The Namibia Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management(CBNRM) Support Organizations (NACSO) is an association of 12 CBNRM service organizations (11 NGOs, and the University of Namibia). The purpose of NACSO is to provide quality services to communal area communities who seek to manage and utilize their natural resources in an equitable and sustainable manner. The under-pinning philosophy of forming NACSO is to harness the wide range of skills available in the government, NGO, and University sector into a synergetic nation-wide supportive CBNRM movement. This philosophy is premised upon the fact that no single institution houses all of the skills, resources and capacity to provide community organizations with the multi-faceted assistance (community organization, committee formation, financial management, business advise, natural resource management/monitoring, etc.) required to fully develop the broad range of CBNRM initiatives taking place in Namibia. The philosophy is also in line with His Excelency President Nujoma’s programme of smart partnerships.
The NACSO concept was originally conceived in 1996 under the title of Communal Area Resource Management Support (CARMS). However, it was not until August 1998, when a meeting of CBNRM support organizations was convened at Midgard Lodge outside Windhoek, that CBNRM partners began seriously developing the NACSO concept. In September 1999 the CBNRM partners approved the constitution for the CBNRM Association of Namibia (CAN), and the CBNRM Association gained legal status. However, in February 2001 CAN was required to change its name to NACSO because the Cancer Association of Namibia, also with the acronym of CAN, justifiably complained that two organizations in Namibia should not be operating under the same name.
The creation of NACSO has been an outgrowth of the dynamic policy and legislative environment the MET has put in place since independence. The following Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) policies and legislation have been instrumental to the introduction and development of the Communal Area Conservancy Programme:
MET Policy Document – Wildlife Management, Utilisation and Tourism in Communal Areas (June 1995);
MET Policy Document – Community-Based Tourism Development (June 1995); and
Amendment No. 5 of 1996: Nature Conservation Amendment Act, 1996; and
Government Notice No. 304 of 1996 – MET Amendment of Regulations Relating to Nature Conservation
These policies and accompanying legislation have commenced a
nation-wide conservation and development movement that is now involving
+-95,000 residents in registered conservancies on over 71,000
km2 of communal land and +- 100,000 other communal
area residents into a combine conservation/development programme. While government has
passed many new policies and legislation since independence, few if any, have
had the marked impact this MET programme is having.