Marine & Coastal Conservation in Namibia’s Media Landscape

Sunny Imalwa | April 24th, 2026 | News

Earth Day Roundtable Discussion — 22 April 2026

Namibia’s coastline stretches over 1,500 kilometres. Its waters are among the most productive on the African continent. And yet, open a newspaper, scroll through the news, or tune into a broadcast and you will rarely find a conservation related story about it.

That silence was the starting point for an honest and long-overdue conversation held on the evening of 22 April 2026, as part of a special Earth Day Roundtable Discussion hosted under the theme Our Planet, Our Power. Organised in partnership with the Namibian Youth Chamber of Environment and moderated by Disney Andreas, the event brought together three voices that rarely share the same platform, and the result was electric.

The Conversation

Seated around the table were Deon, an Environmental Youth Activist whose work centres on mobilising young Namibians around the natural world; Gail Thomson, a Science Communications Consultant who has spent years bridging the gap between complex environmental science and public understanding; and Julia Nafuka, a Journalist and News Reporter covering environmental affairs who navigates the daily realities of pitching and producing these stories inside Namibian newsrooms.

The discussion delved right into the harder question: why? Why, in a country so defined by its ocean, does marine and coastal conservation barely register in the media? The panel was candid. Editorial priorities, limited scientific literacy in newsrooms, a disconnect between conservationist and journalist access, and a public that has not yet been given enough reason to care, all of these threads emerged as part of a complex and deeply Namibian problem.

The Room

What made the evening memorable was not just what was said, but who was listening. Audience members from students and journalists to conservationist and curious members of the public leaned in. The Q&A session crackled with the kind of energy that only emerges when a conversation touches something real.

By the time closing reflections were shared, the room felt different from the one that had gathered just three hours earlier. Something had shifted, a collective acknowledgement that Namibia’s marine environment is not just a conservation issue. It is a media issue. A communication issue. And ultimately, a public will issue.