Land degradation a major problem

Written by Administrator
Friday, 19 June 2009 09:26

Drought and the increasing marginalisation of production systems have lowered the productivity of Namibian land, said Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Minister of Environment and Tourism at the commemoration of World Day to Combat Desertification.
She said farmers have difficulty in finding good grazing lands and that resources have become depleted.
“Forests for instance have disappeared at a fast rate. Once a common resource for the lives of families and communities as well as for ecological integrity are extremely acute and call for our immediate intervention. We must combat desertification in ways that reduce poverty,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah.

Land degradation takes a number of different forms including the depletion of soil nutrients, salinization, soil erosion and the degradation of vegetation cover due to overgrazing and deforestation.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said land degradation poses a serious threat to food security and rural livelihoods, particularly in poor and densely populated areas of the country.

“It also constitutes a huge drain on economic resources and has enormous socials costs. Many of the degradation processes are generated by poverty and food insecurity because desperate circumstances force communities to adopt unsustainable environmental practices such as the cutting down of trees, overgrazing through overstocking, amongst others. In order to break this vicious cycle, it is important to support actions that alleviate poverty and food insecurity while at the same time reducing environmental degradation, within the overall context of broad pro-poor national development strategies,” she said.

Desertification and land degradation in Namibia, as well as in the rest of Africa, have far reaching implications in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, said Lebogang Motlana, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
“Efforts to address desertification and land degradation are instrumental for the achievement of poverty eradication and environmental sustainability.

http://www.economist.com.na/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17088:land-degradation-a-major-problem&catid=539:general-news&Itemid=60