In 1994 the Directorate of Forestry without any prodding from any external aid thought that the forest sector could improve if there was a participatory and widely publicized process of forestry development programming that would culminate into a nationally adopted document. The motives behind this were many and a few are described herein.
The forest sector had suffered from benign neglect during the colonial era and had therefore to assert itself among the family of sectors competing for resources to meet the challenges of national development that had been bestowed upon each of them. The creation of a full Directorate of Forestry after existing as a small division under agriculture for over 70 years represented a new political support for the sector and in itself a major challenge for the Directorate to demonstrate its worth in an arid and semi-arid country.
Despite the fact that the forest sector continued to contribute to the national economy, albeit in non-obvious ways, it was not properly recognized. It was not difficult to see that forestry needed recognition to be able to survive and a widely publicized and participatory approach to discussions and planning was important to achieve this.
The national planning process would help forestry’s claim to legitimacy in the absence of high volume tropical rainforests or huge industrial plantations
A proper and thorough analysis of the sector was needed to able to discern and concentrate on programmes that would turn around and otherwise improve the sector.
It was quite clear that donor support would be easier to get if Namibia could develop a clear and comprehensive plan on how it wanted to manage the sector, bearing in mind both the global and local benefits of forest management and protection.
With the above motives in mind, the Directorate of Forestry felt that it was not necessary to adopt any of the expensive and time consuming approaches in National Forestry Programming such as Master Plans, Tropical Forestry Action Plans (TFAP) and National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPS). Instead Namibia opted for a planning process that we estimated would take about a year to accomplish and termed it a National Forestry Strategic Plan
