Transcript Conservancies and CBNRM in Namibia

Community-based Natural Resource
Management (CBNRM) in Namibia –
the Conservancy programme
Background
Prior to 1996, rural communities on communal land in Namibia had no rights
over wildlife:
•
•
•
•
All wildlife was State property and was generally poorly managed
Local communities often suffered extensive losses as a result of wildlife
Hunting and poaching was rife and wildlife populations were declining
In contrast, commercial farmers have been entitled to utilise wildlife on their land
and, thereby, benefit from it since 1975.
In 1996, the Government of the Republic of Namibia introduced legislation to
grant legal rights to rural communities over the management and utilisation
of their natural resources, giving communal area residents the same rights
over wildlife and tourism as freehold farmers
This resulted in the development of Namibia’s
Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Programme
CBNRM in Namibia
The CBNRM Programme is a joint venture between government, non-governmental
institutions, communities, community-based organisations, the private sector and
development partners which aims to:

promote wise and sustainable use of natural resources and encourage biodiversity
conservation

devolve rights over and responsibilities for wildlife and tourism to rural
communities, creating enterprise and income generation opportunities

encourage and assist communities to acquire skills to manage their area sustainably
and actively pilot their own future
These objectives are achieved through the formation of Conservancies…
“Conservancies empower local people to make their own decisions about their own resources,
while enabling them to benefit from these resources. Conservancies should be seen as creating
an institutional infrastructure in helping to diversify rural economies. Through the conservancy
system, my government has created an environment and an opportunity for natural resource
based industries to develop”
Dr Sam Nujoma, President of the Republic of Namibia
Rights of conservancies
A registered conservancy, on behalf of the community it represents,
acquires new rights and responsibilities with regard to the
consumptive and non-consumptive use and management of wildlife:
Consumptive uses include: use of game for trophy hunting, consumption,
commercial sale for meat or capture for live sale
Non-consumptive uses include: tourism ventures such as community-based
tourism enterprises and joint venture agreements with private sector
entrepreneurs
But first… the conservancy must be registered and gazetted.
Legal requirements of conservancies:
1.
Mapping of conservancy boundaries – clearly defined boundaries that
are not in dispute with neighbouring communities
2.
A committee – which is representative of conservancy members, to make
decisions and facilitate communication to members, neighbours, partners,
donors and investors
3.
Development of a constitution – approved by members, including
approaches on benefit sharing, employment of staff (to effect Natural
Resource Management)
4.
Management plans – including land-use planning – requires the acquisition
of base information
5.
Monitoring and management – to facilitate adaptive management
Mapping of conservancy boundaries
Boundaries are a legal requirement for registration:
Each conservancy must have a defined boundary that has been agreed by its neighbours
Committee and constitution
Legislation requires:
A constitution that addresses sustainable use of resources and benefit sharing.
A committee representative of conservancy members.
Through the committee the community decides, for example:
 How to manage and distribute conservancy-generated income in a democratic and
equitable manner
 How to use their wildlife resources (e.g. trophy hunting, live sale, meat)
 How the management body should be structured
 Exactly how to manage different resources in the conservancy
 How representation and decision-making should be achieved
Management plans
Management plans are required to manage at least three
things:
•
the conservancy as an institution, with its membership,
committee, staff, equipment, money, benefit sharing as well as
communications between everyone
•
the natural resources such as wildlife, water, and rangelands.
Including, for example, quota setting, game water points, game
introductions, problem animal management
•
the enterprises that result from the use of natural resources, such
as tourism, trophy hunting and sales of craft.
Land-use planning
Competing land use activities take place within conservancies (for example, farming,
wildlife, settlement, mining). Consequently, land-use planning is a key need.
Appropriate tools are also needed to communicate the plans to residents, government and
investors.
Lodge sites for
development
Development of land use
plans and zonation maps
through participatory
mapping.
One of the most basic requirements for managing
the wildlife in the region is a tool that will tell
conservancies:
1. how many animals there are
2. where they are and how they move around the region
3. population trends of the various species over time
Springbok
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
2000
Year 1
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Year 10
Example: annual game counts
To determine wildlife numbers, trends and distributions…
Planning
Undertaking
Reporting
N/W
Namibia
5 million ha
Gemsbok
Distribution
Springbok Population
?
Count zones
Route maps
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
?
2004
?
2005
?
2006
?
2007
?
2008
Monitoring also includes, for example, monitoring incidents of
