Namibia - Context and Land Governance

^{Namibia. Photo: Peter Kennel/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)}

A total of 92% of the land area is defined as either hyper-arid, arid, or semi-arid¹.  It is estimated that 48% of the land in Namibia is predominantly cattle farming area, with 39% more suitable for small stock farming. Only 13,500 ha. or a mere 0.02% of the total land area is suitable for dryland cultivation, while just 2,600 ha. or .003% is suitable for irrigation².  Despite its small population Namibia is a diverse, multilingual country with around 30 languages being spoken. The majority Oshiwambo language is spoken by just under half of Namibia’s population. 

Historical backdrop

Land from the Caprivi to the Orange River was colonised by the Germans in 1894 and occupied until 1915. By 1903 some 52,110,000 ha had either been allocated to concession companies, retained as Crown land, or occupied by settlers. The Namibian population was left with 31,400,000 ha³.

In 1904 Herero and Nama people rose against German occupation and continued land dispossession. The German colonial forces put down this uprising with unprecedented brutality⁴. Their actions came to be regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century⁵.  It is estimated that 75% of the Herero and Nama peoples were annihilated by German troops. Out of 80,000 Herero, 60,000 were forced into the desert to die. Half of the 15,000 who surrendered, died in forced labour prison camps. In the wake of the genocide, the German colonial Government expropriated all ‘moveable and fixed property’ of the Ovaherero (1906) and Nama (1907) without compensation⁶.  This included land and cattle. In 1911, an official German census recorded an 80 percent reduction of the indigenous population⁷. 

In 1920, following Germany’s defeat in World War 1, South Africa received a League of Nations mandate to administer the territory. South Africa refused to surrender this mandate when the League of Nations was disbanded to be replaced by the United Nations in 1946. It continued to administer the territory as if it were a province of South Africa. Once the conservative Nationalist Party came to power in South Africa in 1948, they extended the racially discriminatory policy of apartheid to Namibia as well.

In 1964 the recommendations of the South African appointed Odendaal Commission of Inquiry into South-West African Affairs had far-reaching implications for future land access and allocation in Namibia. These accelerated implementation of apartheid policies whereby 17 reserves were consolidated into ten ethnic homelands, each exercising a token form of self-government. These measures stimulated the formation and consolidation of local elites and the promotion of constructed ethnic identities. These policies enabled small numbers of wealthy individuals to enclose and privatise communal grazing and agricultural land. It was argued that the Odendaal Commission and its proposals were an attempt by the South African government to pre-empt armed struggle by fostering a compliant middle class in the homelands. A combination of forced rural and urban removals to consolidate ethnic homelands within Namibia spurred the rise of nationalist resistance. The People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) - the armed wing of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) launched a guerrilla war from bases in Zambia and Southern Angola. A multi-faceted conflict developed on Namibian soil and in neighbouring Angola, itself riven by civil war.

Namibia finally obtained independence in 1990, following almost a century of colonial occupation, genocide and war. The process by which Namibia gained independence was strongly influenced by cold war geopolitics.  A so-called contact group of Western governments produced a document setting out Constitutional principles and guidelines in 1982, a full eight years before elections that marked the transition to independence. The principles contained in the 1982 document were deemed to be non-negotiable in the future. Article 25 (1) stated that “Parliament or any subordinate legislative authority shall not make any law, and the Executive and the Agencies of Government shall not take any action, which abolishes or abridges the fundamental rights and freedoms.” This non-negotiable protection extended to Article 16 on the freedom and protection of property⁸. This sought to ensure that property owners were entitled “to protection from arbitrary deprivation of private property without just compensation”.

At independence, only 28% of the population was urbanised and 20% of the urban population lived in informal settlements⁹.  Of the total land area in Namibia only 696,000 km2 was agriculturally usable. “Privately owned freehold land, amounting to 48 per cent of the territory, remained in the hands of less than 5,000 mainly white farmers, while over 70 per cent of the population remained directly, or indirectly dependent upon the 35% of the available communal land (the remaining 17% was state-owned and largely nature reserves”¹⁰.  The net area of agricultural usable land in communal areas was only 27 million ha or 43% of all agriculturally usable land.

