usaid/nambia environmental threats and opportunities assessment

Further opportunities include: integrating game farming within Namibia’s resettlement program;
encouraging the role of honorary game wardens and foresters to help the MET and DoF enforce
laws and control undesirable practices; building capacity and providing guidance for Namibia’s
recently established Woodlands Management Council; supporting Namibia’s bush-to-electricity
project (CBEND), which has great potential but will require training and strict control in order
to ensure that valuable trees are not harvested together with bush encroachment species; and
improving awareness about responsible forestry and sustainable harvesting of woodland
products at all levels of society.
Sustaining robust research and training facilities’ such as the Gobabeb Training and Research
Centre is critical to understanding the impacts and potential mitigation measures to combat
desertification and climate change impacts throughout Southern Africa.
MARINE BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION IN NAMIBIA:
STATUS AND TRENDS
Although biodiversity in Namibia’s marine environment is comparatively low, the dense plankton
blooms that characterize the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) provide rich feeding
grounds for large populations of fish, crustaceans, sea birds, and marine mammals – many of which are
economically valuable.
Namibia has designated three coastal wetlands as Ramsar sites (wetlands of international importance) –
the Walvis Bay Lagoon, 1 Sandwich Harbour Lagoon, and the Orange River Mouth which support a high
diversity of shorebirds (mostly waders). Other coastal areas/wetlands in Namibia qualify for Ramsar site
status (including the Kunene River Mouth, Luderitz lagoon, the Cape Cross Lagoons, and Namibia’s
offshore islands) but have not yet been designated this status.
THREATENED SPECIES
Nine of the 15 southern African breeding seabird species that occur in the BCLME region are listed as
severely threatened in South Africa’s red data book. Their status reflects, inter-alia, the overexploitation
of some fish species – particularly the palagics – within the ecosystem. Endangered avifaunal species
include the Damara tern and the Jackass penguin.
WEAKNESSES AND THREATS
There is limited understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological interactions and processes that
drive the highly variable and complex BCLME, but there is fragmentary evidence that suggests
increasing instability and variability in recent decades – a situation that will further compromise the
biodiversity of Namibia’s marine environment.
Despite the creation of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the setting of total allowable catches
(TACs) since independence, excessive and uncontrolled overfishing in the past has caused the decline
and spatial displacement of many targeted species, alterations to the benthic environment, the decline of
many marine predators (birds and marine mammals), the decline of numerous other marine species
through by-catch and by-kill, and changes in community structure and ecosystem functioning. Although
the Benguela Current Commission has helped to harmonize the management of the BCLME, there
remains inadequate capacity (equipment, vessels, expertise), and limited funding for effective marine
monitoring.
1 The Walvis Bay Lagoon consists of lagoon, beach, and intertidal habitats and supports up to 150,000 birds of over 40 species,
many of which are migratory waders.
USAID/NAMIBIA ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES ASSESSMENT 7