Mining, conservation should work hand in hand

CONSERVATION and mining authorities in Namibia should streamline policies and legislation to avoid a conflict of interest, it was suggested yesterday.

This was said at a one-day workshop on the Ministry’s of Environment and Tourism’s Strengthening the Protected Area Network (SPAN) project, with a senior official in the Ministry alleging that mining sector activities was disturbing their work in preserving protected areas. The Ministry’s Deputy Director for Parks and Wildlife Management, Ulrich Boois, expressed concern that prospectors sometimes hindered conservation efforts by prospecting for minerals in parks while his ministry attempted to conserve the same area.Boois said this after a delegate posed a question to SPAN concerning mining activities such as that of the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine within the Namib-Naukluft Park.The delegate also wanted to know if SPAN would address potential environmental damage that could be caused to coastal ecosystems by activities such as the development of a port at Cape Fria.Florence Sibanda of the Ministry of Mines and Energy pointed out that mining activities should not be seen as detrimental to conservation efforts, as they contributed to the country’s economy.She suggested that instead, conservation and mining authorities should sit together and revisit their policies to ensure that activities did not conflict.She said that when a company wanted to mine in area, it should conduct an environmental impact assessment, which should then be handed to the Ministry.The Ministry’s acting Deputy Permanent Secretary, Maria Kapere, responded that parks could not be isolated from other activities, as many of them were situated in areas that attracted mineral prospectors.She said areas needed to be reclassified.The Director of the Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment, Dr Peter Tarr, raised concerns that legislators seemed to fail to realise that biodiversity conservation and tourism would bring about sustainable development.Kapere replied that the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and the Minister fully understood the importance of environmental protection and the enormous benefits from it, adding that programmes such as the Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBRNM) programme had opened the eyes of many people, including politicians.Martha Mwandingi from the United Nations Development Programme Environment Unit suggested that it would be a good thing if politicians were taken into parks and conservancies so that they see and appreciate the importance of biodiversity preservation and how conservancies had improved the lives of the rural poor.Midori Paxton, the SPAN project co-ordinator, said Namibia had 20 national parks, covering 13.8 per cent of the country’s surface area.The project has secured US$ 8.2 million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).Kapere said national parks ere the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation and also served as the powerhouse for the country’s tourism industry, which was the third-largest contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.According to a study commissioned by the Ministry last year, the direct contribution of park-related tourism is 1,7 to 4,4 per cent of the GDP.Adding indirect contributions to the GDP such as employment at lodges adjacent to parks, agricultural and other products lodges buy, the figure could increase to 3,1 to 6,3 per cent of the GDP.So, if parks management is further improved, there is a strong possibility for a further increase in their contribution to the economy.The Ministry’s Deputy Director for Parks and Wildlife Management, Ulrich Boois, expressed concern that prospectors sometimes hindered conservation efforts by prospecting for minerals in parks while his ministry attempted to conserve the same area.Boois said this after a delegate posed a question to SPAN concerning mining activities such as that of the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine within the Namib-Naukluft Park.The delegate also wanted to know if SPAN would address potential environmental damage that could be caused to coastal ecosystems by activities such as the development of a port at Cape Fria.Florence Sibanda of the Ministry of Mines and Energy pointed out that mining activities should not be seen as detrimental to conservation efforts, as they contributed to the country’s economy.She suggested that instead, conservation and mining authorities should sit together and revisit their policies to ensure that activities did not conflict.She said that when a company wanted to mine in area, it should conduct an environmental impact assessment, which should then be handed to the Ministry.The Ministry’s acting Deputy Permanent Secretary, Maria Kapere, responded that parks could not be isolated from other activities, as many of them were situated in areas that attracted mineral prospectors.She said areas needed to be reclassified.The Director of the Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment, Dr Peter Tarr, raised concerns that legislators seemed to fail to realise that biodiversity conservation and tourism would bring about sustainable development.Kapere replied that the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and the Minister fully understood the importance of environmental protection and the enormous benefits from it, adding that programmes such as the Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBRNM) programme had opened the eyes of many people, including politicians.Martha Mwandingi from the United Nations Development Programme Environment Unit suggested that it would be a good thing if politicians were taken into parks and conservancies so that they see and appreciate the importance of biodiversity preservation and how conservancies had improved the lives of the rural poor.Midori Paxton, the SPAN project co-ordinator, said Namibia had 20 national parks, covering 13.8 per cent of the country’s surface area.The project has secured US$ 8.2 million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).Kapere said national parks ere the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation and also served as the powerhouse for the country’s tourism industry, which was the third-largest contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.According to a study commissioned by the Ministry last year, the direct contribution of park-related tourism is 1,7 to 4,4 per cent of the GDP.Adding indirect contributions to the GDP such as employment at lodges adjacent to parks, agricultural and other products lodges buy, the figure could increase to 3,1 to 6,3 per cent of the GDP.So, if parks management is further improved, there is a strong possibility for a further increase in their contribution to the economy.