^{By Eugene Kaspersky, originally published in flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)}

At independence there were 6,350 commercial farms in Namibia owned by 4,045 farmers. Of these farms just 230 (or 3.6%) were owned by black Namibians, while 352 were owned by foreigners¹¹.  Approximately 70% of the Namibian population were reliant on land-based livelihoods.  

Namibia’s independence coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet bloc. This impacted on the policy direction for land reform. Despite hugely unequal access to land and the history of violent dispossession, full scale nationalisation of land and land restitution was excluded as an approach to enable land redistribution¹². 

In 2010 Namibia had the third highest percentage of private land ownership (44%) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Land legislation and regulations

Article 16 of the Namibian Constitution ensured that pre-existing property relations created under colonialism and consolidated by apartheid, remained fundamentally unaltered. Rights to land acquired during colonialism and apartheid were constitutionally guaranteed¹³.  However Article 16(2) of the constitution does make provision for expropriation stating that “the state or a competent body authorised by law may expropriate property in the public interest subject to the payment of just compensation, in accordance with requirements and procedures to be determined by Act of Parliament”. Schedule 5 of the Namibian Constitution makes it clear that the government of Namibia regards communal land as land of the state.

In 1991 a National Conference on the Land Question and Land reform was organised by the Office of the Prime Minister. It recommended:

• redistribution of commercial farmland, mainly on the basis of the willing seller–willing buyer principle, with the government having preferential rights to purchase farmland for resettlement purposes;
• introduction of a land tax;
• reallocation of underutilised land;
• limits to the size and number of farms made up of privately owned land;
• elimination of foreign-owned land and absentee landlordism;
• disadvantaged communities (in particular the San) “should receive special protection of their land rights in the former reserves, situated mainly in the northern regions¹⁴.  

However, the conference also adopted a position that ancestral land claims were too complex to resolve and risked sparking fresh conflict over contested land rights. In consequence Namibia, unlike neighbouring South Africa, chose not to promulgate laws enabling land restitution. It rather sought to create the opportunity for any landless Namibian citizen to benefit from a national land redistribution programme¹⁵.  This is funded in part by land taxes collected from freehold farmers which are put into a separate fund used for state land acquisitions¹⁶. 

The Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act (No. 6 of 1995) provides for the preferential acquisition of agricultural land by the state for the purposes of land reform. The Act requires that any seller of agricultural land must first offer it to the government, which conducts an assessment and either resolves to purchase, or waives the offer. Between 1992 – 2018 the government opted to purchase 37% of the land which came onto the market¹⁷.  Households allocated this land can register leaseholds following a five-year probation period. Thereafter they may exercise an option to purchase it. No subletting or mortgage of the land obtained for resettlement is permissible without the Minister’s consent.

The Act also provides for the compulsory acquisition of certain agricultural land by the state and regulates land acquisition by foreign nationals, who require a special Ministerial permission to purchase land¹⁸.  The Act establishes a Lands Tribunal and regulates its functions.

A National Land Policy was published in 1998. This is particularly strong on securing women’s rights to land and protecting these rights in communal tenure settings.

The Communal Land Reform Act (No. 5 of 2002) provides the legal framework for the allocation of rights on communal land, recognising both customary land rights and the right of leasehold. The Act sets out the functions of Chiefs, Traditional Authorities and Communal Land Boards with respect to the administration of communal lands¹⁹.  The Act specifically prohibits the enclosure and fencing of common grazing. However, reportedly, this section of the Act remains unimplemented and the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement commenced with the development of small-scale farms in 2003²⁰.  Regulations in terms of this Act were passed in 2003²¹.

The Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Second Amendment Act (No. 19 of 2003) introduced a land tax on real estate, ostensibly to finance the redistribution of land in Namibia²².

The Flexible Land Tenure Act (No. 4 of 2012) regulates tenure in urban areas and makes provision for starter and landhold title schemes on land situated within the boundaries of a municipality, town or village council (see ‘private freehold land’ below).

Land tenure classifications

There are three broad categories of land in Namibia.                                                         

State land

According to the Namibian Statistics Agency (NSA), state land constitutes 23% of the total land mass. Of this 94% is allocated to national parks and restricted areas, and 6% falls under local municipalities. State land also includes 3,02 million ha acquired for land reform resettlement farms and servitudes, together with 2,46 million ha acquired for research farms and servitudes²³.  

