Namibia has unique forest resources, which nonetheless has significant value in economic and environmental terms. In the absence of a strong traditional forest industry, Namibia should creatively exploit its available resources by adopting existing new technologies for processing of its wood and non-wood products. The area of reconstituted wood products, the utilization of lesser-known tree species, the development of new products from non-wood raw materials, all warrant serious attention. It is quite probable that the forest sector will grow in that direction. There is room for development of cottage industries based on limited local resources.
To make it possible to create more value out of forest resources, the government will have to pursue a policy of attracting private sector investment in product processing and also convince donors to be more actively involved initially in value-added industries than is the case today.
Namibia has quite supportive policies and legislation in forestry and wildlife, in view of current global policies and conventions but would gain from more efficient, partly decentralized administrations, especially as the regional and local governments have built capacities to take over or participate more meaningfully in resource management functions, which can be delicate or easy to ignore by virtue of their indirect environmental values.
The adoption of global policies in the forest sector will mean that the sector will be sensitive and also contribute to the conservation of biological diversity, mitigation of climate change and the sector will be regularly assessed using the concept of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.
Even though the area under forests will decrease, better land use planning at the regional and local levels will produce a legally recognized forest state which will be more immune to unplanned conversions to non-forest uses as is the case today. In other words, forest reserves of various classes, will be part of the protected area network in Namibia.
It can be concluded, that the next 20 years has opportunities for Namibia’s forest sector to develop in its unique ways, not by large industrial plantations, but by more creative investments in processing and taking advantage of new niche-market specialized products and taking advantage of the growing tourism industry as a market for value-added products.
