Integrated Park Management in Namibia III

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The FZ project is intended to support Namibia's Ministry of the Environment in managing and using the national park network along the Namibian coast and its supporting zones in a sustainable manner. As a result, the four coastal parks are to be stable, sustainably protected and rationally managed national parks within the framework of a larger, cross-border ecosystem, which form an ecological and economic functional unit with the neighboring protected areas (conservancies, community forests, private protected areas). On the one hand, the parks are to contribute to the socio-economic development of the supporting zone, and on the other hand, they make a significant contribution to the protection and preservation of the exceptional biodiversity of the larger park network and its adjacent areas (project goal). By involving the population in the use of natural resources and in tourism usage concepts, alternative income opportunities are to be created and thus contribute to improving the living conditions of the population. In detail, the support is to be provided by providing park management infrastructure and improving park facilities, and MET employees are to be supported in the implementation of integrated management plans and the preparation and implementation of tourism development plans. In particular, the development and implementation of integrated, cross-park management concepts is planned, which in the long term will include not only the Namibian protected areas but also the cross-border areas.