- Conservation and Sustainable use of Natural Resources
The project is aiming to establish five Landscape Conservation Areas (LCAs) that will be managed for the full suite of biodiversity and landscape values, including ecosystem services [and] ecosystem functioning, for sustainable land management and for economic performance.” The LCAs will be managed through adaptive collaborative arrangements to “nationally mandated standards” by empowered institutions and be funded through sustainable mechanisms. The project will also create an enabling environment for market incentives to operationalize the LCAs. Therefore, the project objective was defined as being: “Protected Landscape Conservation Areas are established and ensure that land uses in areas adjacent to existing Protected Areas are compatible with biodiversity conservation objectives, and corridors are established to sustain the viability of wildlife populations.” This objective would be achieved through three components, with a total of 15 outputs associated with them. The achievement of the project’s objective, components and outputs are measured through 17 indicators; when disaggregated, these amount to 31 indicators. The project is being implemented by the MET under NEX modalities. The project implementation is overseen by a PSC and implemented by a PCU that includes a PM, an AFA and three LSs.
According to the evaluation findings, the project is almost precisely halfway through its lifetime. During its first half, it has been very effective in the activities that it has carried out. The reality is that, the project simply has to keep up the momentum over all of the rest of the project’s life and it will then be on course to achieve most of what it set out to achieve and as a result be a successful project. There are a few things that need to be done and to be focused upon; if these are done and the momentum is maintained, the project will contribute significantly to the conservation of the biodiversity of Namibia. Partly because of design issues and the location of the demonstration LCAs, the direct global environmental benefits that result from the project may be initially limited. However, if the project acts as a springboard for replicating landscape level conservation processes in those areas of Namibia where the globally important biodiversity is to be found at greater concentration, then it could be said to have contributed significantly to global environmental benefits. To do this, however, there is some way to go and, again, the momentum will have to be maintained all the way.