Namibia’s National Forest Policy on Rural Development – A Case Study of Uukolonkadhi Community Forest

Forest resources still play a major role in sustaining livelihoods in rural communities, most especially in developing countries. Namibia’s community forests have much potential to combat rural poverty and contribute to rural development. Keeping the balance between the two chief objectives of the national forest policy; conservation and socio-economic development is of vital importance in combating both deforestation and rural poverty. Thus, this study primarily aimed to investigate the influence of Namibia’s national forest policy on forest resources contribution in rural development from 2009-2013. Forestry and environmental experts and local residents were interviewed. The results show that the lack of full governmental involvement in the management of community forests resources, low, erratic and irregular rainfall are the main challenges community forestry economy is facing. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis indicates that good institutional arrangement of community forestry and active community participatory are some of the pillar strengths of the community forestry programme. The study concludes that there are several research gaps such as statistical information of forest conditions and the degree of poverty within rural communities. Motivating and supporting rural community forests management in any possible manners to give a ground to alleviate rural poverty and combat deforestation is the essential next step.