Billion-dollar project coming

Partners last week assessed and reviewed a billion-dollar environmental project, which will span from 2019 and 2023. The project will cost US$75.9 million (about N$1.067 billion) and is to be financed by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), with co-financing from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Namibia.The Namibia Integrated Landscape Approach for Enhancing Livelihoods and Environmental Governance to Eradicate Poverty (NILALEG) project is to be implemented by the environment ministry and UNDP.The validation and appraisal workshop for national partners was held last week in Windhoek. The aim of the project is to promote an integrated landscape management approach in key agricultural and forest landscapes, reduce poverty through sustainable nature-based livelihoods, protect and restore forests as carbon sinks, and promote land degradation neutrality. According to project documents, the GEF will fund US$10.8 million while the more than US$65.8 million will be provided through co-financing. The project is divided into three different components under which the first aims to strengthen institutional coordination and governance mechanisms for an integrated landscape management approach. In this component, intra-governmental coordination will be facilitated to guide the implementation and monitoring of Namibia's poverty reduction targets. A national system will also be put in place for monitoring land degradation and rehabilitation, and progress towards the target of land degradation neutrality. The project will also develop a nationally-tailored methodology for measuring carbon stocks. The capacity of agriculture and forestry officials at national and regional levels for integrated landscape management will be strengthened, and extension work will be done with farming communities, conservancies and resettlement farms.The second component will focus on enhanced sustainable land and forest management, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in the targeted landscapes. Furthermore, capacitated coordination structures of approximately 20 000 hectares each will be established in five targeted landscape areas. The targeted areas will be selected from forested areas in the Zambezi, Oshana, Oshikoto, Ohangwena, Kavango, Kunene, Otjozondjupa or Omusati regions and will also include communal land, wildlife conservancies and resettlement farms. An agreement will also be reached at national and regional level to demarcate two regional forest reserves (as provided for in the Forest Act), and to establish infrastructure for their sustainable management and restoration. “The existing forest policy, together with the recently enacted regulations, will be implemented and enforced in the target landscapes through sustainable forest management plans,” the project document says. With regard to component three of the project, sustainable financing for the implementation and up-scaling of the integrated landscape management approach will be provided. “Through this component, support will be enhanced to access finance, technical assistance and market information, to pilot and scale-up the integrated landscape management approach and sustainable enterprises.” The economic valuation of ecosystem services will be undertaken to make the case for public and private sector investments in integrated landscape management. A targeted scenario analysis will also be carried out in each landscape to value ecosystem services, comparing a business-as-usual scenario to an integrated landscape management scenario. The results will be communicated to decision-makers at national, regional and landscape level. The project also aims to tackle the massive problem of bush encroachment, implement a public works programme and an unemployed youth landscape restoration project, and will be piloted in commercial farming areas with three pilot areas of 1 500 hectares each.ELLANIE SMIT

Billion-dollar project coming

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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Billion-dollar project coming

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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