Namibia’s fragile environment provides the economy with renewable and non-renewable resources, which have to be harvested in a sustainable manner for future generations, New Era reports.
By Catherine Sasman
WINDHOEK
Namibia is a primary-based economy for its reliance on its natural resources, and the National Development Plan 3 (NDP 3) – like the previous short-term development plans – requires an efficient and sustainable usage of is renewable and non-renewable resources.
But there are a myriad of challenges. The arid country is lodged between two deserts that cover 16 percent of the total land mass, and is vulnerable to recurrent droughts and floods. And as an exporter of its natural resources and net importer of processed goods, the country remains vulnerable to fluctuations in world market prices and current exchange rates.
That is why over-utilisation of both renewable and non-renewable resources has prompted the Namibian Government to introduce corrective controlling measures and the introduction of relevant institutions and implementation of its community-based management (CBM) programmes for natural resources like forestry, wildlife, energy, fisheries and water.
So far, the Government has registered significant efforts to set the right legislative environment for the sustainable usage of its resources, but acknowledges that a lot remains to be done to bolster these attempts.
So, for example, in the fishing sector, a stringent quota system has been introduced; licences have been introduced for the small-scale mining sector and for the use of forest resources and hunting, with other forms of restrictions also in place.
And through the community-based natural resources management programmes (CBNRM), jobs have been created at local level in established conservancies and community forests.
However, the Government warned, the adverse effects of HIV/Aids and environmental degradation cannot be ignored as they impact on most of the programmes in these sectors.
Further, technical capacity and financial resources further threaten optimal and efficient usage of the country’s natural resources.
NDP 3 Goals
NDP 3 aims at increasing the contribution of renewable and non-renewable resources to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as to formulate and harmonise the legislative environment to ensure efficient and sustainable use of the country’s natural resources.
– The Water Sector
Namibia is an arid country, with only the northern parts and the Tsumeb-Otavi-Grootfontein groundwater aquifer having sufficient water. It also has access to only three ephemeral rivers – Zambezi, Kunene and Kavango – with its largest inland dams vulnerable to high levels of evaporation that average at 3,200 mm per annum.
Under NDP 2 the Water Resource Managing Act of 2004 was enacted but it still has to be implemented.
The Cabinet has also approved the National Water Policy White Paper in 2006, and it resolved that a Water Resources Management Agency be created to oversee the integrated management of water resources. In addition, the Water Resources Development and Management and water conservation strategy have been submitted to Cabinet.
An overall goal is to make more water available through finding new water sources (especially groundwater), and securing of additional allocation of water from perennial rivers, the reuse of more water after treatments, and the desalination of seawater.
– Forestry
This sector’s contribution to the GDP remains understandably negligible and informal, but a National Forest Inventory has shed some light to the economic gains made from firewood, poles, and saw timber.
Namibia’s woodlands cover 20 percent of the total landmass, while the savannah covers 64 percent.
The country’s highest wood stock is in the Kavango region (34 percent), followed by Oshikoto (17 percent), Otjozondjupa (16 percent), Caprivi (12 percent) and Ohangwena (8 percent) and Omaheke (6.5 percent).
The value of forest products was estimated at N$10.202 million in fuel wood; N$2,043 in poles; and N$634 million in sawn timber. This has shown that a significant number of Namibians are directly dependent on forest resources. This includes the usage of fuel wood, building material, fodder, food and medicinal plants.
A significant development in the forestry sector during NDP 2 was the declaration of 13 community forest areas that cover 1.3 million hectares and are accessed by about 230ǟ