The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Namibia Country Office on 05 March 2020 officially launched a Livestock Marketing facility also known as an Auction Kraal in Talismanus in the Omaheke Region.

The auction kraal is constructed through the Sustainable Management of Namibia’s Forested Lands (NAFOLA) Project with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), supported by UNDP Namibia and implemented by the MAWF. The project aimed to reduce pressure on Namibia’s forest resources by facilitating the gazettement of Community Forests and increasing the capacity for the uptake of improved agriculture, livestock and forestry management practices in the community forest areas.

NAFOLA was being implemented for five years, from December 2014 and December 2019. The auction Kraal is constructed to contribute to SDG 15 and as an effort to improve livestock off-take in the degraded rangeland of TalismanisThe kraal is used to facilitate the marketing of livestock offtake rate in Talismanus and the surrounding areas.

The Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Honourable Alpheus !Naruseb stated that the auction kraal is aimed at helping the community to manage their livestock sustainably. This will be done through livestock marketing techniques that are compatible with the Omaheke rangeland management approaches. Furthermore, a livestock marketing strategy was developed after the construction of the marketing kraal and will guide further operations of the kraal.

Highlighting other achievements by the NAFOLA project, the UNDP Namibia Resident Representative Alka Bhatia stated that through the facilitation of the NAFOLA project, 9 community forests were gazetted, 10 Integrated Forest Management Plans were developed and a National Forest and Veld-fire Management Policy & Strategy was developed. The NAFOLA project also supported the thinning of 3 bush encroached sites, covering a total of 12 hectares.

Ms Bhatia officially handed over the NAFOLA project to the Minister of Agriculture, who will then continue implementation of a few more activities that still need to be finalised. Before the closure of the GEF-UNDP supported phase of the project, a Sustainability Plan for the project was developed. The plan will guide the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry to implement all remaining planned activities.