usaid/nambia environmental threats and opportunities assessment

community forests managing wildlife and forests. By contrast, grazing resources in communal areas have
not been granted the same level of proprietorship under the CLRA, so this vitally important component
of land management remains unregulated.
Under the CLRA an individual or group cannot exclude others, and influential individuals (who are not
necessarily lawful residents) can persuade a Chief to allow them to graze on commonage. Thus communities
do not have the right to prevent other people using/fencing off land they might want to set aside for improved
management, and there is no incentive to practice SLM. Furthermore, the condition that any resident can keep
up to 300 large stock or 1,800 small stock does not make any reference to carrying capacity. With growing
numbers of residents, overgrazing is inevitable.
The Resettlement Programme has hampered efforts to reduce land degradation and is not in line with
the UN environmental conventions 8 to which Namibia is a signatory, nor does it help Namibia achieve
the Millennium Development Goals. 9 The resettlement objective “…. to give target groups an opportunity…to
produce their own food with a view towards self-sufficiency” is in conflict with the Agriculture Policy and NDP3
which have wisely moved away from the goal of food self-sufficiency and strive, rather, for achieving
household food security (MAWRD 1995).
Overall, the institutional framework to guide and implement land use planning, land allocation, and resettlement
is inadequate and will have severe repercussions on people’s livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in future
decades.
5. FISHERIES SECTOR
Namibia’s rights in relation to the marine environment are determined by the Territorial Sea and
Exclusive Economic Zone of Namibia Act 3 of 1990 and by the Walvis Bay and Off-Shore Islands Act 1
of 1994. Procedures for determining the inland boundary of the seashore (i.e. the high-water mark) are
provided in the Sea-shore Ordinance of 1958. Namibia’s southern boundary with South Africa is
disputed and is the subject of international negotiations between the two countries.
8 UNFCCC; CBD; UNCCD; The Ramsar Convention
9 MLR (2005), during the elaboration of the National Poverty Reduction Action Plan, recognizes that poverty reduction can
not be linked to land reform.
USAID/NAMIBIA ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES ASSESSMENT 29