Restoration Ecology in Namibia

While Namibia is known for its natural landscapes, it is also known for its rich mineral deposits. Mining activities across the country has caused the desecration of many of the otherwise beautiful scenic, environmentally rich areas across the country. Mining accounts for 25% of the country's income and so it has become a necessary part of the country's economy.









In an effort to mitigate the environmental footprint of the mining processes in Namibia, mining companies like Namdeb are required to conduct ecological restoration of the mining site after the land has been stripped of its minerals.




Namibias unique ecosystems present a hard problem for how to best restore previously mined areas. In order to do the most scientifically valid restoration the MET works with researchers at Gobabeb to better understand the Namibian environmental ecosystems and what abiotic features are necessary to sustain populations of unique organisms like welwitschia (which need both high level and low level ground water in order to survive).

While the research is ongoing and no solution will be perfect, there are at least some scientists working to understand what to reduce the environmental impact post mining to the best of our abilities.

According to the 2nd report on biodiversity the Namibian gov. wants to have 15% of the country's damaged ecosystems to be restored by 2022.

Below are the team descriptions from different projects that are going on in restorative ecology across Namibia (taken from the geodabed website)
Namib Ecological Restoration and Monitoring Unit, NERMU
The Namib Ecological Restoration and Monitoring Unit (NERMU), is a unit housed within the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre (Gobabeb), tasked with specific monitoring, research and training activities in the Strategic Environmental Management Plan for the Uranium Rush. NERMU facilitates and does research into ecological restoration, monitors the impacts of mines on biodiversity in the Namib and assists the SEMP Office, housed in the Geological Survey of Namibia, in reporting on environmental issues related to mining. Read more..


Strategic Environmental Management Plan for the Uranium Province (SEMP)
Namibia is currently the fourth largest producer of uranium in the world providing approximately 10% of the world mining output of uranium. While market forces and security concerns influence the uranium market, increasing global energy demand makes uranium an important and valuable natural resources and export product for Namibia.


Uranium deposits in Namibia occur in the central Namib Desert, an environmentally sensitive environment. It is therefore important to balance apparently competing interests of mining and nature conservation particularly in the protected area of the Namib-Naukluft National Park and the World Heritage nominated Namib Sand Sea.


The Strategic Environmental Management Plan (SEMP), developed as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the central Namib Uranium Rush, is an over-arching framework and roadmap for addressing the cumulative impacts of a suite of existing and potential developments within the Namibian Uranium exploration industry. It comprises a comprehensive set of measures and recommendations to manage and monitor the impact of the Uranium Rush in Namibia and to enhance opportunities and mitigate adverse impacts on tourism, biodiversity and heritage on a regional scale.


NERMU's responsibility within the SEMP is to monitor and report on indicators in three Environmental Quality Objectives (EQO), namely EQO7: Tourism, EQO 8: Ecological integrity, and EQO 11: Heritage and Future. The latest annual SEMP Report can be downloaded from the website of the Geological Survey of Namibia.


RESEARCH PROGRAMME: Sendelingsdrif Ecological Restoration Research Programme (SENEREP)
Namdeb Diamond Corporation is mining a deposit near Sendelingsdrift on the Orange River. As part of their commitments to due process in the management of environmental impacts that may occur because of this mining project, Namdeb developed an Ecological Restoration Plan. The plan advised (inter alia) that a number of research projects should be conducted to provide specific information for the development of a detailed Restoration Implementation Plan. To this end, Namdeb requested NERMU to define two projects that have to answer the most important and urgent research questions. These projects had to be conducted by Namibian Masters-level students registered at the University of Namibia (UNAM) and implemented under Gobabeb’s supervision. The Sendelingsdrif Ecological Restoration Research Programme (SENEREP) was subsequently defined to achieve three overarching objectives, as detailed below.


MONITORING PROGRAMME: Swakop and Khan Riverine Forest Monitoring Programme (SWAKURIFOMO)
The ephemeral rivers of the Namib Desert contain dense forests of large trees, including Faidherbia albida and Acacia erioloba. These rivers and their vegetation communities are “linear oases” because they are critical to the survival of a large part of the Namib's biological diversity. Similarly, the aquifers of these rivers are the sources of water for the towns of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.


The central Namib is also home to the “Uranium Province”, a region with numerous occurrences of uranium mineralisation. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) study of the potential impacts of mining in this hyper-arid area identified water as a key driver and a critical resource, and defined the potential effects of water abstraction for mining on riparian ecosystems as an important one that should be studied and monitored. For this reason, at least three indicators in the Strategic Environmental Management Plan for the Uranium Province (the SEMP) follow the fate of the riverine ecosystems and the processes put in place to monitor impacts.


In response to this, SWAKURIFOMO is being developed by Gobabeb and partners and includes both large ephemeral river systems of the central Namib and their main tributaries like the Khan River. We focused on these rivers because the Khan and Swakop Rivers are both potentially affected by cumulative impacts from mining, while the Kuiseb is a relatively pristine river system that can be used as a limited reference or benchmark.


The purpose of the initial study is to provide a solid scientific baseline of the ecological integrity of riparian vegetation in ephemeral rivers of the uranium province as this relates to the status of groundwater resources. The baseline results will then be used to identify and quantify indicators of change in the ecological integrity of riparian vegetation, as this may reflect over-abstraction of groundwater and developed into a long-term cost-effective monitoring programme.- Chris LeBoa

http://www.gobabebtrc.org/index.php/research/restoration-ecology