Namibia, which covers an area of approximately 825 000 km2, is situated in the southwestern corner of the African continent. It shares boundaries with Angola and Zambia in the north, Zimbabwe in the northeast, Botswana in the east, South Africa in the south and southeast and to the west is the Atlantic Ocean. According to Erkkila and Siiskonen (1992), Namibia can be divided into three main distinct regions:
Namibia is the most arid country south of the Sahara with extremely variable and unpredictable rainfall. Rainfall increases from west to northeast with an annual average of 20 mm along the coast to 700 mm in the extreme northeast.
There are few rivers and most of them are periodical, flowing sporadically after intensive rains, while the perennial rivers flow along the northern and southern borders of the country. The natural environment is fragile and harsh; approximately 80 percent of the country's surface is sandy or rocky.
Giess (1971) subdivides Namibia's vegetation, based on rainfall, into three regions: desert, savannah and woodland. The desert region, which covers 16 percent of the country, constitutes the Namib Desert and the Etosha Pan. Small trees, shrubs and herbs occur in the Namib Desert, e.g. Welwitschia mirabilis, while the Etosha Pan is fairly barren with some Acacia nebrownii found on its less brackish fringes. Savannah covers 64 percent of the country and the remaining 20 percent is woodland. Mopane savannah vegetation is widespread in northwestern Namibia, which is part of the savannah region where Colophospermum mopane (mopane) is the dominant species. The most dominant species in woodland areas are Baikiaea plurijuga (Zambezi teak) and Pterocarpus angolensis which are considered the most commercially valuable tree species in Namibia.
The population is estimated at 1.6 million while the growth rate is estimated at 3 percent per annum (National Planning Commission, 1995). This would normally translate into a relatively low population density, assuming an even distribution of the population over the entire country, and would therefore be expected to have comparatively little or no pressure on forest land. However, this is not the case in Namibia (Kojwang, 1994). Although historical political factors have played a major role in shaping the geographical patterns of human habitation, the climate and the productivity of the land have influenced settlement patterns. For this reason, large areas of the country are uninhabited while the resources of the settled areas are overexploited more than 60 percent of the population live in the northern region which comprises less than 18 percent of the land mass of the country, while only 7 percent of the population live south of the capital, Windhoek, on 32 percent of the land.
The climatic and geophysical conditions are constraints on agriculture in Namibia. Arable agriculture is limited to the northern part of the country where annual rainfall averages less than 300 mm. Livestock farming is possible in the central region, while extensive sheep, ostrich and goat farming is practised in the arid areas in the south. Although the majority of the population relies on agriculture, its contribution to the national GDP is only about 10 percent (Erkkila and Siiskonen, 1992).
Mining, fishing and tourism contribute significantly to the Namibian economy. The country is well endowed with a variety of important minerals, ranging from world-class deposits of uranium and diamonds to smaller but significant deposits of gold, silver, tin, lead, zinc and copper. In the 1980s, the mining industry provided more than 75 percent of the total exports by value (Erkkila and Siiskonen, 1992).
During the last few decades, Namibian forests and woodlands have diminished rapidly, especially in the northern part of the country. In the central region, the spread of the invasive bush species has dramatically depleted the grazing capacity of the pastureland and caused serious losses for livestock farms.
The perception of most foresters that a forest is just a wood has now changed. People's needs for goods and various services from the forest have become one of the most urgent issues in the developing rural society. Globalization, liberalization, decentralization and many other trends are affecting the way forestry is conceived, implemented and learned.
The first Forest Policy in Namibia, which was approved in 1992, has been revised, based on the identified immediate and long-term needs of the people.
The implementation of the new policy is not possible without revision of the forestry curriculum in line with the objectives of the country's updated forest policies.
