Nepal to learn from Namibia

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources and Public Administration, together with other stakeholders, visited Nepal from February 23 to 6 March to promote learning between the two countries’ globally-recognised community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) programmes.
The tour comes after a high-profile visit to Namibia by Nepal Parliamentarians, governmental officials, and NGOs. The aim of this visit was for Nepal to learn from Namibia’s nation-building experiences, in the drafting of its constitution. Nepal was particularly interested in learning how Namibia built the protection of the environment into its constitution and how Namibian communities were managing and benefiting from their wildlife through communal conservancies.
During the visit, the 10-member delegation, was exposed to concepts, some of which appear suitable for introduction at 71 communal conservancies, such as household biogas plants which can be used for household cooking, and at the same time reducing deforestation; cultural tourism; and cooperative credit unions.
Nepal has a similar CBNRM Programme to Namibia, that has been operating since the early 1990s and has up to date achieved great conservation results. Nepal houses more than 17 000 community forests that are contributing towards robust and recovering populations of rhino, tiger, and mixed species of mammals.
The delegation was composed of representatives from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources, and Public Administration; Ministry of Environment and Tourism; the Namibia Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO); the NGO Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC). From the private sector, it was Wilderness Safaris; Torra Conservancy and WWF-Namibia.
The delegation was headed by Dr. Moses Amweelo and Simson Tjongarero.