The Expansion of Community Conservation

While conservation efforts at local level are important for livelihoods and wildlife, landscape level conservation approaches increase impacts across much larger areas by helping to secure wildlife movements, implement conservation measures, encourage socioeconomic development and manage human wildlife conflict.

Landscape level conservation is particularly important in Namibia. With the country mainly arid to semi-arid, wildlife requires a much larger area in which to migrate in response to rainfall patterns and to access grazing.

Community conservation continues to expand, increasing the number of people who benefit from natural resource use, as well as the area under conservation. Increased landscape connectivity created by new conservancies across Namibia is vital to ensuring environmental resilience and countering the impacts of climate change. These developments are major contributors to Namibia’s efforts to fulfil its constitutional commitment to safeguard the environment while at the same time achieving economic growth and rural development. CBNRM is recognised by the Namibian government as contributing to a range of national development goals, including several for the environment.

The expansion of structured natural resource management across Namibia

Namibia’s national protected area network covers 16.9% of the country with communal conservancies and community forests jointly covering an additional 22.2%. Together parks and community conservation areas greatly expand the area under sustainable land management, with a total of 40% of Namibia under some form of natural resource management. These two systems of land management can operate side-byside and be mutually beneficial. Community lands can secure wildlife corridors, linking national parks, while neighbouring communities can benefit from their association with parks through benefits like tourism concessions and better managed wildlife populations.