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Namibia: Minister Urges Locals to Play Role on Conservation
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New Era (Windhoek)
4 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008
Charles Tjatindi
Walvis Bay
The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, says there is a need to improve and revise certain environmental policies, build capacity and strengthen institutions in a bid to ensure sustainable integrated management.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, who was speaking at the launch of the coastal awareness campaign by the Namibian Coast Conservation and Management (NACOMA) Project, said present management efforts in this regard are short-term focused, reactive, fragmented and uncoordinated.
She said different institutions have been planning and continue to do so in isolation, weakening consultation and coordination efforts among stakeholders. It is, however, hoped that such shortcomings would be addressed by the envisaged National Coastal Areas Management Policy.
Nandi-Ndaitwah used the occasion to urge Namibians to become active role-players in the conservation of the coast and its ecosystems, while noting that to achieve this, however, a change of attitude and practices with regard to conservation needs to be attained.
"We need more information and education, which in turn change our attitudes, broaden our knowledge on the coastal biodiversity and its conservation, but moreover take a collective responsibility to achieve our sustainable development objectives," she noted.
Nandi-Ndaitwah warned against the ever-increasing threats posed by climate change, noting that such effects have already had negative effects on some areas along the coast. Singling out the severe erosion of Mile 14, she cautioned property developers who build their properties too close to the ocean as they could meet the same fate.
The Environment and Tourism Minister also cautioned visitors and locals who destroy the fragile ecosystems along the Namibian coast through quad biking, off-road driving and other forms of leisure activities.
"I am informed that there are those who want to behave arrogantly and beyond conservation laws. I would like to send a stern warning to those elements that we will not tolerate behaviour which is detrimental to our principle of sustainable development," she said.
She added that although in principle, the Government does not want to ban all off-road driving activities in the country, it would not hesitate to do so if such activities continue to degrade the environment or negatively affect tou-rism activities.
"The Namibian Government will not hesitate to ban all quad biking, motocross biking and off-road recreational vehicle activities on our State lands, like our neighbours and other countries in SADC. We instead want to reap the benefits of well-maintained, well-coordinated off-road driving activities," said Nandi-Ndaitwah.
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The NACOMA Pro-ject is an initiative of the Namibian Government put in place to address challenges of the management of the Namibian coast. As one of its key objectives, the NACOMA Project has been at the forefront of the development and eventual drafting of a National Coastal Policy, which would pave the way for a more prudent management of the coast and its ecosystems.
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