Living Land

[

] 58

Years of testing and piloting of good practices have resulted in

enhanced policy frameworks for the sustainable management of

rangelands and croplands at the national level. This includes the

National Rangeland Management Policy and Strategy (NRMPS)

of 2012 and the Comprehensive Conservation Agriculture

Programme for Namibia (2015-2019). These complement the

National Drought Policy and Strategy of 1997, which seeks to

promote the long-term on-farm management and diversifica-

tion of risk and preparedness for drought events.

The NRMPS seeks to ensure that rangelands are managed so

that productivity and biodiversity are restored and maintained.

It identifies eight principles for sound rangeland management:

1. Know your resource base

2. Manage the rangeland for effective recovery and rest

3. Manage the rangeland for the effective utilization of

plants (grasses and shrubs)

4. Enhance soil condition

5. Address bush encroachment

6. Plan for droughts

7. Monitor your resource base — including rangeland

condition, stocking densities, water levels etc.

8. Plan infrastructure developments — especially water points.

The NRMPS is currently under implementation through a dedi-

cated national task force team and has resulted in a number of

innovative approaches to rangeland management, which bring

together modern range management science and traditional and

indigenous knowledge and practices. Addressing the frequency

of grazing through combining herds and herding all livestock

from a single or several water points to a different patch to

graze each day, based on an agreed grazing and land use plan,

is a key feature of these approaches, which have been found

to have positive effects on perennial grasses. These also allow

for increases in stocking rates, which is important when one

considers the cultural significance of maintaining large herds.

Conservation agriculture is identified in Namibia’s

fourth National Development Plan as a priority strategic

initiative and this led directly to the development of the

Comprehensive Conservation Agriculture Programme

for Namibia (2015-2019). This programme is now build-

ing on a range of conservation agriculture practices and

techniques appropriate for specific farming systems and

agroecological zones. These include approaches to land

preparation such as ripping and minimum tillage as well

as soil moisture conservation, agroforestry and crop rota-

tion. There is considered to be great potential for these

approaches, particularly in the subsistence farming sector

in the northern regions, as part of an overall shift towards

climate-smart agriculture.

A striking feature of NAP3 is its intention to move

Namibia on a pathway towards land degradation neutral-

ity (LDN). This is also in line with commitments laid out

in Namibia’s COP 11 Presidency Strategy and the Namib

Declaration from COP 11, which called for a bolder agenda

to secure the ‘Future We Want’.

Namibia is one of 14 countries engaged in a pilot project

to implement the concept of LDN at the national level. The

first phase of the project has developed draft targets in a

range of areas such as forest cover, cropland productivity

and bush encroachment for Namibia to achieve LDN. A

national working group on LDN was also established and

pilot sites were identified across the country for testing of

the LDN principles.

Phase two of the project is currently under development

and will consider:

• the further integration of LDN into the national

development agenda

• setting up/strengthening of existing monitoring

mechanisms for land degradation

• implementation of needed intervention/restoration

activities identified for the pilot sites

• production of an updated land degradation risk

assessment map for Namibia, that will be used for

planning purpose.

The NRMPS promotes new approaches to rangeland management based on an improved understanding of

the rangeland ecology

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry 2014

iving

and