work with stakeholders to develop the CPP-ISLM programme framework.The project is aimed at stopping land degradation, which is seen as an urgent environmental threat in Namibia.About 70 per cent of Namibians depend on subsistence agriculture and livestock farming, which is threatened by land degradation, deforestation and desertification caused by over-grazing of range lands.Soil erosion and the declining of water quality are other major threats.NNF Director Dr Chris Brown says the main obstacle hampering sustainable land use management is a lack of land tenure rights in communal areas.Although Namibia has drafted land use policies, they need to be enforced, he says.Namibia also lacks skilled individuals to turn the rhetoric and political will into action, according to Brown.”We are facing a brain drain,” he says.Young, skilled and motivated people have left the country for better-paying jobs at international institutions and businesses, which means Government has to depend on expensive outside consultants, he explains.The CPP-ISLM programme is a partnership between the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Lands and Resettlement, Local Government and the National Planning Commission.The workshop gave the opportunity to all stakeholders to review, discuss and verify the findings and information in the draft document.The Government had contracted the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) to consult and work with stakeholders to develop the CPP-ISLM programme framework.The project is aimed at stopping land degradation, which is seen as an urgent environmental threat in Namibia.About 70 per cent of Namibians depend on subsistence agriculture and livestock farming, which is threatened by land degradation, deforestation and desertification caused by over-grazing of range lands.Soil erosion and the declining of water quality are other major threats.NNF Director Dr Chris Brown says the main obstacle hampering sustainable land use management is a lack of land tenure rights in communal areas.Although Namibia has drafted land use policies, they need to be enforced, he says.Namibia also lacks skilled individuals to turn the rhetoric and political will into action, according to Brown.”We are facing a brain drain,” he says.Young, skilled and motivated people have left the country for better-paying jobs at international institutions and businesses, which means Government has to depend on expensive outside consultants, he explains.The CPP-ISLM programme is a partnership between the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Lands and Resettlement, Local Government and the National Planning Commission.