Wildlife Renaissance
Perhaps the most striking benefits of Namibia’s experiment in people-led natural resource management are to wildlife. Populations of elephant, zebra, oryx, and springbok have risen several fold in many conservancies as poaching and illegal hunting has fallen. Northwest Namibia now boasts the world’s largest free-roaming population of black rhino, while game in the large Nyae Nyae Conservancy have increased six-fold since 1995. In Caprivi’s eastern floodplains, seasonal migrations of game between Botswana and Namibia have resumed for the first time since the early 1970s (WWF and Rossing Foundation 2004:v)
Income and jobs from tourism, lucrative sport hunting of trophy animals, and community hunting quotas have combined to make wildlife more attractive to communities as a managed resource than as a poaching prospect. To attract wildlife, and reduce conflict with humans, improved management techniques have also included new water holes for elephants, protection of domestic and livestock water sources from elephants, and land-use zoning to separate designated wildlife habitat from village and cropping areas (Long 2001:9) In some areas, including the Nyae Nyae, Uukwaluudhi, and Salambala Conservancies, game animals have also been successfully reintroduced (Barnes 2004:4).
According to Chris Weaver, director of the Windhoek-based WWF-LIFE conservancy program, which funds several NACSO groups, these gains indicate “a massive shift in the attitudes of communal area residents towards wildlife. The strong embracement of the conservancy movement demonstrates a willingness and desire to incorporate wildlife into rural livelihoods, as they are now viewed as an asset to livelihoods” (Weaver 2004).
Namibia’s conservancies have significantly altered the country’s land-use landscape—to the benefit of biodiversity. Eighteen registered conservancies sit alongside or between national parks or protected game reserves. This facilitates the safe, seasonal movement of wildlife between parks and communal lands and adds an extra 55,192 km2 of compatible land use to Namibia’s protected area network of 114,080 km2. Conservancies have also successfully adapted their traditional land-use pattern of subsistence activities—such as livestock grazing and dryland farming—to incorporate new tourism opportunities. Many, for example, have set aside large, dedicated wildlife areas for tourism and for sport or community hunting (WWF and Rossing Foundation 2004:iv)
Reducing Poverty, Empowering People
Benefits for human populations are also clear-cut, although they vary among conservancies. Over 95,000 Namibians have received benefits of some kind since 1998, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a funder and supporter of the conservancy effort (USAID 2005:1). These benefits include jobs, training, game meat, cash dividends, and social benefits such as school improvements or water supply maintenance funded by conservancy revenue (WWF and Rossing Foundation 2004:43).
In 2004 total income from the CBNRM program nationwide reached N$14.1 million, up from N$1.1 million in 1998. Of this, N$7.25 million was distributed across communities in the form of cash dividends and social programs, with the rest earned by individual households through wages from conservancyrelated jobs and enterprises. Tourist lodges, camps, guide services, and related businesses such as handicraft production employed 547 locals full-time and 3,250 part-time. In all, 18 conservancies received substantial cash income, averaging N$217,046 in 2004 (WWF and Rossing Foundation 2004:v, 43).
Community hunting quotas provide another important direct benefit. Game meat distribution has proved highly popular with communities, providing both prized meat and a sense of community autonomy (Long 2001:9).
In each conservancy, once revenues are being generated (often within two years of registration), the membership and committee choose how to spend the conservancy’s income and distribute benefits. Some opt for cash payouts to members or households. In January 2003, for example, Torra gave each adult conservancy member the equivalent of US$73. Others fund services such as school classrooms, new water pumps, or diesel fuel for operating pumps (USAID 2005:3).
A 2002 World Bank study of 1192 households in Caprivi and Kunene found benefits spread equitably across conservancy members. In Kunene the researchers recorded a healthy 29 percent increase in per capita income due to the combined direct and indirect effects of community-based natural resource management, and that did not include non-financial benefits such as bush meat (Bandyopadhyay et al. 2004:16,13). These findings suggest Namibia’s conservancies are starting to play a significant role in fighting rural poverty.
Positive Gender Agenda
Conservancies are also having a major impact on women’s empowerment and well-being. By 2004, women made up half of all conservancy members, and three in ten management committee members. They had also captured the majority of new jobs generated, boosting both their income and social status. At luxury Damaraland Camp in Torra Conservancy, for example, over 75 percent of employees are women (Florry 2004).
“These are local people who would never have found jobs anywhere else,” says Pascolena Florry, whose own horizons expanded dramatically as she worked her way up from waitressing to camp manager. “The conservancy has given them training and skills and increased their self esteem and sense of worth.” Before tourism developed, she recalls, opportunities for paid work were almost nonexistent. “I grew up in a small village. The goats were our only income and there was no one to protect them from wild animals, so that is what I used to do. Life is better now. My family has more money, we are able to do more things” (Florry 2004).
Empowerment
The shift in power to local communities, after decades of centralized power, has also produced intangible benefits. Foremost among these are a greater decision-making role for citizens, a deepened sense of community, and growing pride in wildlife recovery and conservancy success.
The process of managing a new democratic institution has empowered those taking part, and given them new skills. Officials from the NGOs and MET train and mentor newly elected committee members on priority setting, decisionmaking, and conflict mediation (USAID 2005:5). In high-membership conservancies such as Torra, village households are also very involved in decision-making. “People understand that this is an opportunity that was not there previously. They feel conservancies give them power over how to take care of the animals…and a chance for a better future,” says Paula Adams, Torra’s community liaison officer. “They attend our meetings and tell us they want to build more tourist camps. If something is happening that’s against the conservancy’s interests, they report it. For example, if a farm’s water pipes are damaged by elephants, they tell us, so we can go and fix it” (Adams 2004).
Citizens also come up with solutions and priorities that inform the Torra committee’s actions. When problem animals became an issue, with lions killing livestock, local farmers requested a new, secure breeding station rather than cash compensation. The conservancy is now building one. A 2002 household survey revealed that members “wanted to see a healthy community with healthy people,” says Adams. The conservancy responded by starting HIV/AIDS workshops and distributing leaflets and condoms.
Active members across Namibia’s conservancies also play a hands-on role in natural resource management. They collect and analyze wildlife population data, using a simple, standardized recording system, and conservancy committees apply the findings to management activities. This people-led monitoring has been so successful that it is now being introduced in national parks and protected areas in Zambia, Mozambique, and Botswana (WWF and Rossing Foundation 2004:vi).
