In April, the Namibia Sustainable Forest Management (NSFM) Project Team spend 12 days in the Kavango and Zambezi Region to meet with the local communities, regional decision-makers as well as regional offices of the Directorate of Forestry (DoF). The pre-visitation trip was dedicated to introducing the NSFM-Project to its target groups in the Kavango and Zambezi Regions, to learning about their daily challenges in forest management as well as to managing their expectations.
‘You cannot bring food to the people they do not like’
was the theme under that the pre-visitation trip was conducted. As it is essential for the success and sustainability of a project to first find out what the needs of the target groups are in particular, the NSFM-Project Team met with the Forest Management Committees of 19 gazetted/ emerging Community Forests in Kavango West, Kavango East as well as Zambezi Region. Moreover, they had the chance to meet with the Governor of Zambezi Region, Honourable Sampofu, and with Foresters and Forest Technicians of the Mururani, Nkurenkuru, Rundu, Kongola, Sibinda, Katima Mulilo and Bukalo DoF offices. Next to the community meetings, the Project Team had the chance to visit the fruit tree nursery of Hippo Lodge Aquaculture as well as an old dump site where lots of logs are piled up.
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