Geared towards sustainable development

Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta officiated the handover of the Sikanjabuka Resilience Horticultural Project on 7 October, which was funded under the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) under the Empower to Adapt (EDA) project that is implemented through the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF).

Chairperson of the Sikanjabuka Community Forest, Bernard Mukasa, noted that the community forest received N$4.9 million from the EIF.

"This grant has increased resilience and improved food security efforts to adapt to climate change and enhanced crop production in the community." The CEO of the EIF of Namibia, Benedict Libanda, said that "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."

Delivering his keynote address, Shifeta said that the community forest leadership should ensure that resources benefit the community because natural resources are the backbone of the economy.

He said that 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 a community benefit through sustainable trophy hunting, tourism development, and other related livelihoods."

Situated in the Katima Rural Constituency in the Zambezi Region, the Sikanjabuka Community Forest Conservancy Resilience Horticultural Project was funded to the tune of N$4 956,000 under the Ecosystem Based Adaptation investment window under the EDA project, which is centred around creating climate change resilient livelihoods through the CBNRM EDA project.



The Integrated Climate Change Adaptation within the agro-ecological landscape of the Sikanjabuka Community Forest project is funded by the EIF and being implemented by the Sikanjabuka Community Forest in the Zambezi region. The Sikanjabuka Community Forest has a population of about 1 300 people, which consists of 320 households.

The communities within the community forest depend largely on the utilisation of forest resources for subsistence needs (grazing, wood and non-wood forest products) and income generation.



Although forest resources are managed sustainably, climate change threatens the livelihoods supporting resources within the community forest. The aim of the project is to increase resilience and improve food security as an effort to adapt to climate change. The project focus is 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; encouraging and establishing 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-liter water tank installed on site and rehabilitated three water boreholes and retrofitted with solar In addition, the project has procured one tractor and its implements for sustainable rangeland management and 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.