State of Conservancy book 2007

Namibia's communal conservancies: a review of progress and challenges in 2007

Chapter 5: Challenges and Vision for the future

The short history of Community-based Natural Resource Management in Namibia has travelled a fruitful road. From an embryonic community game guard programme introduced in the mid-1980s, conservancies have evolved into a nationwide movement. Remarkable achievements in economic growth, local management and enhanced conservation of natural resources have been made since the first four conservancies were registered 10 years back. The landscape of communal areas and mindset towards wildlife has been altered. Once largely valued as poached meat in the pot, wildlife is now seen as a community asset, so much so that the management of this valuable resource is being integrated into the livelihood strategies of conservancy residents. Conservancies are proactively zoning their lands to promote compatible uses of wildlife with livestock and agricultural resources.

As a result, wildlife populations are recovering at an unprecedented rate, in the process attracting more tourists, more hunting clients, and more business investments. The growing number of wildlife and tourism related enterprises are producing escalating revenues to CBNRM participants. CBNRM activities generated a total of N$138.3 million in direct benefits to community members since 1998. As a measure of this rapid growth, some 28% of these benefits (N$39.1 million) were derived in 2007 alone.

All this growth is expected to continue. In the next decade communal conservancies will conceivably expand to cover more than 20% of Namibia's landmass and encompass close to one-sixth of its population. Economists believe it possible for conservancies and community participants to reap N$200 million per year.

These projections are inspiring, but the conservancy program must address several issues to guarantee sustainability and realize this potential. In broad categories, the challenges to be confronted in the future are those requiring greater measures of input or support, improved management, and enhanced incentives.

Support

The rapid growth of conservancies has far out-stripped the ability of support organizations (NGOs and government) to meet demands for training, planning assistance, and catalytic funding. In short, the optimization of the programme's potential cannot be achieved without the provision of developmental services for institutional, business and enterprise development, and skills for natural resource management and monitoring. Although conservancies are expected to reach a stage where they manage their own affairs with minimum external assistance, there will still be a need in the future for some form of permanent support, much like the extension services provided in the agricultural sector. It will also take time for conservancies to develop sufficient organizational capacity to manage the full portfolio of enterprises that many of them have the potential to develop. Similarly, there is a need to develop more cost-effective means of providing services.

There is also a need to increase the capacity of support organizations because these have not grown at the pace of conservancy expansion. This will require the acquisition of additional skilled staff members, more funding and resources, and greater engagement of private sector interests in the business-related activities of conservancies.

Although considerable incomes have been earned and some conservancies are financially self-supporting, there remains a need for sustainable finance strategies for the long-term financing of critical services to conservancies. This is required to support emerging conservancies in the early stages of their development, and to provide core funding for the coordination of the overall programme. A range of funding mechanisms are now being considered, including: establishment of a National CBNRM Conservation Trust Fund; increased payments for ecosystem services (for example, sustainable wildlife use, tourism, voluntary carbon trade); cost-recovery from conservancies for services; increased direct funding support from government; and investments in business enterprises to generate recurrent funding support to the programme.

Improved Management

Substantial progress has been made in introducing and developing effective systems of conservancy management. These efforts need to be continued with special focus on five aspects.The first is for conservancies to achieve greater financial accountability and prudence in managing their finances and assets effectively on behalf of conservancy members. And the members themselves must have mechanisms to ensure that this happens. While accountable governance systems have been developed (see Chapter 3), time is also required for them to evolve into robust, resilient systems.

A second is that many conservancies are increasingly required to broaden their interests to become involved in the co-management of larger landscapes together with other conservancies, parks, the private sector, regional councils and even neighbouring countries. Much of this stems from the recognition that the larger the landscape being managed for sustainable natural resource use, the greater the conservation impact and the greater the benefits for all concerned.

