President Hage Geingob has urged nations of the world to summon the will to reverse desertification and climate change.
Geingob made this call yesterday while addressing delegates at the 15th session of the United Nations (UN) Convention to Combat Desertification Conference of Parties, Summit of Heads of State and Government on Desertification, Drought and Sustainable Land Management, which is currently underway in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
“Our coming together on these important subject matters is once again a demonstration that if we summon the will, in unity we shall be able to reverse desertification and climate change. We should act now in order to bequeath to future generations one healthy global village,” Geingob said.
He also called on the ongoing convention to combat desertification to develop practical measures, recommendations and assistance to mobilise resources and supplement existing efforts at national level to build desertification resilience and sustainable land management.
Geingob said, Namibia, a country in which around 30% of the land surface is covered by the desert, remains one of the driest sub-Saharan countries, with 92% of its landmass considered semi-arid, arid or hyper-arid.
This reality, he said, imposes a huge responsibility on the country to promote policies that focus on combatting desertification through the promotion of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets as part of our sustainable agriculture and food security strategy.
Regrettably, Geingob said, over the past six years, Namibia has experienced devastating droughts, of which one has been recorded to be the most severe in the past 100 years.
“Since independence in 1990, Namibia experienced at least 12 years, in which half of the country received below average rainfall, resulting in droughts and land degradation,” Geingob said.
During these years, Geingob said a large number of farmers lost their livestock and experienced poor crop harvests.
“In some instances, droughts are followed by floods, compromising food security and livelihoods of farming communities. Therefore, land degradation and desertification, which are further compounded by climate change, are a matter of serious concern to us,” he said.
As part of our commitment to strengthen collective global action and resilience, Geingob said Namibia hosted the African Drought Conference in August 2016, which culminated in the adoption of the Windhoek Declaration on enhancing resilience to drought through the African Union.
Currently, he said, Namibia is in the final phase of implementing our third National Action Programme to Combat Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (2014-2024).
This program, according to Geingob, further underscores the government’s commitment to integrating sustainable land management into national development priorities.
He said the most alarming effects of land degradation, including deforestation, the diminishing availability of flora and perennial grasses, soil erosion, water scarcity and bush encroachment, undermine the functional integrity of our dryland ecosystems.
Therefore, Geingob said the focus of the third National Action Programme seeks to address DLDD holistically, based on our national priorities and unique circumstances.
Furthermore, Geingob said he is pleased to report that government higher education institutions and individuals are researching how to restore and manage degraded land sustainably through diversification strategies.
“We are convinced that more can be done. In that vein, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are working hard to scale up community resilience to climate variability to address land degradation, desertification and climate change,” he said.