Manual Bush Control - SME Perspective

More than 30 Million ha is bush thickened posing social, environmental
and economic challenges for Namibia. Bush thickening causes biodiversity loss; loss of income in the agriculture sector and puts pressure on ground water and land resources.
A pilot project was conducted to conceptualise and benchmark the labour-intensive methodology of bush thinning in Namibia. This was conducted in three land use types; communal, commercial and resettlement/government research farms. Only labour-based methods were used for harvesting operations and SME-contractors carried out the work.
The pilot sought to derive a baseline for labour-based encroacher bush harvesting activities, from felling to preparing the derived biomass for further processing/value addition.
The pilot was funded by the GIZ Bush Control and Biomass Utilisation Project with support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry.