Communal Area Conservancies Income Shoots Up
Tuesday, 9th of September 2008

By Wezi Tjaronda

WINDHOEK

The income earned by communal area conservancies in Namibia increased to N$27 million last year, up from N$600 000 about 10 years ago.

A newly launched report “Namibia’s Communal Conservancies – a review of progress and challenges in 2007†says conservancies alone generated N$27 million, which represents 71 percent of the total income earned by the Community Based Natural Resource Programme (CBNRM).

The CBNRM earned N$39.1 million. The report, which documents how local communities are managing their natural resources, said the income has increased by 55 percent from the 2006 figure.

The growth, said the report, comes from tourism and wildlife utilisation.

The sources of income include joint venture tourism, trophy hunting, game meat distribution, own game use, veldt products, shoot and sell, campsites and community-based tourism enterprises, live game sales, craft sales and premium hunting.

The cash income to conservancies was N$20.5 million, non-cash income to conservancies was N$7 million, while that from other CBNRM activities amounted to N$11.4 million.

Joint venture tourism contributed N$14.3 million, which is the largest contribution, followed by trophy hunting which contributed N$7 million and game meat distribution N$1.9 million.

“By far the most lucrative benefits come from joint venture tourism lodges and game which conservancies negotiate a levy or income sharing agreement,†the report said.

By end last year, 19 formal joint venture lodge agreements were operational and generating benefits, while eight conservancies were receiving payments from partners even though agreements were yet to be finalised.

Some six conservancies received income for operators for rights to traverse or use resources in conservancies, while three potential joint venture agreements are being negotiated.

“The number of joint venture lodge agreements has increased by 90 percent since 2005, and the rate at which new opportunities are being taken up indicates that the private sector sees communal area conservancies as having substantial future potential for tourism,†says the report.

Trophy hunting has also increased since 2006 with 29 trophy hunting concessions providing income to 32 conservancies during 2007.

There are 52 registered communal area conservancies covering more than 118 704 square kilometres. Ten years ago, Namibia had four conservancies.

The report says 25 more communities want to form conservancies, while 38 groups are working towards applying for legal status as community forests.

There are currently more than 13 legally gazetted community forests.

Launching the report last week at Leadership for Conservation in Africa President Breakfast, Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) Executive Director, Chris Brown, said since the advent of conservancies, poaching has stopped, wildlife numbers have increased, the elephant and rhino population has gone up while people’s livelihoods have improved.

Conservancies have also brought new sets of natural sources into production, expanded areas managed for wildlife and other natural resources and created incentives to manage wildlife and other natural resources sustainably.