According to a report by The Namibian, the Climate Change and Inclusive Use of Natural Resources (CCIU) project was funded by the German International Co-operation Society and was initially planned to run from 2021 to 2024.
Beatrice Lucke, country director of the German Development Bank, made the announcement about the project’s five-year extension at an event celebrating 35 years of German-Namibia development co-operation, held in Windhoek earlier this month. The project was being implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.
The CCIU project was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, with co-funding from the EU.
The rationale behind the project is that half of Namibians live in rural areas and depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. However, these resources are under increasing pressure due to the negative impacts of climate change.
According to a recent dissertation published by researgate.net, climate change was likely to exacerbate the dry conditions already experienced in Southern Africa. When rainfall does come, it is likely to be in bursts of greater intensity, leading to erosion and flood damage.
However, these predictions have had very little influence on policy in Southern African countries, according to the report.
“Computable general equilibrium model simulations for Namibia indicate that over 20 years, annual losses to the Namibian economy could be up to 5% of GDP, due to the impact that climate change will have on its natural resources alone,” the report read.
To promote the climate-adapted, resilient and equitable management of natural resources, Namibia established its Nationally Determined Contributions under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change and set out to revive its Community-Based Natural Resources Management approach and improve coordination among stakeholders.