Private freehold

Some 42% of Namibia’s agricultural land is held in private ownership. Of this, 86% is held by individuals, companies, trusts etc. As far as can be established previously disadvantaged black Namibians own just 16% of commercial farmland.

However, the Flexible Tenure Act has introduced two subsidiary tenure forms to more affordably secure registered rights relating to residential land within municipal boundaries: 

• Starter title, which enables the rights holder to erect and occupy a dwelling on a specified blockerf and bequeath or transfer the rights to others.
• Landhold title which awards the rights holder in a housing scheme the same rights as freehold tenure and the right to use common property within the scheme²⁴. 

Communal land

Land in communal areas is administered in terms of different customary systems under which user rights are usually allocated for life. Section 17 of the Communal Land Reform Act (No. 5 of 2002) states that communal land “vest(s) in the State in trust for the benefit of the traditional communities residing in those areas”²⁵. 

Customary land rights include the rights to a residential plot, a portion of arable land where available, or any other right that may be recognised and described by the Minister by notice in the Gazette. However, this definition does not adequately describe the bundle of rights which typically characterise communal tenure systems and which include access to water, grazing, wildlife and diverse botanical resources with different culinary, medicinal, fuel and construction uses.

In communal areas the State’s obligations as a Trustee requires that it puts “systems in place to make sure that communal lands are administered and managed in the best interests of the people living in those areas”²⁶.  The Act retains the role of Traditional Authorities in the land administration process, while also putting in place Communal Land Boards to: 

• control the allocation and cancellation of customary land rights by Chiefs or Traditional Authorities; 
• decide on applications for rights of leasehold; 
• create and maintain registers for the allocation, transfer and cancellation of customary land rights and rights of leasehold²⁷. 

Some communities in communal areas were not protected by the Act because they do not fall under registered Traditional Authority (TA), or the boundaries of the TA are unclear²⁸.  

More broadly the future of communal land has been described as “precarious”. Threats to communal tenure include illegal fencing and enclosure of grazing land by powerful individuals, coupled with the emergence of an informal land market, despite land trading being prohibited by the Communal Land Reform Act²⁹.  In a global context increasingly vulnerable to land and resource grabs, traditional leaders in Namibia have “no legal responsibility to account and consult downwards” to land rights holders which makes them vulnerable to dispossession through land deals which privatise communal resources³⁰. 

Land use trends

Following independence in 1990 there has been an influx of people to the cities. Drought has also impacted heavily on urban areas where informal settlements have grown exponentially. An estimated 40% of Namibia’s urban population live in shacks with poor access to clean water and other municipal services, coupled with high levels of food insecurity³¹.  This trend is likely to consolidate as the impacts of climate change erode rural livelihoods.

Namibia is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Drought has been persistent between 2012 and 2017. In 2013 crops harvested in Namibia were 42% less than the previous year. Protracted drought has resulted in stock losses for small livestock producers³². 

^{Namibia,Photo: ER Bauer/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)}

Climate change models indicate that prime cattle farming areas today will become marginal for cattle within the next 25-45 years³³.  This is driving a shift to game farming. Currently, only 6% of Namibia’s wildlife population exists in a National Park, whilst 12% occurs on communal land and 82% on private land. The extension of wildlife ownership rights to communal land in 1996 enabled the growth of community conservancies which generated N$132 million (US$9 million) in 2017³⁴.  This in turn requires that the land and resource rights of rural communities are protected against the threat of resource capture by elites.

Urban tenure issues

It is recognised that Namibia’s future is predominantly urban. In 2018 50% of the population lived in urban areas, increasing from 28% at independence. Urban issues did not feature significantly at the first National Land Reform Conference in 1991 and has not been a policy priority since, leading to what has been described as an urban land and housing crisis³⁵.  Currently two out every three people live in an informal settlement and 67% are employed in the informal sector.

At the 2018 National Land Reform Conference policy proposals were made to establish urban land reform as an integral part of the national land reform programme and develop a national urban policy and spatial development framework, supported by transparent land administration structures³⁶.  There are a wide range of laws and policies under development. A National Urban Policy was proposed in 2011 but by 2018 had not been finalised. The Namibian government has also developed a Mass Urban Land Servicing Programme, a Mass Housing Development Programme and an Informal Settlement Upgrading Strategy. However, implementation has yet to gain significant traction and articulation between the different elements could be strengthened.