poaching, problem animals, trophy hunting, fishing
Date
Species
Grid Cell
East South
Notes
Eventually a map showing where each
incident occurred
Use 2kmX2km Grid (hand drawn or GIS)
MONTHS
Where are conservancies in Namibia?
 Around 78,000 km2,
representing 9 % of
Namibia, now falls within
communal area
conservancies
 Over 95,000 rural people
live within conservancies;
around 40% of them are
conservancy members
 A further 14 % of Namibia
is protected under the
state Protected Areas
network, and 5 % is
within conservancies on
freehold land
Indicators & monitoring
•
Conservancy-level monitoring can indicate
trends over time, and also over larger
areas – local, national and regional
•
Several approaches are in place e.g.
North-West game count, event book
(annual audit)
Monitoring examples
Tsiseb. Number of snares and traps
Problem animal damage. Caprivi
25
2000
1800
20
1600
1400
Other damage
1200
15
Livestock attack
1000
Human attack
800
10
Crop damage
600
5
400
200
0
2001
0
2001
2002
2002
2003
2003
Animals hunted for meat. Khoadi Hoas
90
Torra. Number of poaching incidents
80
5
70
60
4
Zebra, Mountain
50
Springbok
3
40
Kudu
2
30
Gemsbok
20
1
10
0
0
2001
2002
2003
2001
2002
2003
Wildlife numbers in the north-west of Namibia
Elephant
160000
Mountain Zebra
140000
Oryx
Wildlife numbers
120000
Springbok
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
1982
1986
1990
1998
Years
2001
2002
2003
Problem animal damage
Changes in Springbok
densities in the North-West
between 2000 and 2004
Changes between
2003 and 2004
Institutional aspects
Annual audits record, for every
conservancy each year, progress in
many areas:
Base maps
These can be compiled to
provide a national overview:
Committees Representing Diverse
Communities
>60 Communities mobilized into
representative governance bodies
Advocacy on Conservation
Policies/Legislation
Community meeting
Understanding and facilitating CBNRM
training for MET wardens & rangers from all
regions.
…”What our people want is to be
involved in the decision-making
process and to actively participate
in decisions, which will ultimately
affect them. They then will take
ownership of these decisions and
ensure that they are successfully
implemented.” (extract from the
Statement by his Excellency
President Sam Nujoma on Sept.
26th, 1998)
Gabes Geigub, MET warden based in
Windhoek at the understanding & facilitating
CBNRM training at Harmony Centre.
Conservancy quarterly planning workshop.
* Conservancy Association(s)
Community Camp Sites
•Develop a central Reservation office
•Develop ‘tourism routes’
•Standardize sites
•Quality control
Joint-Venture Lodges
• Joint-Venture Agreements
• Identifying new locations
Marketing & Harvesting of Veldt Products
& Craft production
Reintroduction & Marketing of Game
• Create the right environment
• Build and maintain releasing facilities
• Have wildlife monitoring systems in place
Marketing of Trophy Hunting
•Wildlife Management Plan
•Quota Application & Approval
•Hunting Concession Approval
•Trophy Quality Monitoring
Conservancy incomes
Incomes have risen from nothing in 1994 to over N$14 million in 2003.
The graph divides the income into three categories: cash payments to conservancies, non-cash or in-kind
incomes to conservancies, and incomes to CBNRM activities outside conservancies. Information prior to
1998 did not allow for income to be divided into these three categories.
Sources of income during 2003
Value in NS
Percentage
of all income
Miscellaneous
$118,000
1%
Interest earned
$181,353
2%
Use of own game
$196,834
2%
Game sales
$211,749
3%
Craft sales
$374,278
4%
Campsite fees
$416,568
5%
Meat distribution
$470,014
6%
Trophy hunting
$2,529,436
30%
Joint venture tourism
$3,901,627
46%
TOTAL
$8,399,859
100%
Source of income
All incomes are as cash except those listed as ‘Use of own game’ and ‘Meat distribution’.
Incomes earned by
conservancies from joint
venture tourism and trophy
hunting, respectively,
increased about nine- and fivefold between 1999 and 2003.
Incomes vary greatly between conservancies, both in terms of how much they earn and the sources of
revenue. The histograms show how incomes have changed over the years in each area, while the pie
diagrams show the different sources of income for each conservancy during 2003. Information is shown for
a sample of conservancies
About N$6,353,000 of funds earned by
conservancies was spent in 2003.
Proportions of this money allocated to
different categories of spending in all
conservancies are shown in the pie
diagram, while the histograms show
patterns of spending for a sample of
conservancies. Private sector and
conservancy jobs are pooled in the
histograms.
Estimates of economic benefits resulting from the CBNRM programme between 1990 and 2003,
shown by the columns of annual values of net national income (NNI) and increasing wildlife stocks in
north-west Namibia. The shaded area is the value of investment or spending each year on CBNRM.
All values are adjusted for inflation and changing foreign exchange rates to be equivalent to the value
of Namibia dollars (N$) in 2003.
Conclusions
CBNRM and conservancies are an ideal mechanism to promote rural
development because they:
• bring new and potentially large sources of income to poor rural people
• are excellent entry points for all forms of rural development because of
the institutional mechanisms already in place
• are excellent entry points for integrated land and natural resource
management initiatives
• promote good governance and democracy at local levels
• offer entry points for capacity-building, empowerment and skills
transfer
• deliver real OUTCOMES to local and national development objectives.