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| Wildlife Management on Communal Land in Namibia -An Economic Approach |
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Reference |
| Johanna Forslund, "Wildlife Management on Communal Land in Namibia -An Economic Approach ", Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Department of Economics, 2007 |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Influenced by common property resource management theory and feature stories from neighbouring countries, an economically-based system for the management and utilization of wildlife was implemented in Namibia in 1995. This was formally done through the introduction of the Community Based Natural Resource anagement (CBNRM) policy and legislation, ultimately allowing people residing on communal land to benefit from wildlife according to the same legal principles as freehold farmers. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spacial Boundaries: A conservancy on communal land can be defined as “a community or group of communities within a defined geographical area who jointly manage, conserve and utilize the wildlife and other natural resources within the defined area”. The conservancy boundaries are negotiated and agreed upon with neighboring communities and conservancies. Till 2004, 31 such conservancies were registered in Namibia. Social Boundaries: The residents of conservancy have to get registered acquire from the state (i.e. Ministry of Environment of Tourism (in Namibia)), exclusive use rights over game and commercial tourism within a defined area. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| A conservancy committee representing the people (i.e. members) residing the conservancy is established. The committee must include a traditional leader to uphold linkages and collaboration with traditional authorities. In that way the conservancies have a constitution and legal status and so are considered as a corporate body that can sue or be sued. The selection of members is generally left to the community itself. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| Registered conservancies have unlimited rights over species represented on the schedule of huntable game.Registered conservancies can enter into a contract with trophy hunting companies and earn income by selling the conservancy trophy hunting quota to them. In a way conservancies act as hunting farms.To enable the development of commercial tourism facilities, registered conservancies can enter into a contract with tourism companies. Registered conservancies are free to do whatever they like with income earned from various contracts. Members of the conservancy can share the benefits or returns produced from their joint efforts. |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Increased wildlife numbers in the conservancies forces people to compete for scarce water and land resources. Economically this could mean increased opportunity costs of living with wildlife and potentially amplified motives for human-wildlife conflicts. There have been incidents of wild species like elephant, hyena, crocodile,hippo, lion, baboon, warthog, monkeys, porcupine, springhare, antelopes, black jackal causing damage to farms, gardens and livestock. The conservancy legislation rests upon the belief that engaged and empowered people can manage resources sustainably, as long as the generated benefits exceed the costs. |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| 1) Human wild life conflicts. 2) Policy and legislative framework does not take land-use planning undertaken by the conservancies into consideration.3) No management activity is provided for community anti-poaching activities in the legislation. Although community game guards are there to address and curtail illegal hunting, they have no mandate in law to do so.4) CBNRM-legislation is not particularly straight-forward on conservancies’ rights to tourism. |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| Not reported |
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Other Features of Institution |
| After the development of CBNRM there been demonstrable growth in the establishment of conservancies, there has also been considerable success in contributing to the recovery of wildlife species |
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Purpose |
| To introduce an economically-based system for the management and utilization of wildlife |
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Country |
| Namibia |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-2007 |
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