The Environment, Forestry and Tourism Minister, Pohamba Shifeta, officially handed over the Okongo Forestry Horticultural Project to the community titled "hydroponic farming systems".

Okongo community forestry was established in 1997 and the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia stepped in with funding of N$3 million from August 2019 until August 2021.

The project covers about 55,918 hectares of land in Okongo Constituency, whose major sources of livelihood are crop production, livestock rearing, and non-timber forest products.

A one-day conference for stakeholders in the tourism sector in the Oshikoto Region is underway at Omuthiya.

The conference is organized by the Environment, Forestry and Tourism Ministry in collaboration with UNESCO and with support from GIZ.

The conference is aimed at creating awareness of the importance of sustainable and heritage tourism.

It was noted that as tourism continues to grow, it might have adverse effects on the environment, hence the need for stakeholders to meet to look at the factors that might affect the environment in a negative way.