Indigenous local knowledge of biodiversity in Namibia is strongly documented on terrestrial ecosystems, particularly ethnobotanical knowledge, but marine, freshwater and climate-related knowledge remain scarcely recorded.
This is one of the findings of the recent study commissioned by the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation and conducted by the Namibia Nature Foundation.
The 2025 Namibia National Outlook on Indigenous Local Knowledge (ILK) on Biodiversity found that across all regions, biodiversity knowledge is mostly transmitted orally through songs, rituals and practices, with limited formal records and with external authorship predominating.
“While Namibia’s Constitution and conservation laws recognise cultural heritage and community participation, explicit inclusion of ILK in biodiversity policy remains limited,” says the report on the study.
The study found that ILK in Namibia faces a number of risks and challenges such as threats from urbanisation, land dispossession, language loss, extractive commercialisation, lack of documentation, climate change, inadequate intellectual property protection and erosion of transmission pathways.
The study found major documentation gaps exist in marine and coastal systems, freshwater fisheries, disaster risk reduction and ILK related to climate change adaptation.
International University of Management natural resources management senior lecturer Sion Iikela says in many cases indigenous knowledge is area specific and depends on how people interact with the environment in which they live and that is why if one goes back into history, people lived in harmony with nature.
“We destroyed the environment and the areas we live in. So, now it is very important that we protect this knowledge,” he says.
Iikela says indigenous know is how you use the knowledge you get from your parents and grandparents. He says there is an urgent need in Namibia to document this knowledge because people who possess this knowledge are either ageing or dying.
“Indigenous knowledge will help us manage our environment properly and to fight land degradation,” he says.
