The need for game-changing ecological restoration

LINEEKELAOMWENE T. NAUYOMA WRITES:

There is a need to implement more game-changing ecological restoration initiatives in Namibia especially in our precious ancient Namib which is fragile to ecological degradation yet rich in mineral resources such as diamonds, uranium, lead and zinc.

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed by human activities such as mining. Restoration ecology is the science upon which the practice itself is based.

In Namibia, where much of its population lives in poverty restoration initiatives are vital in reducing unemployment. The good health and integrity of ecosystems is a great asset for a developing country like Namibia with a struggling economy.

The Namib is breath-taking and home to many endemic species which are of interest especially to scholars and tourists generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the Namibian economy. However, the Namib and its fauna and flora face various threats particularly from the growing mining sector. Ecological restoration is therefore indispensable in the Namib and Namibia at large to prevent land degradation and extinctions of our beloved endemic species.

Ecological restoration is common in many countries as evidenced at the recently held 8th World Conference on Ecological Restoration (SER2019) in Cape Town, South Africa on 24-28 September 2019. SER2019 was hosted jointly by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), the Department of Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries of South Africa and the South African Water Research Commission. SER is based in the United States of America, Washington D.C. and has more than 2 800 members worldwide. SER2019 was attended by more than 850 delegates from 68 countries and featured more than 500 oral and 170 poster presentations and several short videos. Delegates included professors, researchers and students from leading colleges and universities around the world, staff scientists from research institutes specializing in conservation issues, environmental consultants and contractors ranging from independently owned small businesses to national and multinational companies, government personnel from local and national land management agencies, representatives and staff from multilateral organizations, local, national, and international NGO/nonprofit organizations, botanic gardens and zoos from around the world, consultants and staff from mining and resource extraction companies, individuals and entities in the financial sector, staff from engineering and landscape architecture firms.

I believe the mining sector and Namibia at large should be inspired by our neighbor, South Africa which has been doing world-class restoration for over two decades.

Namdeb Diamond Corporation (Pty) Ltd has advanced the science of mining ecological restoration in the southern Namib where there is one of the largest diamond deposits in the world. For instance, Namdeb funded my participation at SER2019 to present our work at Sendelingsdrif Mine located in Namdeb’s mining licence ML42 area. The research completed in 2014 was published the in July 2019 issue of the peer-reviewed Restoration Ecology journal.

The study revealed selected pre-mining habitat features so important in restoring the populations of Namibia’s narrow near-endemic succulent plant species Juttadinteria albata at Sendelingsdrif Mine. Concurrent restoration of J. albata is already taking place in an active mining area.

Our research is an example of laudable efforts in the Namib supported by a mining company which are taking vital mining Ecological Restoration actions to the next level.

The research was done with main supervision in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Namibia and the Namib Ecological Restoration and Monitoring Unit at the 57 year old Gobabeb Research Institute.