A resilience project at Sikanjabuka village in the Katima Mulilo Rural Constituency of the Zambezi Region, funded by the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia, has been acclaimed a success after having successfully implemented the project and delivered a profit of N$12,000 which has been ploughed back to strengthen its operations further.
Sikanjabuka Community Forest Conservancy Resilience Horticultural project was funded to the tune of N$4,956,000 under Ecosystem Based Adaptation investment window under the Empower to Adapt (EDA) project, which is centred on Creating Climate Change Resilient Livelihoods through Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Namibia (CBNRM EDA Project). The “Integrated Climate Change Adaptation within the Agro-ecological Landscape of the Sikanjabuka Community Forest project” is funded by the Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) and being implemented by the Sikanjabuka Community Forest in Zambezi Region.
According to the project chairperson, Bernard Mukasa, the grant has increased resilience and improved food security efforts to adapt to climate change and enhanced crop production in the community.
“The philosophy of the EIF is geared towards sustainable development that aims to ensure that the communities derive maximum benefits from their resources and their livelihoods are improved and rural economies are strengthened by adding value to the production chain of communities,” said EIF CEO Benedict Libanda at the official handover of the project.
While officiating at the handover event, Environment, Forestry and Tourism Minister Pohamba Shifeta said the community forest leadership should ensure that resources benefit the community and after all natural resources are the backbone of our economy.
“In order for the Namibian economy to flourish, we need to prioritise rural development through investment in our natural resources, value addition, and protection of our wildlife as community benefit through sustainable trophy hunting, tourism development and other related livelihoods,” he added.
The Sikanjabuka Community Forest has a population of about 1,300 people, which consists of 320 households. The communities within the community forest largely depend on the utilisation of forest resources for subsistence needs such grazing, wood and non-wood forest products and income generation.
“The abundant rainfall and fertile land in the Zambezi Region with its enormous agricultural potential, far surpasses any other region in the country. Moreover, its wildlife, rivers, floodplains and forests undoubtedly position the region to contribute significantly to the national economy. It is of these reasons that livelihoods entirely depend on forestry-related activities and the use of biodiversity products to support their daily subsistence. All these natural resource-based livelihoods are vulnerable to climate change to some extent,” noted Shifeta.
Although forest resources are managed sustainably, climate change threatens the livelihoods-supporting resources within the community forest, said the Fund.
The aim of the project is to increase resilience and improve food security as an effort to adapt to climate change, while focusing on enhancing crop production and productivity for food security and forest harvesting substitution through adoption of climate resilient smart farming technologies to support local livelihoods.
“In addition, the project is to encourage and establish enterprise development opportunities for communities especially for the youth and vulnerable households in organic agriculture to create meaningful job opportunities.”
To date, a functional greenhouse system powered by renewable energy has been successfully established with a 10,000-litre water tank installed on site and rehabilitated three water boreholes and retrofitted them with solar. In addition, the project has procured one tractor and its implement for sustainable rangeland management and procured bee hives for honey production. The project recorded its bumper harvest early this year and generated an income of N$12,000 which has been invested back into the upkeep of the project.
Amongst its recognisable impacts to date since inception, the EIF has disbursed grants valued at more than N$583 million, ensured that more than 240,256 hectares of land are under conservation, 71 grants approved for different environmental projects, created more than 950 employment opportunities mostly rural based and include seasonal ones and retrofitted 169 boreholes that benefitted more than 77,000 people, who now have access to potable water and attracted N$820 million for concessional Green Credit Line with participating commercial bank from Agence Française de Développement (AFD) under the SUNREF project in Namibia. To date, attracted and mobilised more than N$3 billion mostly from multilateral and developmental funding institutions and partners.
