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Wild Africa in Southern Africa
By John J. Jackson, III and L. Chris Weaver
The communal conservancies in northwestern Namibia may be the largest conservation-related hunting development in the world. It is the largest conservancy approach to communal-based natural resource management, CBNRM. Though primarily in northwestern Namibia, some of those conservancies are located throughout the country. Eventually there will be more than 80 communal conservancies that are expected to encompass more than 40 million acres of land. Forty-two percent (42%) of the current conservancies are new tourist hunting destinations (21 of 50). The growth in the number and character of the conservancies is one more reason that Namibia is becoming one of the foremost hunting destinations in the world.
The nature and quality of the communal conservancies is even more striking. These new hunting destinations are enormous in size, pristine, wild and amazingly beautiful. Many of the areas are untamed and largely uninhabited. Traditional village life still predominates in those areas that are inhabited. There is a diversity of habitat as well as hunting opportunities as the communal conservancies range from rugged, arid mountain landscapes to savannah grasslands to woodlands and flood plains. Much of it is truly remote. Some, like the Kaokoveld, used to be “forbidden land” completely closed to outsiders for more than half a century. Some of the other million-plus acre conservancies have only a few hundred people.
Conservancies are legally recognized (registered and gazetted), geographically defined areas that have been voluntarily formed by communities by joining together to manage and thus benefit from wildlife and other natural resources. The conservancy program in Namibia arises from unique national legislation that gives communities the right to benefit from natural resource utilization if they form a conservancy. The legislation created a program that sets Namibia apart as the leader in this form of conservation. Forming a conservancy entails electing a representative conservancy committee, defining membership, defining and approving the conservancy’s boundaries, adopting a constitution, and developing and implementing a wildlife management plan and equitable benefits distribution plan (the Natural Conservation Act of 1996). The local communities are not just beneficiaries, they are participants in the process which in itself gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility. Those that form conservancies are granted use rights over wildlife comparable to governed ownership. A registered conservancy has many of the same rights to manage wildlife as commercial farmers and private conservancies. The intent and result is the very essence of empowerment.
The first four conservancies were legally recognized in 1998. By 2004 there were 31. Today there are 50 and roughly 30 more are expected within the next two years. Today’s tally of 50 conservancies covers 11.8 million hectares and encompasses 230,000 people, which is the equivalent of 14.42 percent of the land surface and 12.21 percent of the Namibian population. One out of every eight of Namibia’s 1.9 million people reside in the existing and planned communal conservancies. The country is twice the size of Texas, but has less than 2 million people. Communities have seized and embraced these legislatively authorized opportunities and rights with amazing speed resulting in a national communal conservancy movement of unprecedented scale. By 2007, a total of 22 community-run trophy hunting concessions were operating across 28 of the conservancies.
Twenty-eight different game species are available in the communal conservancies. That includes species that are available on license in Namibia alone, such as the springbok, cheetah, black-faced impala, and soon, the black rhino (along with those in RSA). Cheetah, black-faced impala and black rhino are not currently importable into the United States, but Conservation Force in partnership with the Namibian Professional Hunters Association and others has Initiatives to establish the importation of each of those game species. Though not yet importable, those same species are being reintroduced in the conservancies and are importable to other countries. Other species include lion, leopard, elephant, cape buffalo, crocodile, hippo, giraffe, kudu, eland, oryx, common impala, dik dik, mountain zebra, plains zebra, red hartebeest, blue wildebeest, hyena, jackal, bush pig, baboon, roan, sable, duiker, klipspringer, warthog and ostrich.
The hunting quotas are being very carefully monitored by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). Where game populations are lacking, MET is assisting conservancies to reintroduce appropriate indigenous game and only indigenous game in the vast untamed land. This has been complemented by large donations of surplus game from private ranches and game farms in Namibia.
The communal conservancy program is an incentive-based conservation effort that inherently promotes wildlife production. People have little incentive to conserve government property, so they often overuse, open-access property, which is called “the tragedy of the commons.” The conservancy approach of Namibia devolving property rights is proving effective against that “tragedy”. The rapid acquisition of wildlife benefits has created strong and increasing awareness in the conservancy members of the value of wildlife, precipitating widespread changes in community attitudes towards wildlife. Previously largely valued as illegally obtained meat for the pot and viewed as competition with livelihoods, wildlife is now regarded as a highly-valued asset. As a result, poaching in communal conservancies is less socially acceptable and has declined markedly. In contrast, conservancies have developed wildlife-friendly land-use plans, introduced wildlife management and monitoring systems, and integrated wildlife as part of their long-term livelihood strategies.
The conservancies boost wildlife numbers in three main ways:
(1) By expanding areas under conservation management
(2) By managing and protecting wildlife populations
(3) By reintroduction from both private and public donors
Once introduced, game breeds between 10 and 25 percent per annum.
The response has been impressive, with wildlife numbers expanding and rebounding across the country, old wildlife migration routes being revitalized, and upward spiraling benefits accruing to increasing numbers of participating conservancies. For example, the cheetah observations (live sightings, spoor and animal conflict) from survey information have increased 13 fold in the past five years. Cheetah observations in the Kunene Communal Conservancies increased from 31 in 2002 to 241 in 2003, 359 in 2004 and 604 in 2005. Leopard observations in that region went from 73 in 2002 to 127 in 2003, 190 in 2004 and 381 in 2005. Hyena increased from 51 in 2002 to 565 in 2005, while the lion population in this area has increased from an estimated 35 in 1995 to more than 150 in 2006. Northwest Namibia also boasts the world’s largest free-roaming population of black rhino while game in conservancies such as the Nyae Nyae Conservancy had increased six fold from 1994 to 2005.
The development of communal hunting concessions and other assorted sustainable use options is being facilitated by a number of best practice mechanisms that empower local communities, promote good governance of hunting operations, ensure sustainable harvests, and optimize economic returns. Some of the fundamental tools include the introduction of conservancy wildlife management and monitoring systems, development and application of quota setting procedures, marketing of hunting concessions through transparent and competitive tender processes, institution of “win-win” hunting concession contracts, application of human/animal conflict mitigation mechanisms, and routine data collection and analysis of databases to promote adaptive management.
Though Dallas Safari Club and Conservation Force help support the Program, the primary support and technical assistance outside of MET comes from WWF’s LIFE Plus project. WWF’s LIFE Plus project has been funded by 34 million dollars in USAID and other donors from around the world. The project is in its 13th year. It began as “LIFE”, which means “Living in a finite environment.” At its second point of USAID funding it was designated “LIFE Two”. In its present, third stage of funding, the project is called “LIFE Plus”. The program stands as a model for poverty alleviation and natural resource conservation. Its success makes this hunter-friendly country even more exciting and inviting.
John J. Jackson is the chairman of Conservation Force, President of the Sustainable Use Commission of CIC and a wildlife attorney.
L. Chris Weaver is employed by WWF in Namibia as head of its LIFE Plus Project.