A New Project to Improve Grazing in the Himba-areas

ICEIDA has decided to support a training project in Namibia which goal is to improve grazing for the Himba-people in the north western part of the country. The projects is for three years and fits well with another Icelandic project that benefits the Himba-people which is worked on at the same time and pertains to drilling and building of 33 waterholes.

Vilhjálmur Wiium, ICEIDA’s Country Director in Namibia, says that a non-governmental organisation working with environmental preservation and rural development sought to collaborate on improving grazing in the area. “This organisation has for a while now worked with a few Himba-communities to heal grazing lands which have reached a poor state in the past years,” says Vilhjálmur. “Erosion of grazing lands is unfortunately often the result of new waterholes and the organisation works to reverse that development. The work centres on recollecting old grazing methods which the current generation of herders seems to have forgotten.”

According to Vilhjálmur, Iceland’s contribution will be used to assist two Himba-communities to improve grazing management but the work mainly involves training of herders, follow-through and supporting them. Iceland’s total contribution in three years will be 130 thousand US Dollars.