State of conservancies worrisome

The permanent secretary in the ministry of environment and tourism, Dr Malan Lindeque says he is concerned about the state of conservancies and the fact that they are not earning money.

While there are now 83 conservancies in Namibia representing 189 230 people, the poor state of some conservancies in the country is still a cause for grave concern with governance posing the biggest challenge.

Lindeque said the conservancy programme was created to restore people's rights over animals and it later became more focused on development.

“This is why some conservancies are not performing well. It was a means for people to acquire rights over wildlife and at least they have rights over the animals.”

He added that Namibia's wildlife population has increased significantly.

“We have seen increases while other countries in Africa are facing a decline.”

Lindeque however said during the economic downturn, tourism was the only sector that expanded, but this was not the case for conservancies.

“Investors do not want to invest in conservancies and communal areas and this needs to be addressed,” Lindeque added.

According to Richard Diggle from WWF Namibia, the total returns for conservancies and members for 2016 was N$111.2 million and of this amount, N$87.5 million was for community benefits.

In total, 5 147 people are employed through conservancies of which 2 065 are full-time employees.

He said in 2016, conservancies harvested over 520 000kg of game meat equalling 1 425 kg per day. The off-the-bone value of the venison harvested was over N$10.4 million.

According to Diggle, more decision-making powers need to be taken down to the members in conservancies and away from individuals.

“Why should money that is being generated be locked up by a committee and not be taken to the villagers?” he asked.

He said the conservancy programme is currently a committee-based resource programme and needs to be moved back to the control of the conservancy members.

“There are people who are being paid N$2 000 to N$3 000 for a job that CEOs of companies would struggle to do. They have a lack of resources and backing and we don't give enough recognition to these people when they don't meet our expectations.”

Diggle added that Namibia has been a forerunner with its conservancy programme.

“Nowhere else has governments provided the same rights to communities and ownership rights to communities over resources.”

Diggle also said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get sustainable funding for the conservancy programme because of Namibia's classification as a middle-income country.

Meanwhile, the director of the support organisation to the conservancy programme, NACSO, Maxi Louis, said that governance in conservancies remains one of the biggest challenges, but it takes time to be implemented properly.

She said conservancies were not all formed at the same time and those conservancies that are located in regions such as Zambezi and Kavango where tourism flourishes, perform better.

“We are challenged and we do acknowledge that there are some conservancies in infancy stages that need assistance,” Louis noted.

She said funding for the conservancy programme at the moment is very scarce.

“Initially the programme received financing through donor funding, but we are now struggling with funding.”

She however said that there are about 30 to 40 conservancies that have become financially stable, but these still struggle with governance.

“When we started the programme we started with four conservancies. We have seen remarkably how this has grown to 400 000 people participating in this programme. However, we want to see more black Namibians participating in the programme,” Louis said.

ELLANIE SMIT