Land investments and acquisitions

Mining is Namibia’s leading economic sector and accounts for approximately 10% of GDP. In the past diamond mining has been the dominant sector. Much of this takes place within the Namib desert or offshore involving dredging and diving operations. The latter has implications for marine resources and fishing.

The country is the world’s fourth largest producer of uranium oxide and the Husab open pit uranium mine is the third largest uranium mine in the world. However, these mining activities take place within the Namib desert and while they impact on scarce groundwater resources there were no locally significant effects on settlements or livelihoods. More recently mining to exploit iron ore deposits has commenced in Eastern Namibia³⁷.  In September 2020 plans were revealed to start fracking near Namibia’s Kavango River and Botswana’s Tsolido Hills which poses significant ecological and livelihood threats³⁸.

National parks, game reserves and community conservancies cover over 40% of Namibia’s land mass³⁹.   Namibia has a valuable tourism sector based on wildlife and hunting. It is estimated that the country has two million head of different wildlife species and the total value of wildlife to the economy is estimated to be around N$ 1.3 billion⁴⁰.  This creates lucrative business opportunities which provide incentives for land acquisition capitalised by foreign interests. These have created controversy in Namibia.

In 2017 there were reports that a Russian billionaire was seeking to buy three farms to establish a game ranch⁴¹.  In 2018 it was reported that the Namibian government had authorised the issue of 99 year leases on four farms to a company owned by the billionaire⁴².   The shell company has been profiled in the leaked Panama Papers, where it is alleged that it was established in 1999 by two fronting directors to “buy, own, hold, lease, sell, rent and develop land and buildings and real estate”⁴³.  The issue of the 99 year leaseholds has been described as a “modern day land grab” by political opposition parties⁴⁴.

Women’s land rights

While women’s rights have strong legal protection, practically securing these rights and advancing women’s equality in certain settings remains hard to implement. Article 10 of the Namibian Constitution guarantees the rights of women, while Article 95 obliges the state to promote and adopt policies and laws aimed at gender equality and equality of opportunity for women. Consistent with the Constitution, the 1998 Land Policy specifies that women have the same legal status as men with regard to all forms of land rights and guarantees security and protection for all legally held land rights, regardless of the form of tenure, the income, gender or race of the rights holder.

^{ISOE Wikom, originally published in flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)}

In communal areas the Communal Land Reform Act requires that the Communal Land Boards are representative of all in the region. It specifies that four women (two farmers and two with land administration expertise) must be included in the Land Board composition⁴⁵.

However, despite constitutional provisions, customary practices may undermine women’s legal rights in law. In some communal areas, women continue to be excluded from inheriting property from a deceased spouse. Overall, “access to land and rights of the land especially from marginalised, indigenous people and women remains a challenge”⁴⁶.

Community land rights issues

The Namibian Constitution is silent on the rights of indigenous people and minorities, although the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of ethnic or tribal affiliations.

Indigenous Hai//om San people have been engaged in long struggles for land and access to resources in the country’s national parks. Having granted access to land to other Namibian groups and Europeans, the San, a semi-nomadic people, were progressively dispossessed. Much of the land which they originally occupied was incorporated into national parks. At the outset the Hai//om had residential and gathering rights in these parks but were then removed in the mid-1950’s to become “largely landless, poverty stricken, marginalised and discriminated against by other non-San groups, settlers and the South West African administration"⁴⁷. 

Following independence, the Namibian government purchased several farms in traditional Hai//om territory, “most of which were allocated to other groups, so that, ironically, the Hai//om had to leave their land because it had been sold to the state for redistribution”⁴⁸.

In 2015 a grouping of Hai//om filed a collective action lawsuit against the government of Namibia and other agencies and institutions operating in the Etosha and Mangetti West areas, seeking restoration of their ancestral lands⁴⁹.  However, in November 2019, after multiple delays, the court dismissed the case when the Hai//om leader recognised by the state, filed an affidavit challenging the representivity of those bringing the class action. The Legal Assistance Centre, a Namibian NGO, has sought leave to appeal the decision and is reported to be planning to take the case to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Tanzania⁵⁰.

