Home - Community Conservation Namibia

Community conservation areas cover 20% of Namibia.

CBNRM empowers rural people, improves their livelihoods, and conserves wildlife and the environment.

This website carries comprehensive information about community-based natural resource management in Namibia. We also publish an annual report: The State of Community Conservation in Namibia.

About the State of Community Conservation in Namibia 2022 report

Almost half of Namibia is under conservation management. Since Namibia’s independence in 1990, when conservation was written into the Constitution, state protected areas have grown to include the entire coastline and adjacent desert areas, and communal conservancies and community forests have come into being, accounting for about a fifth of the land area.

Since 2004, when the first State of Community Conservation Report was published, NACSO has documented and assessed the development of conservation in communal conservancy areas. In recent years, together with the MEFT, data on wildlife populations, conservancy governance and rural enterprises based upon wildlife has been systematically gathered and presented in an annual report, backed by firm scientific data.

Now, the State of Community Conservation is reviewed in this web site format, where comprehensive data, past and present, is available to researchers and conservationists worldwide. This site will grow to present new information and to reflect more facets of community conservation in Namibia. However, an annual printed report will continue to be available and widely distributed.

» Read the foreword from Hon. Pohamba Shifeta, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism

» Read the introduction “A Common Vision” by Ronny Dempers, NACSO Chairperson

» Read the Review of 2022

Rural development – benefitting people

The receptionist

The receptionist

- benefitting from joint-venture investment

Beauty Mbala welcomes visitors with a warm smile. She’s the Guest Relations Officer at Chobe River Lodge, and as the face of the lodge, she makes sure that people feel at home and serves them with respect and humility. The lodge is a joint venture with Salambala Conservancy, where the greatest migration of zebras in the world takes place. Beauty understands the value of the joint venture between Salambala Conservancy and the lodge. Apart from her wages, she mentions other benefits: “I have seen that the conservancy is good because it is protecting our animals, so our future generations can see them.”

Joint-venture tourism generates jobs while conserving nature.

The businessman

The businessman

- benefitting from conservancy investment

Things are changing in Mashivi village because electricity is being supplied by conservancies. Pendy Hapelezo is a young entrepreneur who has taken advantage of the new village electricity transformer to power a refrigerator. He buys fish wholesale and sells it in the village. The electricity comes courtesy of Sobbe Conservancy, where Mashivi village is situated. Several Zambezi conservancies have decided to provide transformers as a social benefit, instead of paying cash benefits to residents.

Conservancies are providing community infrastructure projects.

The farmer

The farmer

- benefitting from conservancy income

Nyae Nyae was the first conservancy formed, in 1998. The Ju/’hoansi San people are some of the poorest in Namibia. Farmer !uu /ui appreciates the conservancy. It pays cash from conservation hunting to all residents, and distributes the meat from conservation hunting. !uu /ui is a farmer who also harvests Devil’s Claw. The sustainable bio-certified dried tubers are sold to Europe to make homeopathic medicine. The income from the conservancy and from harvesting helps to buy blankets, food for the children, and food to help them over lean times.

Sustainable use of resources provides cash to rural people.

The tour guide

The tour guide

- benefitting from conservancy training

"Hi, I’m Delicious" Salufo Limbo says, using his nickname to greet tourists to Lianshulu Lodge. Although he had matriculated from school, finding work in a rural area was difficult. But Balyerwa Conservancy paid for his initial tour guiding course. Tourism in the Zambezi Region’s conservancies and national parks is growing, providing Delicious with a worthwhile career.

Joint-venture tourism generates over 1,000 jobs.

Conserving wildlife and the environment

Over 22,000 elephants

Over 22,000 elephants

- an expanding population

The Namibian elephant population has grown from 7,000 to over 22,000 since the advent of community conservation. Most of the elephants occur in the north-east Zambezi region which they traverse between the KAZA states of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Farmers have grown more tolerant of elephants due to income from tourism. Although poaching is an ever-present danger, conservancy game guards are in the forefront of the effort to prevent organised wildlife crime.

Combatting Wildlife Crime is a major project of the MEFT and NACSO.

Conservation at scale

Conservation at scale

- almost half of the country under conservation

At independence in 1990 only 14% of Namibia's land was under conservation management - as national parks. Now, the combination of national parks and tourism concessions, communal conservancies and community forests makes up over 38% of Namibia´s land area. Freehold farms acting in line with conservation principles add to the area, providing a connected landscape where wildlife is free to roam.

Community conservation areas cover 20% of Namibia.

Expanding lion population

Expanding lion population

- in forest, desert and savannah

Lions are under threat throughout Africa and are persecuted by farmers because of livestock losses. The lion population in Namibia has expanded from the world famous Etosha Park westwards across the arid Kunene area to the Skeleton Coast, and lion populations are increasing in the riverine wooded area in Namibia’s north-east.

Mitigating Human-Wildlife conflict is a priority policy of the MEFT & NACSO.

Community conservation grew out of the recognition that wildlife and other natural resources are of value in communal areas, and that these resources can be unlocked if local communities are empowered to manage and utilise resources themselves.

Managing our Environment

Many rural communities in Namibia live together with wildlife. In order to offset losses from crop raiders such as elephants and predators, including lions, they need to receive benefits in return. These come from tourism and associated income, including crafts, and from conservation hunting. Through Community Based Natural Resource Management, natural resources are conserved for future generations while providing significant returns today.

Who we are

Welcome to the State of Community Conservation in Namibia: a review of communal conservancies, community forests and other CBNRM activities supported by the Government of the Republic of Namibia and by CBNRM support organisations.

Our Vision

Community conservation grew out of the recognition that wildlife and other natural resources are of value in communal areas, and that these resources can be unlocked if local communities are empowered to manage and utilise resources themselves.