BY LINDELWA MYENI
MBABANE – Stakeholders are reviewing Eswatini’s proposed biodiversity targets and actions to ensure they are practical, achievable and clearly assigned for implementation as the two-day validation workshop for the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP 3.0) begins at Sibane Sami Hotel in Ezulwini today, 29 September 2026.
The workshop, which runs from September 29 to 30, brings together Government institutions, traditional authorities, communities, women, youth, academia, civil society, the private sector and development partners to critically examine the proposed strategy before its finalisation.
The review is focusing on whether the proposed targets, strategic actions, implementation arrangements and responsibilities provide a realistic basis for putting the biodiversity strategy into action.
Opening the workshop, Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs Jane Mkhonta-Simelane said the validation process provides stakeholders with an opportunity to collectively assess the strategy and improve it before it is finalised.
“It provides an opportunity for stakeholders to collectively review and validate the Strategy and ensure that the proposed priorities and actions provide a clear and practical framework for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in Eswatini,” she said.
The Minister encouraged participants to provide constructive and practical inputs, saying gaps and areas requiring clarification should be openly discussed so that improvements can be made to the strategy.
She said successful implementation would require more than approval of the policy, with coordination across sectors, integration into planning and budgeting, resource mobilisation, strengthened institutions, monitoring and reporting, as well as meaningful participation from communities and other stakeholders.
The NBSAP 3.0 provides Eswatini’s strategic framework for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use for 2026 to 2035 and translates the country’s commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into national priorities and actions.
The Minister said the quality of the final strategy would depend on the inputs and recommendations made during the validation process, calling on participants to engage fully and objectively.
She said the workshop outcomes would contribute to finalising a credible, practical and nationally owned framework to guide coordinated biodiversity action over the next decade.
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