Want to know more? Get in touch
If you want to understand how the standard works, who belongs to it, what we monitor, what the High Conservation Value assessment found, or how to raise a concern or grievance, please contact us using the details further down this page. Neighbours, community members, Traditional Authorities, workers, NGOs, customers and members of the public are all welcome to ask.
About the standard
The NamPower Forestry Group Standard is a group certification that several farm owners belong to at once. It covers selective thinning of Namibian encroacher bush on the participating Farm Management Units, together with the production and transport of the harvested woody biomass to its first point of sale. Each member’s harvesting plan carries the list of protected, rare, threatened, endangered, endemic and iconic plant species set out in the Namibian Forest Act, 2001, and no Highly Hazardous Pesticides that are prohibited under the standard may be used.
Stakeholder access to information
Stakeholders are free to ask about the standard, request further detail, and lodge a grievance or a concern. On request, and subject to commercial confidentiality and the protection of personal data, ECC will share the following:
Information about the Otjikoto Biomass Power Project itself is published by the proponent at https://www.nampower.com.na/Projects/.
Dispute and Grievance Procedure
The main way to raise a grievance about the project, including anything arising under this standard, is the project Stakeholder Grievance Mechanism that the proponent publishes on its project page. ECC runs a layer on top of that mechanism for the group standard. The two work off a shared seven step process and a single register, so nothing gets lost between them. The procedure was not written in isolation. It grew out of the public participation process for the project Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, which reached interested and affected parties, neighbouring landowners, farming communities and the relevant Traditional Authorities and settled the channels people actually use. It is kept current through the consultation workshops, Steering Committee meetings and community outreach that continue
under the Environmental Management Plan. You may lodge a grievance in any Namibian language, at no cost, and anonymously if you prefer. You never have to give your name, your contact details or your organisation. Anonymous submissions come in on every channel and are looked into on exactly the same basis as named ones. The full Dispute and Grievance Procedure is available on request.
How to reach us:
Cultural sensitivity and inclusive engagement
We want every stakeholder to be able to reach us and be heard, whatever their language, reading ability, gender, age, background, disability, or distance from a town. We can provide information and hold discussions in any of Namibia’s main languages, among them Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, Khoekhoegowab, Rukwangali, Rumanyo, Thimbukushu, Silozi, Setswana, Ju|’hoansi and other San languages, and Afrikaans, and we bring in qualified interpreters at our own cost. The way we engage today comes directly out of the public participation process for the project Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, and it is kept alive through the consultation workshops and Steering Committee meetings held under the Environmental Management Plan. Where work touches communal land, customary tenure, or places that matter culturally, ECC deals with the relevant Traditional Authority recognised under the Traditional Authorities Act, 2000, and follows the customary protocols for entry and consultation. Where the rights of Indigenous Peoples or historically marginalised communities are involved, we follow a free, prior and informed consent process before work goes ahead.
Register an Interest
Use the Register an Interest form to sign up as an Interested and Affected Party, to ask for more information, or to raise a grievance or concern. If you would rather stay anonymous, leave the name and contact fields blank. You can also just email ECC at info@eccenvironmental.com.
Submit anonymously
Grievances can be lodged in any Namibian language, at no cost, and anonymously if you prefer. Use the Register an Interest form and leave the name and contact fields blank.
Environmental Compliance Consultancy (ECC) is the appointed group manager for the NamPower Forestry Group Standard. The standard brings Namibian rangeland owners together under one group certificate, held by ECC, so that they can carry out sustainable bush thinning to an agreed set of forestry rules. It is built on the national forestry stewardship requirements that apply in Namibia and on the project Environmental Management Plan.
Namibia Power Corporation (Pty) Ltd
Approval Obtained
Agriculture
Namibia
Please complete the below form to register as an Interested & Affected Party (I&AP) and download the relevant documents.
