General Information

Namibia offers a remarkable variety of habitats and ecosystems. These range from extremely arid desert areas (including the oldest desert in the world) with less than 10 millimeters of rainfall per year, to subtropical savannahs with over 600 millimetres. It is one of the few dryland countries worldwide with internationally recognised biodiversity “hotspots”. Namibia includes a clause in its constitution targeting the sustainable management of biodiversity. Natural resource-based sectors including mining, fisheries, agriculture and tourism are the basis of the Namibian economy, and around 70 per cent of Namibia’s population is directly dependent on the natural resource base for income, food, medicinal and health needs, fuel and shelter. The high level of species richness and endemism is a national asset and a significant global treasure. This situation demands that biodiversity, and the ecosystem services it provides, are maintained and enhanced as far as possible for sustainable development.

Namibia is a multi-cultural society with a high level of traditional and local knowledge of wild foods, medicinal plants and other resources. Many of Namibia’s indigenous plants, traditionally used for food, medicine, oils and other products, are now being promoted on a commercial basis. Namibia’s most successful commercially-sold indigenous natural products include those derived from Devil’s Claw, Hoodia, Marula and Commiphora. The latter two are covered by ABS agreements.

Since 2000 Namibian stakeholders have developed an innovative coordinated national “pipeline approach” to proactively creating sustainable economic opportunities based on harvesting, processing and trading indigenous plants and natural products. The process is steered by the Indigenous Plant Task Team (IPTT), a multi-stakeholder coordinating body chaired by the Directorate of Agricultural Research. Although it is estimated that indigenous plant-based products currently only contribute about 5% of GDP, there is considerable scope for this to be expanded to the benefit of rural communities across the country. A challenge still remains, namely to improve the primary producers’ benefits from the successful marketing of biodiversity-based products.