Introduction

Background to Namibia’s Economy

 Namibia has the distinction of being the most arid in Southern Africa and carries an estimated population of 1.7 million people on a total land area of 830 000 km2. Its relatively small population grew at an annual rate of 3.1% between 1970 and 1980 and at a slightly higher rate of 3.2% per year between 1981 and 1990. The national average annual rainfall figures are about 350-400 mm, with the northeast receiving the highest rainfalls, which average around 700mm per year. Its aridity limits the potential for both agricultural and forestry production. However, its scarce water resources and the natural woodland formations and other vegetation types play major ecological and direct economic roles in its largely rural economy and its industries.

The economy is dominated by the extraction of natural resources of which, mining and fishing are the leading export commodities and the mainstay of its economy. Agriculture is the predominant land use in which livestock ranching, managed as commercial operations dominate in its central plateau savannahs mainly occupied by historically favoured white farmers. The rest of the country also keeps livestock and in the north, which is relatively wetter than the south, substantial cultivation is practiced. However, agriculture contributes only 10% of GDP but employs about 70% of the rural population, in which women are a majority. On the whole, Namibia’s economy is best viewed from its primary, secondary and tertiary industries. The primary industries are dominated mining, fishing and commercial agriculture. The commercial agricultural sub-sector, traditionally dominated by beef ranching has found a newcomer in the form of commercial table grape farming by irrigation along the Orange River in the south. Forestry is not a major formal industry that is typical of countries with industrial plantations. Instead, it plays a major role in the livestock industry, tourism and domestic energy supply, in addition to construction of shelter. This contribution is not often obvious and has not managed a place in the national accounting system. The secondary industries are made up of meat and fish processing, other manufacturing, electricity and water supply. The tertiary industries are driven by the wholesale and retail trades, tourism, financial, real estate, business services, transport and communications. Currently, Namibia is developing a second National Development Plan (NDPII, 2001-2006) in which several assumptions on the growth of the Namibian economy have been made. These are that:

In all these assumptions on the economy, the major driving secttors will perform as indicated below:

Forestry Development in the National Perspective.

 In most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, the forest sector viewed from existing forest resources and their respective administrative structures, were largely shaped by colonial policies. Indeed, the existence of a number of remaining forest reserves originate from that era. It can also be claimed with lots of credibility that export-oriented markets, fueled by hard currency demands by post colonial Africa has affected the forest sectors in various ways. It is therefore a legitimate exercise in policy analysis and studies of forest history to look at the evolution of the forest sectors of various countries over time and especially to examine how they have reacted to the changing national, regional and global themes related to sustainable development. Viewed in this context, initiatives such as Desertification and Biodiversity Conventions, Tropical Forest Action Plans, National Environmental Action Programmes, Forestry Master plans, Strategic Plans and most recently, National Forestry Programmes have become a rich ground for environmental, socio-economic and even political discourse. Equally compelling and worthy of academic attention by developmental and business economists are macroeconomic issues such as Structural Adjustment Programmes, Liberalization of Markets and Globalization since they affect forests and forestry practice in various ways. It is therefore a logical starting point to postulate that the best place to start to see how forestry has reacted to a changing world is through nationally sanctioned or recognized programmes for development in the forest sector.

Prior to 1990, Namibia, which is in Southern Africa, had no written forestry policy. Given the fact that the bulk of the woodlands exist in the deliberately neglected communal areas of the north from which its apartheid regime was receiving military resistance, the woodlands were governed mainly by coercive and conservation oriented mentalities which did not allow public participation in forest management, made worse by no investment in forest management. Ironically the exploitation of indigenous timber stocks continued to feed South Africa’s saw mills and joinery industries. It was therefore not surprising that until recently, rural people have tended to perceive the forest and wildlife services as confrontational arms of government, rather than agencies vital to their sustainable development. Furthermore given the political isolation of the apartheid regime in Namibia and South Africa, Namibia’s forest sector was prior to 1990, largely “immune” to international or global initiatives in forest management and even trade.

In 1992, Namibia as a country launched itself into the international arena by attending the Rio Earth Summit, in which it became a signatory to Agenda 21, including the Forestry Principles. Since then, it has acceded to several environmental or natural resource conventions, such as CITES, Climate Change, Desertification and Biodiversity and has been active in their respective discussion sessions. On the forestry scene, Namibia has over the last 4 years participated in the meetings of the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission organized by FAO. It has also participated in meetings of the Southern African Development Community on forestry (SADC-FSTCU). Furthermore, it has been involved in the global forest policy dialogues of the Inter-Governmental Forum on Forests (IFF) and the Inter-Governmental Panel on Forests (IPF) before it, including the last IFF Meeting in New York which laid the groundwork for the soon to be launched United Nations Forum on Forests (UN-FF).

