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Ncumcara Community Forest Management Association v The Environmental Commissioner - decision

Filing Year For Action

Local Kavango communities and civil society organizations initiated proceedings against the Namibian Environmental Commissioner (as first respondent) due to Reconnaissance Energy Africa’s drilling in the Kavango Delta. The Applicants were Ncumcara Community Forest Management Committee, Muduva Nyangana Communal Conservancy Management Committee, Katope East Community Forest Management Committee, Kavango East, as well as West Regional Conservancy and Community Forest Association. Reconnaissance Energy Africa is a Canadian oil and gas exploration company. In 2019, Reconnaissance Energy Africa obtained a permit allowing them to carry out exploratory oil drilling in part of the Okavango Delta. The Namibian Authorities later amended the license. Subsequently, the Applicants objected to the amendments in a letter to the Environmental Commissioner, dated May 27, 2022. The Applicants did not receive any response. In June 2022, the Applicants appealed to the Minister against the Environmental Commissioner’s decision, asking for the decision allowing the drilling to be rescinded or reviewed. The complaint was unanswered by the Minister. 

The Applicants then filed a complaint before the Namibian High Court to make the court oblige the Minister to respond and prohibit further drilling. The case was heard on July 13, 2022.  The Applicants claimed that their rights were infringed due to the drilling on community-managed land, already endangered due to climate change, and that the local communities were not adequately consulted as per Namibian law. Further, the Applicants claimed that the drillings are putting the region’s sole freshwater source at risk for pollution and exposing already endangered wildlife to further risk. The Kavango Delta is a large freshwater wetland, supplying drinking water to a region prone to drought, worsened by climate change, and home to a large number of animal and plant species. The Applicants asked the High Court of Namibia for an urgent interim injunction prohibiting further drilling for oil in the Kavango Delta. The High Court held that it did not have jurisdiction, as the Environmental Management Act (Sec. 50) reserves the right to decide on the appeal for the Minister. The High Court considered that intervention would be possible only if the Minister refused to make any decision or if the Minister had already made a decision. On July 29, 2022, the High Court rejected the Applicants’ requests. Thereby, Reconnaissance Energy Africa is allowed to continue with the drillings. The Applicants were ordered to pay legal costs. 

Ncumcara Community Forest Management Association v The Environmental Commissioner

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Activities that provide lodging, food, and entertainment services to guests, including hotels, restaurants, and resorts.

Financial support to help individuals manage the effects of unexpected events, securing their livelihoods and increasing the resilience of people and businesses to the changing climate. It’s especially vital in developing regions where everyday risks, climate-related weather extremes, or crop failures can push people into poverty. Without insurance, people may have to resort to selling assets or cutting consumption to cope with losses.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

A financial institution that manages a country's currency and can promote climate-related initiatives through green monetary policy and other means.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Ncumcara Community Forest Management Association v The Environmental Commissioner - decision

Policy instrument

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance