Integrated Community-Based Ecosystem Management (ICEMA) Ended 2011
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), through a grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is implementing the Integrated Community-based Ecosystem Management (ICEMA) project. This project aims to develop and enhance community-based ecosystem management for the benefit of rural people, biodiversity conservation and sustainable land-use.
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Background
The Integrated Community-Based Ecosystem Management (ICEMA) Project is designed to support activities within the larger framework of a national Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme.
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The CBNRM Programme in Namibia is based on a policy and a legal framework that grants rights over wildlife and tourism management to communities once they are organised as conservancies. Conservancies are multiple-use zones with legal status, registered with the authorities (Ministry of Environment and Tourism), where residents continue farming but collectively manage wildlife in order to benefit both from better natural resource management practice and from capturing tourism and natural resource revenues.
The Global Environmental Facility (GEF), through the World Bank (WB) as one of the Facility’s Implementing Agencies, has provided a grant of US$ 7,1 million to the Republic of Namibia. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) is the responsible executing agency for this six-year project and works closely with other CBNRM stakeholders. The grant supports the MET to enhance community-based ecosystem management for the benefit of rural people, biodiversity conservation and sustainable land- use through the ICEMA project.
The development objective of the ICEMA project is to promote the use of community-based integrated ecosystem management practices by the 16 targeted conservancies in support of the national CBNRM framework. The project’s global objective is to restore, secure and enhance key ecosystem processes in targeted conservancies with the aim to improve the conservation of globally important biodiversity and to reduce land degradation in the country as a whole.
Programmes
Project Components
GEF/WB provides incremental financing for the project's 4 inter-related components that together serve to consolidate, add value to and build on the previous achievements of the National CBNRM Programme. It foster the shift from traditional natural resource management (mainly wildlife) to an integrated ecosystem management approach in targeted conservancies, thereby enhancing globally significant biodiversity conservation and reducing land degradation, while at the same time providing increased socio-economic benefits to conservancy communities. ICEMA supports targeted conservancies on communal lands complying with ICEMA's defined strategic criteria. The project also provides institutional support to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), which is the governmental lead agency responsible for implementing the CBNRM Programme.
Project Partners
A range of stakeholders supports implementation. While MET remains responsible for the overall project implementation, the Ministry has outsourced the implementation of activities that fall outside its core expertise and function as well as to broaden its absorptive capacity.
Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET)
MET's current activities related to the National CBNRM Program include guidance and/or implementation support related to: resource inventories and the assessment of natural resource utilization and management options; resource and land-use mapping, resource management planning and monitoring, data analysis, reporting, research, economic analysis; the establishment, training and capacity building of CBNRM institutions; the drafting of community by-laws related to NRM; translocation of wildlife species; the management of problem animals; fire management; the establishment of NR based income-generating projects (e.g. wildlife, tourism, bee-keeping, wood carving), etc. The administrative responsibility for CBNRM's technical implementation is currently with MET's Directorate of Parks and Wildlife Management (DPWM), under which the CBNRM Sub-Division (CSD) and the Directorate of Scientific Services (DSS) reside. The Directorate of Tourism (DoT) is involved in community-based tourism, while the Directorate Environmental Affairs (DEA) provides policy support and the focal point for all GEF projects in Namibia.
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
NGOs support the development and implementation of conservancies and they enhance the quality and cost-effectiveness of the services provided by CBNRM support organizations. Furthermore, NGOs advocate for policy and legislative change, and assist in monitoring the effectiveness and impact of conservancy development. Eleven of the NGOs that support CBNRM development in Namibia have organized themselves into the Namibia Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO). 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.
Conservancies
By the end of 2008, a total of 53 communal conservancies had been formally established, and an additional 23 emerging conservancies are in the process of fulfilling the requirements for legal recognition. Together, the registered conservancies manage more than 12.2 million hectares of communal land. About 224,000 people live in these conservancies. As such, conservancies are an important beneficiary of ICEMA’s direct and indirect interventions.
Private sector
The private sector plays several roles in the CBNRM Programme, the most relevant being service provision for the execution of specific activities under component 1 and 2; the provision of training and information events for communal conservancies; support to the joint efforts to solve conservation issues such as problem animals and game translocation schemes; investors in community-based tourism schemes; etc.
Safeguard Documents
The World Bank has developed a number of Safeguard Operational Policies to ensure that potentially negative impacts are considered and mitigating measures are designed prior to the implementation of any proposed project. These policies ensure that the quality of operation is uniform across different settings worldwide. ICEMA has three Safeguards Documents:
1. Environmental and social assessment (ESA) - Volume 1
2. Indigenous people development plan (IPDP) - Volume 2
3. Resettlement policy framework (RPF) - Volume 3
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A full environmental and social assessment (ESA) was undertaken by local and international consultants as part of the project preparation process. It has been carried out in line with Namibia's National Environmental Assessment Policy, the Environmental Management Act and the applicable World Bank safeguard policies (OP 4.01, OD 4.20, OD 4.30, OPN 11.03 and OP 4.04). The ESA provides an analysis of all biophysical and social impacts associated with the implementation of the project and its activities.
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The main ESA report contains an assessment of each component: an analysis of the project environmental and social impacts, a mitigation plan with measures to limit negative impacts and a separate environmental and social management plan. The ESA methodology is based on the review of documentation, technical analysis and a detailed consultative process that included an audit of the National CBNRM Program with all concerned stakeholders. As the overall project aims to promote integrated ecosystem management and thereby restore, secure and enhance ecosystem processes, the ESA concluded that the ICEMA project is likely to be very beneficial to CBNRM in Namibia. Potentially negative impacts are expected to be minimal, and their effects can be moderated.
The ESA analysis has concluded that the activities of the ICEMA project do not require the displacement of populations. For the specific case of project interventions in conservancies with San populations, an Indigenous People Development Plan (IPDP) has been developed. The IPDP defines the project activities and mitigation measures that San consider to be advantageous in terms of social, economic, cultural and environmental development.
The revised and final ESA, IPDP and RPF have officially been reviewed and cleared by the Directorate of Environmental Affairs on January 26, 2004. The Project Office is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Bank's as well as the Namibian EA procedures. The different Directorates under the MET effectively manage implementation of the safeguard measures for those activities and sub-components where the respective Directorate is taking the lead on overall implementation. The Namibian EIA processes are already being applied, and only a modest need for training has been identified. Still, capacity building at national, regional and local (conservancy) level has been provided in order to comply with World Bank safeguard requirements and procedures. Only selected activities under Component 1 (Ecosystem-Based Income-Generating Activities) and 2 (Sustainable Ecosystem Management) may require formal EA processes, e.g. development of alternative income generating possibilities through small-scale business development including community-based tourism investments, ecosystem restoration, and rehabilitation measures including infrastructure and translocation of economically important wildlife species.
Environmental and Social Management Framework
The Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) has been developed as a practical tool that provides background to ICEMA and guidelines on how to develop sub-projects. The Framework consolidates all Safeguard Instruments relevant to the Project. It aims to inform Extension Staff (of MET and other line ministries) and Support Organisation staff (field-based NGOs) of the aims and objectives of ICEMA, the rationale for the Community Funding Facility (CFF) and the implementation of Safeguard Instruments during the planning and implementation of sub-projects. With the help of the ESMF, ICEMA will try to make the implementation of, and compliance with, Safeguard Instruments as smooth as possible.