Defined from a resource context, the forest sector in Namibia is comprised of indigenous woodlands, which occur in four main biomes commonly referred to as the Kalahari Sands Woodlands, the Mountain Savannah Woodlands, the Mopane Woodlands and the Acacia-dominated Savannahs of the Central Plateau of Namibia. In addition to the above biomes, another type of tree formation, though not strictly a biome, but ecologically and economically important, are the riverine or gallery forests on the floodplains or valleys of the predominantly ephemeral and the few perennial rivers. From a traditional forestry point of view, the Kalahari Woodlands provides the bulk of the timber species, such as, Pterocarpus angolensis, Baikiaea plurijuga, Guibourtia coleosperma and Burkea africana. The most recent inventory data on the woodlands in terms of total woody biomass and merchantable timber volumes per hectare from variations of the Kalahari and other Woodlands are provided in tables 1 and 2. In addition, the respective areas covered by the woodlands in the northern half of Namibia and other bio-climatic zones are in table 3. Based solely on the occurrence and distribution of merchantable timber volumes and also the biomass statistics, a traditional forester would be forgiven for relegating Namibia’s forest sector to the footnotes of any chapter on the forest-rich world. Because of this, Namibia is, and will remain a net importer of industrial wood and wood products (see table 4). Despite being a next importer of industrial wood and wood products, the forest sector, viewed from in the entirety of its functions and direct use values, its contribution is certainly not minor, especially within the arid and semi-arid conditions that nurture the forest resources. A few examples are briefly described to illustrate its “unsung” values.

The woodlands and the acacia savannahs all together, maintain vegetated ecosystems that are crucial to the livestock industry by being key grazing and browsing habitats. The livestock industry is a major export earner for Namibia and employs a formidable number of Namibians.

In addition to the livestock industry, the ecosystem value of the woodland and savannah biomes, in addition to the gallery or riverine forests, are the bastions of Namibia’s wildlife based tourism industry. Tourism is truly the industry of the future for Namibia, since there not much room for significant growth in the natural resource based sectors such as marine fisheries and mining sectors. Today they are the most important contributors to the Gross National Product. In North-Central Namibia which carry’s 50% of its population, fencing of cultivated fields is done using stems and branches of trees. The crop protection function of the woodlands is probably the most underrated or “unaccounted for” agricultural input.

The majority of Namibians still rely on wood for fuel and construction of shelter. The economic value of these two commodities, are enormous at a national scale. The arts and crafts industry, which has rapidly become an employer of thousands of Namibia, depends entire on the indigenous woodlands and belongs to the cluster of tourism related industries. Species such as P. angolensis, B. plurijuga and G. coleosperma are highly valued for furniture. In addition, B. africana has tremendous potential for use as parquet flooring material. Table 5 summarizes the estimated contribution of the forest resources of Namibia to the national economy.

Table 1: Some data on the biomass of various woodland types occurring in Namibia. (Trees with diameter at breast height (DBH) equal or above 5cm were measured.)

Tree volume means the volume of the entire tree comprising of the main tree trunk and  branch wood.

Tree biomass means the biomass of the entire tree comprising of the main tree trunk and branch wood.

Total number of trees in the sampled area is equal to AMean No. of trees/ha  x ASize, in Ha@. For example, in West Tsumkwe District:  99 x 607 949 = 60 186 951 trees.,

Total volume of trees in the sampled area is equal to AMean tree volume m³/ha times ASize, in Ha@. For example, for Western Tsumkwe District: 17.8 x 607 949 = 10 821 492  m³.

⁵ In omusati Region, tree height includes Hyphaene petersiana (Makalani) and Sclerocarya birrea (Marura)

⁶ In Oshana Region, tree height includes Sclerocarya birrea (Marura) and Diospyros mespiliformis

Table 2: Data on two main timber species, P. angolensis (Kiaat) and B. purijuga  (Rhodesian Teak) found in Namibia’s woodlands.

¹Timber volume means the volume of the main tree trunk excluding branch wood. 2) * P. angolensis and B. plurijuga were not found in the sample in these areas. 3) **There is a little bit of Baikiaea plurijuga in the north west of Omusati Region, in Uukolonkadhi Community Forest.

Table 3: Area of land cover types in Northern Namibia