Namibia’s efforts to conserve its 1,600 km of coastline received a boost of US $4.9 million (about N$ 32 million) from the World Bank (WB). The five-year Namibian Coast Conservation and Management (NACOMA) project, launched this year, is expected to cost a total of $28.7 million (approx. N$ 190 million). The World Bank grant, made available through its Global Environment Facility (GEF), will be spent on strengthening conservation efforts and improving the sustainability of biodiversity in coastal ecosystems, according to the UN news service, IRIN.

According to the WB, growing economic development and human activity along the coast are attracting unprecedented migration, bringing uncontrolled urban development and a resultant abuse of freshwater resources in their wake, while rising marine pollution industrial has been recorded. NACOMA is expected to help increase the size and number of coastal, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems.
The very arid Namibian coastal ecosystem is home to a significant array of biological and ecological diversity, including uniquely adapted plants and animals. The coast is home to numerous desert species and the area of the southern coast has a greater diversity than any other desert in the world. Namibia’s coast is also an important source of economic development: it accommodates a rapidly growing nature-based tourism industry, an expanding extractive industry, and a strong commercial fishing industry with growing aquaculture. The project will be executed by the ministry of environment and tourism, in collaboration with other relevant ministries and the coastal regional councils and local authorities.