The Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism has launched the Namibia Integrated Landscape Approach for Enhancing Livelihoods and Environmental Governance to Eradicate Poverty project.
Supported by the Global Environment Facility and the UNDP, the project aims to promote sustainable landscape management, reduce poverty with nature-based livelihoods, protect forests, and achieve land degradation neutrality.
In a move that ushers in a new era for the sustainable management of biological and genetic resources, Namibia has introduced new Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) Guidelines for this purpose, along with an online permitting system.
The initiative is led by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism in partnership with local and global development partners.
ABS is a framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity that governs the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources.
There is a need to develop a policy aimed at enhancing an equitable and sustainable biotrade sector in Namibia.
The establishment of such a policy will link Namibia's biodiversity product innovations to a global market while supporting local community development.
These were sentiments shared by various speakers at the National Dialogue Policy on Investment in Biodiversity as a Catalyst for Sustainable Income Generation and Conservation held in Windhoek today.
