Introduction

In the past nine years, Namibia has begun to explore the idea of sustainable development. Sustainable development marks a commitment by the Namibian people to meet their own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development depends on our knowledge of ecosystems, how well we understand and account for the human, social, cultural and economic forces in them, and how we use this knowledge and understanding to guide human behaviour.

The Environmental Monitoring and Indicators Network (EMIN) Workshop, held at the Midgard Resort in the Okahandja District on 11 and 12 June 2001, marked the natural progression of the State of the Environment Reporting project initiated by Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism in 1998. 50 experts participated at the Workshop and prioritised and scored Namibia's key environmental issues. These are listed below in priority order. It is worth noting that priorities have tended to shift over time.
 

Some key environmental issues and trends in Namibia:

• Degradation of ecosystems, desertification, loss of productivity -

Desertification is defined as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. Bush Encroachment, deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, salination and deterioration of rangelands contribute to the desertification of Namibia. There is no doubt that land degradation is of concern in Namibia. It is usually reflected in terms of overcrowding, bad land management, overgrazing and soil erosion. Pastoralists, in particular, have been frequently blamed for overgrazing and causing extensive desertification, and small-scale farmers have been blamed for soil erosion.

 

However, recent work done in the SADC and elsewhere in the world suggests that pastoralism probably is not the cause of such extensive or permanent damage to the environment. In Namibia, land degradation is often the result of issues such as poverty (poor people often have little choice but to use the land sub-optimally in order to survive) and unfair land allocation (such as the forcing, in the colonial era, of people into communal areas, where overcrowding inevitably led to misuse of the land, erosion and falling soil fertility, and the disruption of traditional land management systems). This new shift in the paradigm of thinking presents clear challenges to the Government and to farmers to address land degradation issues. The first priority must be the rigorous analysis of the nature and extent of the land degradation problem.

• Decline of water availability -

Decline of freshwater reserves are due to irregular reduced rainfall, increased evaporation or increased usage of the resource base. Water is the most critical of all resources in Namibia. To reduce vulnerability to water shortages, the Government has been considering undertaking massive water supply schemes to transport water from rivers in the north to the central region, particularly the capital city Windhoek. However, the numerous impacts of these schemes need to be carefully weighed. Namibia, together with other SADC countries, has been engaged in dialogue on sound water allocation and water sharing agreements (e.g. the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems and Zambezi River Action Plan).

• Depletion of natural resources -

Natural resources depletion means the ineffectual and wasteful use of natural resources which becomes evident as e.g an increased amount of waste and growth in the environmental loading due to waste management.

• Detrimental change of biodiversity -

Loss of biodiversity means the reduction in plant and animal abundance, intra specific genetic material and biotope diversity due to land use and other human activities. Namibia is renowned for its protected areas and wildlife, especially its large mammals (which form the basis of much tourism). But Namibia's biodiversity is under pressure from poaching, expanding agriculture and pollution. The efforts of sustainable wildlife resource management have often been thwarted by ineffective, outdated legislation. However, in the past eight years, innovative wildlife management strategies have been pioneered by the Ministry, such as Local Community Forestry Projects (LCFP) and communal-area conservancies, which aim to fully involve local communities in the management of natural resources.

• Decline of water quality -

Decline of the usability of water due to: salinisation, eutrophication or ecotoxicological effect. Salinisation means increased concentrations of salts in water. Eutrophication means the increase in production by phytoplankton and other chlorophyll containing plants due to nutrient loading in lakes, rivers and coastal waters caused by human activities. Ecotoxicological effect means the impact of hazardous substances caused by people on the natural environment.

• Pollution, incl. toxic chemicals -

Pollution monitoring is being strengthened in Namibia. The Ministry, in attempts to stem the tide of uncontrolled pollution and waste disposal, initiated a pollution control and waste management programme. Several factors contributing to the generation of solid waste and pollution are rapid population growth and urbanisation. Solid and domestic wastes are the most prevalent type of pollution in Namibia. Air pollution is less serious problem than in many other countries, although it is becoming a significant local problem with health implications for urban dwellers.

• Waste generation, littering or waste problem -

Used products or packages, which are abandoned and crossed the border from techno system to ecosystem causing harm to some properties of ecosystems and/or for human beings in form of smell or loss of visual beauty of the environment.

• Greenhouse effect -

The greenhouse effect means the release into the atmosphere due to human activities of increased concentrations of so-called greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous, CFCs, halones) and the rise in the global means temperature and changes in climatic conditions possibly resulting from CO2-emissions, among others. Namibia, as one of Africa's driest countries, is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Information concerning the potential impact of global warming on Namibia and how it might be mitigated is based on sketchy data so far. However, models predict that Namibia, together with most of the rest of the SADC Region, will become more arid than at present and that mean temperatures will rise by between 0.8 and 1.7ºC by 2030 (Dalal-Clayto, 1997:2) exacerbating environmental problems, particularly the availability of water. The impacts are likely to include vegetation changes, biodiversity loss, and accelerated bush encroachment in rangelands leading to small stock increasingly replacing cattle.

• Ozone layer depletion -

Depletion of the ozone layer primarily means the depletion of the ozone layer of the upper atmosphere caused mainly by CFCs and halone emissions and the consequent increase in the amount of ultraviolet radiation.

• Acidification -

Aquatic acidification means the reduction in the buffering ability of waterways due to acidifying loading caused by people and the consequent increase in acidity. Terrestrial acidification means the reductions in the buffering ability (capacity to counteract acidification) of forest soil due to acidifying loading caused by people and the consequent increase in acidity.

Conclusion

Although this Ministry has taken several bold and progressive steps to address environmental issues in Namibia, a lot still needs to be done, particularly in the area of updating legislation to enable effective law enforcement.