Conservancies
Namibia has gained a worldwide reputation for its innovative approaches of linking conservation to poverty alleviation through its communal area conservancy program and pro-poor tourism initiatives. This reputation has been founded through dynamic policy adjustments that have devolved rights of wildlife and tourism to many of Namibia’s most marginalized and poorest communities, providing communities with unprecedented incentives to manage and conserve their areas and wildlife, which have resulted in mass recoveries of wildlife populations outside national parks and reduced poaching throughout Namibia.
The conservation success in communal lands has also unlocked enormous tourism development opportunities. These are poised to provide substantial employment and livelihood benefits to rural communities.
Namibia’s CBNRM Programme has been successful in terms of conservation, and in contributing to the economy and to rural development, including such successes as:
· Extending the protected areas to include a massive 19% of the country over 130,000 square kilometers
· 59 registered conservancies with over 230,000 members
· 30 new conservancies in development
· Economic benefits to communities have increased from less than N$600,000 in 1998 to N$41.9 million (US$ 5.7 million) in 2008, with primary growth coming from the tourism industry
· 29 formal joint-venture lodges and campsite partnerships within the Communal Conservancy Tourism Sector and a further 15 in development
· Joint ventures conservancies represent 856 beds, 789 full-time jobs and over 250 seasonal positions.
· The private sector has invested more than N$ 145 million (US$ 19 million) in tourism in communal conservancies since 1998.
To learn more about Namibia’s communal conservancies, click on www.nacso.org.na
The following map indicates the locations of Namibia’s registered conservancies:
