State of Conservancy book 2007

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

Preface

In a world dominated by stories of environmental calamities and growing poverty it is unusual to be able to report a success story. The Namibian Ministry of Environment & Tourism (MET), local communities and their partners in Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) produced the first edition of this publication in 2003, reporting on the progress of Namibia's communal area conservancies. Each year since then the information has been updated and presented either in a new edition or a small booklet. Each year the information has shown a very clear trend: increases in the number of conservancies, increases in wildlife, increases in income received by conservancies and increases in the number of jobs created.The information provided in this edition continues to demonstrate the success of CBNRM in Namibia. It documents how local communities are managing their natural resources through conservancies and community forests, how these resources are being conserved, but also how rural residents are benefiting from the sustainable use of these resources. At the same time it also confronts the major problems and challenges facing the CBNRM programme. It looks ahead and considers how CBNRM is moving into the future.

Success comes from the hard work and dedication of those working in CBNRM in Namibia and the efforts of the local communities themselves. It also comes from the sound principles on which CBNRM is based, the most important of which are:

• enabling local residents in communal areas to take management decisions themselves about the way they use their natural resources,
• making it possible for residents to derive income and other benefits from the use of these resources and,
• providing the opportunity for communities to manage their resources in an integrated way.

Providing rights and tenure over resources promotes investment and long-term thinking about how natural resources can continue to benefit people. Further, local people are more likely to engage in sound management if the benefits from managing resources exceed the costs.

CBNRM has been adopted as an important strategy for the Namibian Government to meet its sustainable development goals. As a result, CBNRM forms a major platform within the strategic planning of the MET, it is incorporated within the third National Development Plan (NDP3), and the number of registered conservancies is one of the indicators for measuring Namibia's Millennium Development Goal 7 "Ensuring Environmental Sustainability". This publication thus helps demonstrate how CBNRM is contributing to both conservation and development in Namibia.

The Ministry of Environment & Tourism would like to thank all its partners who have collaborated in developing and implementing the conservancy approach in Namibia. Non-government assistance is largely provided through the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO), a collaboration of 13 local NGOs, the University of Namibia and individual associate members. Investors from the tourism sector have become increasingly important partners over the last 10 years. In association with conservancies, they offer the bulk of jobs to conservancy members and facilitate significant returns of cash income to conservancies. A broad range of donors support the programme through the provision of technical expertise and funding. Since becoming a national programme, the main foreign contributors to CBNRM have been the founding donors of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Wide Fund for Nature (UK, International and USA).These early investments were followed by valuable funding from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA); United Kingdom Department for International Development (DfID); Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA); European Union; Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Global Environment Fund (GEF); World Bank; Fonds Français pour l'Environnement Mondial (FFEM); World Wide Fund for Nature (Netherlands), German Church Development Service (EED); Swiss Development Corporation; Humanistisch Instituut Voor Ontwikkkelingssamenwerking (HIVOS); Canada Fund; Comic Relief; UK Lottery Fund; British High Commission; Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD); Austrian Government, Royal Norwegian Embassy and Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA).

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