Forest Research Strategy for Namibia (2011 - 2015)

The Policy is prepared on the premise that forests hold enormous economic value and their provision of environmental goods and services often require political intervention in both exploitation and protection, and that it is of general interest for policy and financial support for forest research to improve management for production and to maintain or enhance the ecological or environmental functions of forests. The Policy acknowledges the need to manage Namibia’s dry forests through engaging in more research on the subject, and identifies the challenges which impinge upon management efforts, including: dry conditions limit growth and yield of forest products leading to increasing demands for forest products by rural populations; the difficulty in balancing between protection of forests for ecological functions and the need for direct economic uses of forest resources; the heavy reliance on few species for commercial exploitation; dry conditions of the woodlands are associated with slow growth rates and poor regeneration; the use of fire as a land preparation tool. The Strategy proposes that the research should directly aim to address the key issues and challenges to managing forests and woodland resources, including: understanding the direct and underlying drivers of deforestation and degradation; poor levels of natural regeneration in commercially exploited species; limited success in tree growing under artificial regeneration systems; inadequate data on growth and yield on species of interest; inadequate efforts and products from value-added processing of wood and non-wood products; inadequate numbers of skilled researchers in the forest sector; problems associated with governance systems and structures in key programmes such as the community forest management programme. The strategic research areas, which are collected based on the views of Namibian stakeholders include, vegetation (forest and rangeland) monitoring programme, forest products (value-added) research, ecological studies, growth and yield studies, silvicultural research, economic, policy and sociological research, and management of information. The Strategy proposes objectives, guidelines to key actions and expected results for each of these strategic areas.