Windhoek
Namibian members of parliament have pledged to join the rest of the global village to ensure that the country maximizes her sustainable resource management measures in order to protect mother earth.
This pledge was made during a meeting between the Namibia Conservation Parliamentary Caucus (NACOPAC) with local stakeholders in the conservation field.
It was the first-ever stakeholder engagement forum on wildlife management and was sponsored by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF).
“As legislators, we are very sensitive towards the sustainable management of our resources in such a way that they can benefit both our current and future generations,” said NACOPAC chairperson and Swapo MP Bernadette Jagger.
She said Namibia will join the global fight on climate change “because the degradation of our planet is at the peril of mankind”.
“Namibia like many other countries has not been spared the wrath of global warming and its consequential externalities of climate change,” she said.
Jagger told the meeting that currently the country has faced an over two-year prolonged drought, which is threatening to deplete potable water sources.
To make matters worse, most of Namibia is a semi-arid/arid country, implying that it is a landscape which is “highly susceptible to degradation and thus intricately fragile”.
“To aggravate this challenge, like the rest of the region, we have been infiltrated by international environmental crime syndicates, which have recruited both internationally and locally and are trespassing in our conservation areas to poach our rhinos and elephants.”
She noted, furthermore, that the world is grappling with the challenges of dumping at sea as well as illegal and unsustainably unregulated fishing practices, which are endangering Africa’s fish stocks, especially in coastal waters.
“The meeting was very important because it enabled legislators to engage with stakeholders to understand how they could improve natural resource laws and policies as legislators.”
It is her opinion that most importantly the legislators were able to conduct their oversight mandate on conservation regimes in the country during the forum.
“The meeting unanimously concurred that more platforms of the same nature were needed, not only in Windhoek but across the country.”
This will give NACOPAC a platform to regularly engage with conservationists in the various regions of the country so as to discuss critical issues with a balance of perspectives, and find common ground on actions going forward.
The objective of NACOPAC is to join efforts with other legislatures around the world under the umbrella of the Conservation Council of Nations (CCN), with the guidance of the ICCF and other key stakeholders.
The aim is to ensure the enhancement and promotion of the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and all conventions, agreements and other instruments that the international community has put in place to ensure the survival of human nature and mother earth.