Doha — NAMIBIA’S only fund dedicated to the protection of the environment – the Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) – is one the environmental protection initiatives being publicised to the world at the 18th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (CoP 18) underway in Doha, Qatar.

On a poster exhibited at the stand, Namibia says the EIF provides support for the sustainable use of the environment and natural resource management.

So far, the project has given funds to various environmental projects in the country, as Namibia strives to achieve Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goal: Environmental Sustainability.

Article 957 of the Namibian Constitution calls for the sustainable use of the environment for the present and future generations.

Other initiatives that Namibia is exhibiting at the two-week conference are the country’s Green Plan of 1992, which was presented by founding President Sam Nujoma at the Rio Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The plan outlined needed policies and strategies and recommendations to integrate environmental issues into key areas such as agriculture and tourism.

Namibia’s Environmental Management Act of 2007 is also on display. The Act provides for the creation of the Sustainable Development Advisory Council, which Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said was on the verge of being operationalised.

Other pamphlets and documents at Namibia’s stand are about the City of Windhoek’s sewage water management, Namibia’s National Policy on Climate Change and the country’s Second National Communication to the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was submitted to the convention last year.

*Absalom Shigwedha is a freelance environmental journalist.