MET and the NSA to jointly contribute to environmental economic accounts
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) to jointly produce environmental economic accounts and coordinate the process of natural capital accounting in Namibia.
The Permanent Secretary, Dr. Malan Lindeque, signed the MoU on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and the Statistician General, Mr. Alex Shimuafeni, on behalf of the NSA, at a ceremony on 22 November 2017.
The MoU describes the respective areas of cooperation between MET and the NSA regarding natural capital accounting and related topics at national level. read more…
United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting: Closing Regional Workshop.
Ministry of Environment and National Statistics officials met in Nairobi, Kenya for the Closing Regional workshop for the United Nations Development Account Project, from the 11th to the 13th of December 2017. Namibia, was amongst other 4 African countries namely; Botswana, South Africa, Ghana, and Mozambique that attended the workshop.
United Nations Development account Project is aimed at enhancing the capacity of African National Statistics Offices in implementing the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA). The closing regional workshop thus provided an opportunity for Kenya and Uganda, the project countries, to share their experiences on drafting of national plans for the implementation of the SEEA, the lessons learned on the compilation of pilot accounts and how best to communicate and disseminate the pilot accounts to the relevant stakeholders, ensure the uptake into policy decision making and how to scale up the implementation of SEEA. read more…
ResMob Project well on its way to a strategy for the mobilization of financial resources for biodiversity conservation
Minister underlines importance of improving capacity to mobilize more resources
The Resource Mobilization for Biodiversity Conservation (ResMob) Project after kicking off its inception in 2014, is well on its way to drafting a strategy for the mobilization of sustainable revenue streams to maintain and conserve Namibia’s natural biodiversity. The ResMob Project’s current preparatory phase involves various meetings with stakeholders and contributors, as well as reviewing various documents as part of the process to produce a ResMob strategy – the first deliverable. read more…
Natural Capital Accounting on the rise
The Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa is an African-led initiative whose goals are to ensure that the contributions of natural capital to sustainable economic growth, maintenance and improvement of social capital and human well-being are quantified and integrated into development and business practice.
This is a commitment by ten African countries that was signed during the Summit for Sustainability in Africa, held in Gaborone in May 2012. At this summit 10 countries; Botswana, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania, reaffirmed their commitment to implementing all conventions and declarations that promote Sustainable Development to address the issue of natural capital depletion across a growing continent. read more…
National study on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) assesses the value of nature in Namibia
The centre piece of the ResMob Project is a TEEB country study, which identifies and valuates some of the ecosystem services vital to meeting the country’s policy priorities and will make recommendations on how policy can most effectively incentivize the maintenance of these services.
The Namibia Nature Foundation, together with Anchor Environmental Consultants are executing the TEEB Namibia country study on behalf of the ResMob Project.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is an international initiative to draw attention to the benefits provided by biodiversity. It has compiled and synthesised the available evidence to highlight the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services, the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and the benefits of action addressing these pressures. TEEB presents an approach that can help decision makers recognize, demonstrate and, where appropriate, capture the values of ecosystems and biodiversity. read more…
Regional Seminar On The Framework for the Development of Environmental Statistics
From 4 to 8 September, representatives of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, The Gambia, Malawi, Namibia and Senegal met together with representatives from Kenya, UNECA, UN Statistics Division (UNSD), UN Environment, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) came together to discuss how to improve environment statistics production, analysis, and dissemination in their respective national contexts. The participating countries were selected based on the results of the final assessment of the knowledge acquired during the e-training. read more…
NUST Wins Sustainable Development Awards
The Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) through the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences has recently received the award for top Research and Development at the recent Namibia Sustainable Development Awards in Windhoek. read more…
Namibian Case Study: Bush control generates economic and environmental benefits
Ecosystem services are the key foundation of most socio-economic activities in our societies. Namibia largely depends on land for most of its economic activities with sectors such as agriculture and tourism being the directly linked to land. It is crucial for all components in an ecosystem to maintain a balance to ensure optimal functions of that ecosystem. Most of the land used for agriculture and tourism in Namibia is also faced by bush encroachment that has reduced the productivity of such areas and it is estimated to have affected an area of 30 million hectares. read more…
Plastic bag levies, a topic of discussion in the news
On the 4th August 2017, the Environmental Economics Network of Namibia held its 9th After-Work Talk on “The introduction of plastic bag levy – an option for Namibia?’’
Following the EENN After-Work Talk panel discussion, Waste management specifically focusing on recycling of plastic shopping bags and introducing a plastic bag levy has been featured in various media outlets such as Local newspapers and the National Broadcasting television channels. read more…
The introduction of a plastic bag levy – an option for Namibia?
The drafting of regulations through which a levy on plastic carry bags would become a reality in Namibia is at an advanced stage, and these regulations could be implemented towards the end of 2017. This was announced by Mr. Teofilus Nghitila, Environmental Commissioner in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, at the ninth After-Work-Talk of the Environmental Economics Network of Namibia, which was staged at the Namibian Scientific Society in Windhoek on 3 August 2017. He was part of seven panellists who each highlighted the topic, The introduction of a plastic bag levy – an option for Namibia? All panellists were in favour of a plastic bag levy, with minor reservations in some cases. read more…