Thirdly, while the tourism and hunting industries have benefited from the resounding recovery of wildlife populations in conservancies, there has been a sharp rise in conflicts between humans and wildlife. Some methods to manage and mitigate the effects of conflict have been developed, but greater effort will be needed to find innovative ways to reduce the costs of conflicts and increase community tolerance to conflict.

Fourthly, many conservancies have been zoned to optimize the uses of different areas and to minimize clashes between competing land uses. However, in some cases it has been difficult for conservancies to keep non-consumptive tourists and hunting activities separate.There have also been conflicts between different types of hunting. In some localized areas, the increase in tourism facilities and activities also needs to be managed to maintain an appropriate product. More attention is therefore required to find ways in which differing and diverging activities can be managed most effectively so that conservancies can maintain a diversity of income generating enterprises.

Finally, it remains a major challenge to develop more integrated approaches to natural resource management at community level.There are some encouraging signs.There is increased cooperation between conservancies and community forests, some conservancies and community forests are combining and some conservancies are being used as vehicles to develop holistic rangeland management systems. However, there is still a need for the development of a national CBNRM platform and policy that brings together the various sectors which are implementing community-based approaches.

Benefits and Incentives

The huge efforts made to support and develop conservancies have produced considerable dividends, so much so that the economic benefits of conservancies now far exceed the amounts of funding they received from donors (Figure 24). However, it remains a challenge to ensure that even more benefits go to yet more people.The future will depend less on the supply of development aid and capacity than on the strength and permanence of incentives for people to use the land and its resources sustainably.What steps can be taken to generate more benefits and incentives?

There is a need to diversify enterprises by seeking new markets and ways of using resources offered by conservancies. This requires innovation, research and development, especially with respect to indigenous plants and rangelands. New collaborative ventures with the private sector and adjoining areas belonging to other conservancies and protected areas should be explored.

While many conservancies have the potential for more enterprises and benefits, they often lack the capacity to take on additional contracts with the private sector or to assume management responsibility themselves. Consideration is thus needed on how conservancies can gear up their management to manage a wide portfolio of businesses. Possibilities include hiring a highly experienced business manager and forming a separate business arm of the conservancy.

Incomes have rightfully been used to cover the operating costs and expenses of conservancies. In some instances, however, operating costs have needlessly continued to escalate, leaving inadequate funds to benefit members.With better business planning, financial management systems and accountability, greater percentages of revenues should flow to members as direct household benefits or projects to the advantage of most members.

In addition to generating substantial amounts of recurrent revenue, the conservancy programme has added substantial value to communal land. Ways now need to be found for that value to be capitalized, and for the capital values to be shared amongst conservancy members. Simple estimates show that the availability of capital could make a great difference to the potential wealth and options of members. Much would be done to reduce poverty, and capital values would provide enduring incentives for members to invest in and further improve the value of their land. Other benefits would be obtained from tenure changes associated with giving capital value to communal land.

A Vision and Conclusion for the Future

Conservancies are widely recognized as having successfully bridged the link between conservation and enhancing rural livelihoods. The devolution of rights over wildlife has empowered communities, and created jobs, other incomes and private-sector partnerships. Wildlife populations have grown, and the programme has been economically viable. These achievements have placed Namibia at the forefront of global conservation success.

Over the next 10 years most conservancies are expected to have gained financial independence, be institutionally stable, and have robust procedures for their administration and financial management. There should be greater integration of resource management through conservancies and community forests, which will increasingly be involved in larger landscape conservation initiatives. These will link protected areas, surrounding land units and local economies, as well as play important roles in transfrontier conservation. In addition to their importance for biodiversity conservation, conservancies and community forests should contribute significantly to mitigating the effects of climate change. The management of grasslands, woodlands and forests will enhance carbon storage in soils and vegetation, and conservancies will counter habitat fragmentation by providing biological corridors and refuges between protected areas.

The expectations are high. But the programme is still in its infancy, and the challenges described here must be addressed for conservancies to reach their fuller potential. The conservancy programme will then be on a new road, one that leads to the sustainable conservation of large landscapes by communities who lead decent lives.

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