Other San groups like the Ju|’hoansi and the Kung in the Nyae Nyae and N‡a Jaqna conservancies in Otjozondjupa Region have had to fight repeated invasions of their land by pastoralists in court⁵¹.  In the latter case, the line ministry has still not implemented a court ruling of 2016 that all enclosures of communal land must be removed. The Khwe in Babwata National Park have faced restrictions on access to land after the area was declared a national park.

A Commission of Inquiry was established into Claims of Ancestral Land Rights was established in 2019 following the Second National Land Conference. It submitted a 780-page report to the office of the President in July 2020. However, the report was not publicly released and was eventually leaked via social media. The report, which is now available proposes setting up a legal process to deal with the issue of ancestral land claims for restitution⁵². 

Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Tenure (VGGT)

Awareness of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) is not yet well established in Namibia. However, in 2019 FAO conducted a training session for selected Parliamentarians and senior government officials. The training sought to make linkages between the VGGT, and the resolutions taken at Namibia’s second land conference. The VGGT are being translated into local languages and further training is planned⁵³.

Timeline - milestones in land governance

1884 South West Africa – an area of 800,000 km² in extent was annexed as a German colony

1904 Popular uprising against German occupation. 75% of the Herero and Nama peoples annihilated by German troops in the first genocide of the 20th century

1906 Expropriation of land and cattle of Ovaherero and Nama without compensation

1916 Following the defeat of Germany in World War I South Africa awarded a League of Nations class A mandate to govern then South-West Africa

1959 Resistance to urban forced removals in the capital Windhoek is crushed by police who kill 11 and wound 44 protestors

1964 Odendaal Commission of enquiry into South-West African Affairs proposed the creation of 10 ethnic homelands within Namibia

1966 Start of armed resistance to settler control

1989 Elections are held in Namibia and a new constitution finalised

1990 Namibia gains independence

1992 - National Conference on the Land Question and Land Reform

1998 - National land policy. New approaches in community-based natural resource management involve the establishment of community conservancies 

2018 - Second National Land Conference

2019 - A Commission of Inquiry into Claims of Ancestral Land Rights and Restitution is established

2019 - Land reform is identified as one of the three most important problems in Namibia with a particular focus on access to land in urban areas.

Where to go next?

The author's suggestion for further reading

If you are interested in a more in depth understanding of how the colonial past shapes the present in Namibia, we recommend the work of George Steinmetz and Clara Ng. The Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) hosts the Southern Africa node of the Network of Excellence for Land Governance in Africa (NELGA). A Google Scholar search for the work of Prof. Wolfgang Werner in the Department of Land and Property Sciences until 2018 will yield a wide range of in-depth articles providing important insights into Namibian land matters, both historical and contemporary. His 2016 bibliography of land reform in Namibia is a valuable resource.  The Legal Assistance Centre has also made an important contribution to the literature on land law in Namibia.

For more in-depth information the companion Detailed Timeline: Namibia provides a chronology of key historical events and linked land related issues.

***References

[1] FAO. 2005. Country profile – Namibia. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

[2] du Pisani, A. 1991. Rumours of Rain: Namibia's Post-Independence Experience. In Southern African Issues No 3. Johannesburg: The South African Institute of International Affairs.

[3] United Democratic Front of Namibia. 1991. National Conference on Land Reform and the Land Question: Documetation prepared and presented by the United Democratic Front (UDF) of Namibia. edited by Ernest S  Likando: UDF.

[4] Melber, H, and R Kossler. 2020. "Colonial amnesia and Germany’s efforts to achieve ‘internal liberation’." The Conversation, 20 October. https://theconversation.com/colonial-amnesia-and-germanys-efforts-to-achieve-internal-liberation-138840.

[5]Steinmetz, George. 2005. "The First Genocide of the 20th Century and its Postcolonial Afterlives: Germany and the Namibian Ovaherero."  The Journal of the International Institute 12 (2).

[6] Commission of Inquiry into Claims of Ancestral Land Rights and Restitution. 2020. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Claims of Ancestral Land Rights and Restitution. Windhoek: Office of the President.

[7] Ng, Clara. 2019. "The 20th Century’s First Genocide: Not the Holocaust, but the Herero." Post-Conflict Research Center, accessed 25 September. https://p-crc.org/2019/04/06/not-the-holocaust-but-the-herero/.

