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Serving the people
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What is CBNRM? The acronym continues to be a stumbling block for most people not directly involved in ‘community-based natural resource management’ – or CBNRM. And yet, Namibia is receiving international attention as a world leader in CBNRM practices, due to the remarkable results being achieved. Two weeks ago, Honourable Members of Parliament Maureen Jannkowski, Ben Amathila and Professor Peter Katjavivi took on long roads and long hours of meetings to find out what the fuss is all about.
Communal conservancies are at the heart of the Namibian community-based natural resource management programme. Conservancies are clearly defined tracts of land, registered with government, where local communities manage their natural resources through a democratically elected committee and approved management plan. There are currently 59 registered communal conservancies across Namibia, covering over 16% of the country, embracing over 12% of the population and producing significant community benefits and conservation results. The CBNRM programme generated close to N$ 42 million in benefits to local communities in 2008 and wildlife numbers in conservancies have shown remarkable increases, including rare species and top-of-the-food-chain predators.
Yet, even within government, many have little knowledge or understanding of the programme and its achievements. As with so many things in our information-driven world, much hinges on communication and awareness creation. We need to spread the news. The recent field trip by the Parliamentary delegation should contribute towards raising awareness of the programme within government and may facilitate the removal of some current barriers and challenges.
For the past three years, the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) has hosted members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources and Public Administration on field trips to visit conservancies in different parts of the country. The trips are organised at the request of the Committee, which has a new membership after the national elections of last year.
Dr Chris Brown of the Namibia Nature Foundation gave a presentation to the Committee ahead of the trip, putting the CBNRM programme within national development and conservation perspectives and touching on critical global issues such as climate change. It was this presentation that sparked real interest and lured the Parliamentarians out of their busy schedules to go into the field and see for themselves whether the claims are true – that the programme is making a noteworthy difference to the lives of rural people while at the same time benefiting biodiversity, and that it has the potential to significantly mitigate the effects of climate change.
The trip was very much about increasing awareness and creating an understanding of key issues – for both government and the conservancies. The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Ben Amathila, placed great emphasis on explaining the role of the Committee within the larger workings of government. Simply put, the Committee has an oversight function over a good number of ministries, including the 'line Ministries' of conservancies. If communities have issues that are not being addressed by the responsible Ministries, the Standing Committee can take these up and ensure that they receive due attention. Quoting from the Constitution of Namibia, Hon Amathila emphasised that government is there to serve the people of Namibia.
As Hon. Prof. Katjavivi pointed out, conservancies are also there to serve the people. Conservancies are community-based organisations with the responsibility of managing natural resources for the benefit of the people. Good conservancy management should result in livelihood diversification and a variety of direct and indirect benefits to community members. Currently, joint-venture tourism and trophy hunting are the sectors generating most of the benefits. A true pioneer in joint-venture tourism in Namibia, Wilderness Safaris, hosted the group at some of their lodges in the North-West and provided vital logistic support.
On the five-day whirlwind trip, the group met with representatives of the Tsiseb, Doro !nawas, Uibasen-Twyfelfontein, Torra, Anabeb, Sesfontein, Uukolonkadhi-Ruacana, Uukwaluudhi, Sheya Shuushona, King Nehale and Okongo Conservancies. Conservancies reported on their achievements – but they also had issues to discuss.
Human-wildlife conflict is one of the most prevalent, with elephants at the forefront of the issue, in both north-western and north-central conservancies. In the North-West, the delegation visited De Riet settlement along the banks of the Huab River in the Torra Conservancy. Elephants come here for one reason: to find water in this dry environment. By providing a secure source of water to the pachyderms with the assistance of Wilderness Safaris, the community attempts to minimise conflicts. Clearly, human-wildlife conflict tends to be competition for two resources, namely water and food. Reducing this competition through effective zoning and the strategic provision of water is likely to reduce conflicts.
Another important strategy is to increase the benefits derived from natural resources and most especially wildlife, in order to off-set some of the costs of living with that wildlife. A key factor inhibiting current development in conservancies and communal areas in general is land tenure and related security of investment. If conservancies were able to provide more security to potential investors within the tourism industry through increased leasehold rights, the Communal Conservancy Tourism Sector would experience rapid growth – and conservancies would reap many of the rewards.
Another key issue raised is the lack of coordination between different ministries, which at times inhibits conservancy development and can threaten achievements. While conservancies are frustrated by conflicting policies and activities, Hon Amathila pointed out that all ministries are trying to serve the people. The answer to many of the issues raised is better communication and coordination amongst the ministries – as well as between government, conservancies and other stakeholders.
The trip highlighted that there is a lot going on within the CBNRM programme. While at Palmwag, the Parliamentarians were briefed about the historic translocation of endangered black rhino from the Palmwag Tourism Concession to conservancies in the far North-West – a real boost to the tourism product of the area. The translocation was carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism as part of their ongoing rhino management programme and was partly funded by the Millennium Challenge Account Namibia.
The Parliamentarians were most impressed by the fact that the CBNRM programme is a real team effort by communities, government, NGOs and the private sector. With the ongoing and coordinated support of all stakeholders, conservancies can continue to flourish and build on current successes – thereby serving the people, including some of the neediest rural communities in Namibia.
CPP Sustainable Development Index – Pilot Study
The Country Pilot Partnership for Integrated Sustainable Land Management (CPP/ISLM) is a cross-governmental programme aimed at identifying cost-effective, innovative and appropriate SLM methods which integrate environmental and economic objectives. As part of that programme, a reliable and sustainable monitoring tool needs to be in place to assess the local level impacts that the various activities have had on household livelihoods.
Typically, local level monitoring of donor-funded projects focuses on specific themes based on the goals of the individual programme. However, this approach may not gauge the full impacts of funding, some of which may only become apparent after the programme has finished. As an attempt to measure the impacts of the CPP ISM programme holistically, a measuring tool called the Sustainable Development Index (SDI) has been developed. The SDI combines information on incomes, assets, physical environment, capacities and other socio-economic aspects, gathered primarily at local level through household surveying.
The SDI promises to be an innovative and unique local level monitoring tool, with potential applications beyond the CPP programme into measuring the impact of donor funding on local communities more widely.
As part of the process of developing the SDI measurement, pilot studies in four CPP pilot sites were recently carried out by the NNF and its partners in the Kavango and North Central regions. A pilot questionnaire was administered in 400 households by local interviewers in the Kwangali and Oshiwambo languages. This pilot stage is crucial to the set-up of the measurement, helping to establish which information to gather and how, in a way that is sufficiently cost-effective so as not to preclude the sustainability of the measurement into the future.
Once the questionnaire has been fine-tuned
based on the findings of the pilot survey and initial analysis, the SDI measurement will be rolled out to other regions and CPP pilot sites, with the ultimate aim of an annual survey in each site. Given that the SDI provides a snapshot of
developmental status at one time period, it is only through measuring the SDI at a local level at
different time periods that the assessment of the
impact of the CPP-ISLM programme will be
achievable.
Source: NNF July 2010 newsletter
How poachers became caretakers: TED talk by John Kasaona
John Kasaona of IRDNC is working on an innovative way to protect endangered animal species: giving nearby villagers (including former poachers) responsibility for caring for the animals. And it's working.
Use the link below to view the talk on "Wildlife and Communities: Back from the Brink", presented by John Kasaona of IRDNC at Longbeach, California in February.
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