Namibia's conservancies: when the wildlife belongs to the community

A conservancy is not a fenced park. It is a self-governing organisation of the people who live in an area, recognised by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism. Each has its own constitution and elects a management committee. Residents go on living there and keeping their livestock.

To stay compliant, a conservancy has to meet a set of standards: hold an annual general meeting, distribute benefits according to a benefit distribution plan, report in line with a game management and utilisation plan, and present annual financial reports. In 2023, 767 game guards worked in conservancies, and 54 conservancies carried out annual game counts. Women hold 35 per cent of management committee seats and 47 per cent of treasurer or financial manager posts, although only 12 per cent of chairpersons are women.

It does not always run smoothly. The 2023 annual report describes conservancies where elections were not held, funds went unaccounted for, or members lodged complaints. That such problems are reported openly is part of the model too.

Tourism is the biggest source. Conservancies enter joint ventures with lodges: a private company builds and runs the lodge, the conservancy receives a fee, and residents get jobs. In 2023 there were 74 such agreements, employing 934 full-time staff between them. Tourism accounted for around two thirds of all conservancy income and benefits that year.

The second source is hunting. There were 57 conservation hunting concessions, and in 2023 residents received more than 90,000 kilograms of game meat. On top of that come smaller earnings from crafts and plant products. In the northwest, for example, a trust run by five conservancies processes resin from indigenous plants into essential oils. Altogether, community conservation facilitated 2,340 jobs in 2023, of which 1,057 were directly with conservancies.

Doro !nawas, in Kunene, shows what that looks like in one place. The conservancy was gazetted in 1999 and has around 1,500 residents, mostly Damara, who depend largely on small livestock. It has four tourism enterprises, including a community-run campsite. The newest lodge, a nine-room joint venture, opened in June 2021. Sixty per cent of its 34 staff come from the conservancy, and the lodge supports, among other things, rhino rangers' salaries, water points for elephants and a village garden.

The pandemic exposed the weak spot. When international tourism stopped, much of the income went with it. Since then conservancies have deliberately looked for a wider range of income sources.

According to the 2023 annual report, wildlife numbers have increased since 1990, although drought in the northwest has caused recent declines. Namibia's elephant population grew from around 7,600 in 1995 to around 23,600 in 2016, according to aerial surveys.

For the black rhino the story stands out. Namibia has the largest free-roaming black rhino population in the world. In 2023, 69 rhinos were poached in the country, down from 97 in 2022, but none in conservancy areas. Rhino rangers from the communities monitor the animals. In Doro !nawas, a lodge helps pay their salaries.

With lions it is harder. Between November 2022 and January 2023 the ministry carried out the first systematic survey of the free-ranging lions of the northwest, working with lion rangers, the Namibian Lion Trust and the NGO IRDNC. The core range of around 40,000 square kilometres takes in eleven conservancies, including Torra and Doro !nawas. The teams found 57 to 60 adult lions and 14 cubs.

That is fewer than earlier estimates. The main cause lies with their prey, which fell by 53 to 85 per cent after years of drought. With less prey, lions turn to livestock more often, and conflict with herders is the main cause of lion deaths in the area. Some prides even went looking for food along the coast.

Living with lions, elephants and leopards costs farmers livestock and crops. Some conservancies therefore set aside part of their income for their own scheme to compensate for damage caused by wildlife. The model does not resolve that conflict, but it gives the people who bear the costs a share of the benefits as well.

Staying at a lodge or camp inside a conservancy puts you in the middle of that model. Part of what your stay brings in goes to the conservancy as a fee, and a large share of the staff often comes from the area. You share the landscape with the people who manage it. Livestock and herders belong there as much as the wildlife does.

Feel free to ask how your lodge is connected to the conservancy. Is it a joint venture, a community-owned business, or a private lodge on a concession? The answer says a lot about where your contribution ends up. And make time for what sets a conservancy apart from a park: a walk with someone who knows the area, or a morning looking for rhinos with an outfit that takes visitors out for that, such as the one in Torra.

Travel this way and you see that conservation in Namibia is not a matter of a fence and a ticket. It is an agreement between people and animals who have to live on the same dry land.