[8] Melber, H. 2019. "Colonialism, Land, Ethnicity, and Class: Namibia after the Second National Land Conference."  Africa Spectrum 54 (1):73-86.

[9] Lühl, Phillip, and Guillermo  Delgado. 2018. "Urban land reform in Namibia." National Land Conference 1-5 October 2018, Windhoek.

[10] Melber, H. 2019. "Colonialism, Land, Ethnicity, and Class: Namibia after the Second National Land Conference."  Africa Spectrum 54 (1):73-86.

[11] Adams, F, W Werner, and PCJ Vale. 1990. "The land issue in Namibia: An inquiry (Vol. 1)."  Namibia Institute for Social and Economic Research.

[12] du Pisani, A. 1991. Rumours of Rain: Namibia's Post-Independence Experience. In Southern African Issues No 3. Johannesburg: The South African Institute of International Affairs.

[13] Ngcukaitobi, Tembeka 2018. "The constitutionality of ancestral lands: Remarks at Namibian Land Conference." Ministry of Land Reform, accessed 6 October. http://www.mlr.gov.na/documents/20541/283371/Tembeka+Ngcukaitobi+-+The++constitunality+ancestral.pdf/958a8d8d-8d4e-4cbc-aff7-f76e96b9c715.

[14] Melber, H. 2019. "Colonialism, Land, Ethnicity, and Class: Namibia after the Second National Land Conference."  Africa Spectrum 54 (1):73-86.

[15] Sippel, Harald. 2017. "Land matters in Namibia: the issue of land and the Constitution." In Beyond a quarter-century of constitutional democracy: Process and progress in Namibia, edited by Nico Horn and Manfred O Hinz. Windhoek: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

[16] IGF. 2018. IGF mining policy framework assessment: Namibia. In Intergovernmental Forum on mining, minerals, metals and sustainable development: The International Institute for Sustainable Development.

[17] Namibia Statistics Agency. 2018. Namibia Land Statistics Booklet. Windhoek: Namibia Statistics Agency.

[18] Legal Assistance Centre, and Advocacy Unit Namibia National Farmers' Union. 2009. A Guide to the Communal Land Reform Act, 2002 (No. 5 of 2002) Second edition. In Land, Environment and Development Project. Windhoek.

[19] Ibid

[20] Werner, Wolfgang. 2016. "Transforming Namibia's communal land: Labour reserves to sites of accumulation." Proceedings of the centenary conference of the Society of South African geographers, Stellenbosch.

[21] GN 37 of 2003, GG 1.3.2003

[22] Sippel, Harald. 2017. "Land matters in Namibia: the issue of land and the Constitution." In Beyond a quarter-century of constitutional democracy: Process and progress in Namibia, edited by Nico Horn and Manfred O Hinz. Windhoek: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

[23] Namibia Statistics Agency. 2018. Namibia Land Statistics Booklet. Windhoek: Namibia Statistics Agency.

[24] GLTN. 2018. Improving tenure security through the establishment of a digital land registry in Namibia. In Project brief: Global Land Tool Network, UN Habitat, GIZ.

[25] Namibia Statistics Agency. 2018. Namibia Land Statistics Booklet. Windhoek: Namibia Statistics Agency.

[26] Legal Assistance Centre, and Advocacy Unit Namibia National Farmers' Union. 2009. A Guide to the Communal Land Reform Act, 2002 (No. 5 of 2002) Second edition. In Land, Environment and Development Project. Windhoek.

[27] Ibid

[28] Werner, Wolfgang. 2018. "Land tenure and governance on communal land in Namibia." Second National Land Conference, Windhoek 1-5 October.

[29] De Villiers, Stephanie, Åse Christensen, Cylius Tjipetekera, Guillermo Delgado, Sam Mwando, Romie Nghitevelekwa, Celina Awala, and Mutjinde Katjiua. 2019. "Land Governance in Namibia." Land Governance in Southern Africa Symposium, Windhoek.

[30] Werner, Wolfgang. 2018. "Land tenure and governance on communal land in Namibia." Second National Land Conference, Windhoek 1-5 October.

