UNDP's Environment and Energy programme focuses on strengthening the capacity of the Government of Lesotho to manage environment change and adopt an integrated approach to the sustainable management of natural resources towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 7 – Ensuring Environmental Sustainability. It is in line with the overall national programme for tourism, environment and cultural development as elaborated in the Government of Lesotho's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and Vision 2020.

This approach will combine promoting the use of sound environmental management practices in order to stop and reverse land degradation in the country, with the implementation of the concepts of conservation of biodiversity through proper farming and grazing methods. In addition to this, environmentally friendly energy technologies will be promoted with the aim to reduce the high dependence on biomass for energy, which contributes to accelerated rate of soil erosion as a result of soil cover loss. Burning of Biomass also contributes to respiratory diseases, which are easily contracted by people living with the HIV.

The Environment programme will be streamlined for an effective overall response to the myriad national challenges including widespread poverty and HIV&AIDS through mainstreaming sustainable development principles in the implementation of the PRS. The success of the current UNDP assistance to national policy to scale up the fight against HIV/AIDS and the process of the government of Lesotho to decentralize services has created new opportunities for sustainable land and natural resource management as it depends on a simultaneous and focused transformative programme delivery that seeks to break the vicious cycle of HIV&AIDS, Poverty and Food Insecurity at community level.

Areas of Support

1. Support to Institutional and Capacity strengthening of the Tourism Sector in Lesotho
UNDP worked with the UN World Tourism Organization through the project to enhance Lesotho’s tourism potential as a viable sector for poverty reduction in Lesotho. Technical assistance in formulating the updated Tourism Strategy and Way forward has been drawn up wherein tourism development plans within the priority zones; identifying opportunities for private sector investment ensuring community based tourism development had been identified.

2. Promotion and preservation of Lesotho’s Natural and Cultural heritage
UNDP, in collaboration with the Government of Lesotho, FAO, GTZ and WFP has worked on an integrated watershed management project for increased food security and livelihoods. It aims to facilitate the empowerment of communities and their elected representatives in integrated natural resource management to enhance food security and livelihood at the watershed and catchments level.

3. Public Private Partnerships for Urban Environment (PPPUE)
The Government of Lesotho has committed to ensuring an integrated response to the development challenges facing Lesotho’s urban areas. It works in joint partnership with the UN Habitat Sustainable Cities Programme with the overall aim to build and strengthen the planning and management capacity of Maseru City Council and its development partners. It seeks to provide a favourable policy environment for the provision of services for the urban environment and enhancing public private partnerships in Lesotho

4. GEF Programmes
For a number of years, Global Environment Fund has been and continues to be one of the major funding bodies for environmental programmes in Lesotho. GEF is assisting in the areas of conserving natural resources and use of alternative energy source as a means of halting and reversing the degradation of land in country.

• Lesotho Renewable energy based rural electrification (LREBRE)
UNDP will enhance efforts to reduce the dependence on bio-mass fuels, thus contributing to soil conservation, especially through promoting the use of renewable energies at the household and community levels. This will be done through the current Renewable Energy project that is being developed by the Rural Electrification Unit at the Department of Energy, which will be implemented through 2010.