Namibia validates proposal on land management

HEAD of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Namibia, Farayi Zimudzi, says land degradation is rife in the country and takes various forms.

Zimudzi made these remarks at a one-day validation workshop for Namibia’s proposal for the project titled “Integrated landscape management to reverse land degradation and support the sustainable use of natural resources in the Mopane-Miombo belt of northern Namibia,” held in Windhoek last Thursday.

The project is being funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF 7) to the tune of US$6,9 million (N$113 million).

Zimudzi said Namibia’s Land Degradation Neutrality Report of 2015 and the National Committee on Sustainable Land Management highlighted 17 drivers of land degradation including overgrazing, expanding and unsustainable agricultural activities, inherently poor soils, climate change population pressure in some areas, and poverty.

“Clearly, we can see that some of these drivers are within our control and we can surely join forces and do something about them, whereas those beyond our control, we can possibly devise ways to limit their contribution to land degradation and ultimately to ensure sustainable livelihoods for those drawing benefits from various natural resources on offer,” said Zimudzi.

Namibia is one of the eleven countries in Africa and Asia to benefit from the GEF-funded Sustainable Forest Management Impact Programme on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL IP).

Therefore, it was under this programme that the country developed the proposal for this project.

GEF has selected FAO as the lead agency for the DSL IP, whose main objectives are to avoid, reduce and reverse further degradation, desertification and deforestation of land and ecosystems through the sustainable management of production processes.

To ensure the successful planning and implementation of the project, various local partners: the German Development Bank (KfW), the Environmental Investment Fund, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, and the Ministry of Information and Communication pooled resources, to finance the project for US$178 million (N$2,9 billion).

Zimudzi said achieving land degradation neutrality is possible, but this requires concerted efforts towards resource mobilisation and effective partnerships aimed at achieving a common goal.

Having recognised the potential of the programme to support the country an its efforts to tackle the challenges of land degradation, Namibia submitted its expression of interest to participate in the Impact Programme to the GEF in January last year and this was approved during the 56th meeting of the Global Environment Facility in June 2019.

The other 10 countries which have also been approved by GEF to benefit from its Impact Programme are Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

According to FAO, drylands extend over 40% of the earth’s surface, containing some of the most fragile and threatened ecosystems on the planet, including over one quarter of global biodiversity hotspots and many threatened species.

More than 25% of the world’s population lives and derives their livelihoods in drylands, mostly in developing countries but drylands also face many challenges and are highly vulnerable to land degradation, including deforestation with high dependency on goods and services such as energy, food and income of agriculture and infrastructure development.

It is projected that the future impacts of climate change and increasing variability in rainfall will increase drylands between 11% and 23% by the end of this century.