[31] Crush, Jonathan, Ndeyapo Nickanor, and Lawrence Kazembe. 2019. "Informal food deserts and household food insecurity in Windhoek, Namibia."  Sustainability 11 (1):37.

[32] Keja-Kaereho, Chalene, and Brenden R Tjizu. 2019. "Climate Change and Global Warming in Namibia: Environmental Disasters vs. Human Life and the Economy."  Manag Econ Res J 5 (2019):7731.

[33] Brown, Chris. 2019. "Using Namibia's Wildlife to Drive a Green Economy." Conservation Namibia, 1 November. http://conservationnamibia.com/blog/b2019-green-economy.php.

[34] Ibid

[35] Lühl, Phillip, and Guillermo  Delgado. 2018. "Urban land reform in Namibia." National Land Conference 1-5 October 2018, Windhoek.

[36] Ibid

[37] ITA. 2020. "Namibia – Country Commercial Guide." Department of Commerce: International Trade Administration, accessed 3 February. https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/namibia-mining-and-minerals.

[38] Barbee, Jeffrey, and Kerry Nash. 2020. "Mystery shrouds plans to start fracking near Namibia's Kavango river and Botswana's Tsolido Hills." 20 September. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-16-mystery-shrouds-plans-to-start-fracking-near-namibias-kavango-river-and-botswanas-tsodilo-hills/.

[39] IGF. 2018. IGF mining policy framework assessment: Namibia. In Intergovernmental Forum on mining, minerals, metals and sustainable development: The International Institute for Sustainable Development.

[40] Schalkwyk, Diana L. van, Kenneth W. McMillin, R. Corli Witthuhn, and Louw C. Hoffman. 2010. "The Contribution of Wildlife to Sustainable Natural Resource Utilization in Namibia: A Review."  Sustainability 2 (11):3479-3499.

[41] Kahiurika, Ndanki 2017. "Russian billionaire seeks rights to buy land." The Namibian, accessed 20 October. https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/27600-namibia-russian-billionaire-seeks-right-to-buy-land.

[42] Vives, Lisa. 2018. "Land deal with Russian billionaire causes a stir in Namibia." Global Information Network, accessed 20 October. https://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/africa/2236-land-deal-with-russian-billionaire-causes-a-stir-in-namibia this.

[43] ANCIR Investigations. n.d. "Russian billionaire's Namibian land purchases linked to offshore company." ANCIR Investigations,, accessed 21 October. https://panamapapers.investigativecenters.org/namibia-russia-land/.

[44] News24. 2018. "'This is a modern day land grab', Namibian opposition says as government agrees to lease four farms to Russian billionaire for 99 years." News 24, accessed 21 October. https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/this-is-the-modern-day-land-grab-namibian-opposition-says-as-govt-agrees-to-lease-4-farms-to-russian-billionaire-for-99-years-20181027.

[45] De Villiers, Stephanie, Åse Christensen, Cylius Tjipetekera, Guillermo Delgado, Sam Mwando, Romie Nghitevelekwa, Celina Awala, and Mutjinde Katjiua. 2019. "Land Governance in Namibia." Land Governance in Southern Africa Symposium, Windhoek.

[46] Ibid

[47] Koot, Stasja, and Robert Hitchcock. 2019. "In the way: perpetuating land dispossession of the indigenous Hai//om and the collective action law suit for Etosha National Park and Mangetti West, Namibia."  Nomadic Peoples 23 (1):55-77.

[48] Ibid

[49] Ibid

[50] Harrisberg, Kim. 2020. "Indigenous Namibians fight for ancestral land in national park." Reuters, accessed 26 October. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-namibia-land-indigenous-idUSKCN21V0PI.

[51] Hays, Jennifer, and Robert Hitchcock. 2020. "Land and resource rights in the Tsumkwe Conservancies – Nyae Nyae and N‡a Jaqna." In "Neither here nor there" Indigeneity, Marginalisation and land rights in post-independence Namibia, edited by Willem Odendaal and Wolfgang Werner. Windhoek: Legal Assistance Centre.

[52] Iikela, Saeus. 2021. "Ancestral land commission report leaked." The Namibian, 22 January 2021.

[53] FAO. 2019. "FAO trains Namibian parliamentarians on VGGTs." accessed 21 October. http://www.fao.org/namibia/news/detail-events/en/c/1206469/.