State of Conservancy update booklet 2006

Namibia's communal conservancies: a review of progress in 2006

Chapter 2

Natural Resources

The base of a rural economy

The commitment of communal area residents to improved natural resource management is evident in the expansion of areas under formal management, both through registered communal conservancies, and in 2006, with the registration of 13 community forests. The 50 registered communal conservancies fall within five of Namibia's six biomes and combined they cover 14.4% of the land area of Namibia and 39.8% of the communal areas.

In 2001, the Namibian Government extended its CBNRM program to include the community-based management of natural forest vegetation, providing for community forests to be registered under the Forest Act. The first 13 community forests were gazetted in early 2006 representing a total land area of 4,643 km², and involving a total number of 36,684 beneficiaries. Twenty nine new areas are emerging, contributing to a current total of 42 community forests in the communal lands of Northern Namibia that cover an area of about 2.2 million hectares. Eight of the registered and 17 of the emerging community forests overlap totally or partially with conservancies. Efforts are currently underway to facilitate the integration of conservancies and community forests by harmonizing different legal and technical requirements and to promote joint management planning in these areas.

Figure 4. Namibia contains six major terrestrial biomes, which are areas that share similar plant life and climatic features. The majority of registered conservancies are found in the drier Nama Karoo and Namib Desert biomes.

Table 2. Percentages of Namibia's total surface area within communal and freehold conservancies, in community forests, in concession areas, and in national parks and game reserves (top row) and equivalent proportions of different biomes conserved by these conservation management areas. Communal area conservancies contribute more to the protection of Nama Karoo and Broad leafed Savanna than do other types of conservation management.

Table 3. The thirteen community forests that had been registered by the end of 2006 and which are predominately found in the north eastern regions of Kavango and Caprivi and within the acacia savanna and broad leafed savanna biomes.

In conservancies wildlife numbers have shown remarkable growth and recovery. Formal monitoring systems continue to be implemented and 43 conservancies are using the event book monitoring system to track a range of natural resource issues. The seventh annual road based game count was conducted in the Kunene region with results reflected in Figure 5. Growing numbers of wildlife combined with better monitoring meant that 24 conservancies were able to benefit from trophy hunting quotas during 2006 whilst sufficient wildlife enabled 31 conservancies to harvest game and distribute meat to conservancy residents. Consumptive use of wildlife generated N$8.3 million of benefits for conservancies, with N$5.6 million being earned as cash revenue and N$2.2 in kind (value of meat distributed) and a further N$469,230 worth of salaries and wages from associated jobs.

Figure 5. Wildlife numbers in north-west Namibia have increased dramatically over the past 20 years. Population estimates between the 1980s and 1990s were derived from aerial surveys (left y axis) while the more recent figures are density estimates from vehicle surveys (number of animals recorded per 100 kilometres travelled, right y axis).

Figure 6. Monthly ranger foot patrols on fixed routes reflect an increased sighting index for wildlife in seven conservancies in Caprivi (Salambala, Mayuni, Mashi, Wuparo, Kwandu, Impalila and Kasika). The figures on the left hand y axis are a sighting index and while reflecting an increase in population are not population figures.

Much of the growth described here for the north-west has been due to the reduction and virtual cessation of illegal hunting or poaching, and the steps taken by conservancies to manage conflicts between human and wildlife. Although other factors - in particular the series of recent good rainfall years - have contributed to population growth, this increase would not have occurred had it not been for reduced hunting, support from local Traditional Authorities and strong local management by conservancies.

In addition to the growing wildlife populations in north-western Namibia, there has also been notable recovery of wildlife populations in the first seven conservancies established in the Caprivi region.

Figure 7. Frequencies of sightings (y axis) of large predators by Community Rangers in the East Caprivi and Kunene conservancies between 2002 and 2006.

Table 4. The number of incidents of human-wildlife caused by all species in all conservancies in Namibia over the past four years. These data reflect incidents in only those conservancies using the 'Event Book' monitoring system and thus do not reflect all such incidents in the country.

Despite the benefits of increased wildlife populations and the associated benefits, living alongside wildlife has a cost for rural residents. Increasing frequencies of 'problem animal' incidents are doubtless a consequence of both larger numbers of animals and reduced persecution by people. Wildlife now often mixes freely with domestic stock in Kunene, where Elephants have been recorded drinking and eating vegetables and crops grown next to homesteads.

The number of problem incidents continued to rise in 2006, with a total of 5,637 reported country-wide in conservancies. The majority of incidents reported were livestock losses most of which occurred in the Kunene region, as did damage to boreholes and water installations. Crop damage was again more prevalent in Caprivi, although elephants also frequently destroy small vegetable gardens in some of the north-western conservancies. The design and implementation of innovative ways to deal with the increase in human-wildlife conflict is ongoing.

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