There is a quiet risk in climate work that rarely makes headlines: countries can lose the very plant genetic resources they will need to restore degraded land, recover from fire, protect biodiversity and adapt to a hotter, drier future.

That risk was at the centre of the Seed Conservation Knowledge Exchange with Korean Technical Partners, convened in Windhoek by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) and the UNDP. The exchange formed part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Partnership on Sustainable Forestry: Forest Fire Prevention and Management, supported through the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre.

At first glance, seed conservation can sound like a specialist subject reserved for laboratories and forestry officers. It is not. It is about whether Namibia can preserve the biological material needed for restoration, research, livelihoods and long-term resilience. In climate terms, it is about keeping options open.

With remarks delivered at the occasion on 19^th May 2026, Ms. Esmerialda Klaassen, Deputy Director at the Division of Forest & Botanical Research, MEFT noted that, “Seed Conservation Knowledge Exchange offers us a valuable platform to share experiences and lessons learned, and provides us with an important opportunity to strengthen collaboration and advance our common goals.”

The exchange brought together Government specialists, Korean technical experts, national seed institutions, universities and students. The discussion was practical, not ceremonial. Namibia has collected seeds. The harder question now is what happens after collection.

Through the project, seed collection was undertaken in Zambezi, Kavango East and Kavango West, covering 26 villages across 7 districts. The work generated 234 kilogrammes of unprocessed seed material, representing 48 accessions and 30 species, including native and drought-tolerant species relevant to biodiversity conservation and restoration.

Those figures matter, but they do not tell the whole story.

The field experience showed that nature does not follow administrative calendars. Some species had already dispersed seed. Others had not yet matured. In some cases, rainfall patterns affected flowering and fruiting cycles. This is where the lesson becomes strategic: seed conservation cannot be planned as an occasional activity at the end of a workplan. It needs phenology data, rainfall information, field readiness and the ability to act when ecological conditions are right. 

The Korean partners added an important systems perspective. Through the experience of the Korea Arboreta and Gardens Institute (KoAGI) and the Baekdudaegan Global Seed Vault (BGSV), the exchange showed that a seed bank is not a storeroom. It is an operating system. It requires accession records, drying protocols, viability testing, seed health screening, storage standards, clear ownership rules and long-term monitoring.

This is where Namibia’s next frontier lies. The country already has technical institutions and committed specialists. It also has local knowledge, community seed systems and field experience. What is still needed is the connective tissue: a consolidated digital inventory, functioning quality-control systems, species-specific protocols and equipment that matches the ambition of the work.

Academia is central to that next phase. The exchange showed that students and universities are already part of the seed conservation ecosystem, supporting germination studies, seed analysis and applied learning. This role should be expanded deliberately. Namibia needs research on seed viability, dormancy, fire response, storage behaviour, propagation and genetic characterisation. These are not abstract academic exercises. They determine whether collected material can be used for restoration, whether threatened species can be conserved, and whether communities can access locally adapted plant genetic resources in future.

The value of the exchange was therefore not that Korea arrived with a ready-made model for Namibia to copy. The value was more useful than that. It helped clarify what Namibia must adapt, finance and institutionalise.

For UNDP, this is the point of effective cooperation: not another meeting, not another acronym, and not another report that disappears into a folder. The real test is whether knowledge exchange leaves behind stronger national systems.

The next steps are clear. Namibia needs to protect the seed material already collected, strengthen post-collection handling, digitise and update seed records, link universities more systematically to research gaps, and mobilise support for the equipment and protocols that will make long-term conservation credible.

Seed conservation is not only about what is stored today. It is about what a country refuses to lose.

For Namibia, that means treating seeds as part of climate resilience, biodiversity protection and national sovereignty. Because when landscapes burn, rainfall shifts and species decline, the future will depend partly on what was collected, tested, stored and protected before the crisis arrived.

About the project

The Seed Conservation Knowledge Exchange was convened under the Strengthening Namibia’s Forest and Veld Fire Detection, Monitoring and Response System, implemented as part of the SDG Partnership on Sustainable Forestry: Forest Fire Prevention and Management. The initiative is implemented by MEFT and UNDP Namibia, with technical cooperation from Korean partners, including the Korea Arboreta and Gardens Institute (KoAGI) and the Baekdudaegan Global Seed Vault (BGSV). It is supported through the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre, which advances South-South and triangular cooperation, policy dialogue and knowledge sharing across countries.

The project supports Namibia to strengthen forest and veld fire detection, monitoring and response, while also building capacity on seed conservation for native and drought-tolerant species. Through field seed collection, technical exchange and institutional learning, it links biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration and climate resilience. The support was made possible through the partnership between UNDP, the Government of the Republic of Korea, and national implementing partners in Namibia.