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| Partners | News | Success Stories | Links | Updated: 8/28/2006 |
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Bringing together Private Enterprise and Community Based Natural Resource Development
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Introduction
During the 1960`s and 1970`s, Melt Hugo grew up in Usakos, a small town situated where the Namib Desert grudgingly gives way to the semi-arid central plateau. Melt spent endless hours exploring the desert. Thirty-six miles away was one of his favorite places, Spitzkoppe, a granite massif jutting over 5,900 feet into the air. Adjacent to Spitzkoppe was a tiny, impoverished community. Most of its people had been forcibly resettled there by the South African territorial government. Melt knew many of these people. His mother worked at their clinic and most everybody knew his father, who worked on the railroad. By 1990, when Namibia became independent, Melt had grown, married, and moved away. However, the poor community near Spitzkoppe remained.
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How it all came together
Realizing the tourism potential of the area, the community formed the Spitzkoppe Community Development Association (SCDA) to run a campsite. The campsite offers few services and each camper pays the equivalent of US $3.00. But by the economic standards of the community, the campsite was a boon. In 2000 about 4,000 campers came. The campsite is self-sufficient, SCDA maintains its own vehicle and employs 16 people. It was a good start. But considering the spectacular nature of the massif and its location, about two hours from Swakopmund, one of Namibia`s most popular tourist destinations, Spitzkoppe`s potential was far from realized.
Late in 1999, a private investor approached SCDA with a proposal to build a tented campsite at the base of the mountain. To assess the proposal, SCDA sought the advice from two NGOs in USAID`s Community Based Natural Resource Management Program. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Namibia Community Based Tourism Association (NACOBTA) both recommended that without competing proposals from other investors, it was impossible to discern if the current offer represented a good use of Spitzkoppe`s commercial potential and if the benefits to the community were attractive. WWF and NACOBTA offered to assist SCDA in soliciting other proposals and obtaining experience and expertise to judge tourism-related business plans.
SCDA accepted, and over the next several months, it elected a 12-member project committee and a subcommittee for negotiations. SCDA members participated in study tours of other sites in Namibian having similar characteristics with regard to tourist activities and community-private sector joint ventures. Seminars and other training opportunities were provided by USAID to improve SCDA`s capacities to analyze business plans and, importantly, to set and negotiate realistic goals.
In November 1999, requests for solicitations from potential investors were advertised in newspapers throughout southern Africa and via mail to members of the Tourism Association of Namibia and the Federation of Namibia Tourism Associations. There were sixteen requests for additional information. Of these, four visited Spitzkoppe and submitted draft proposals. SCDA reviewed the proposals, eliminating two on financial grounds.
Four months later, the two remaining investors submitted full proposals and made presentations. Both envisioned development of an up-market lodge, nestled close to the massif and designed to minimize visual and ecological impacts. In the enormous area around Spitzkoppe, the lodge and the community`s campsite would not interfere with one another. Catering to very different markets, the lodge and the campsite would not compete for one another`s clients. Indeed, the lodge would complement the campsite as campers could avail themselves of its food and beverages services. On strictly financial grounds, there was no clear winner between the two proposals. But one of the presenters talked about his attachment to the area and commitment to work with the community for their common betterment. That investor was Melt Hugo, SCDA`s final choice.
To fully appreciate the impact of the lodge on the community, it is necessary to understand its current, desperate economic situation. Again, it should be stressed that the community exists not by choice, but as a result of the policies of the former apartheid regime. The desert land makes impossible meaningful agricultural activity, other than very limited livestock grazing. It is 36 miles to the nearest town (Usakos, Melt`s hometown) and 100 miles to the nearest community of any size, Swakopmund. There are few job opportunities in Usakos and even Swakopmund and, at any rate, transport is both irregular and beyond the means of virtually all the inhabitants. While there are no statistics on the income of the community, it is doubtful, even including the community campsite, if the roughly 600 inhabitants annually earn more than US $300 per person or US $180,000 for the entire community. Indeed, it is more likely that the community`s income is half this figure. Against the inspiring backdrop of Spitzkoppe, and at no fault of the people of the community, there is squalor. The lodge, however, offers the promise of a better future.
As envisioned, the lodge will:
· Pay the community US $4,500 annually for the lease, increasing 10 percent per year.
· Pay the community 10 percent of gross revenues, increasing to 12 percent in the third year of operations.
· Endeavor to employ individuals from the community, always employing at least 12 community members.
· Endeavor to source goods and services, such as vegetables, baked goods, handicrafts, and laundry services from the community.
· Provide training to community members, including all expenses for a certificate/degree program in tourism or management for an individual intended to assume a management role in the lodge.
It is projected that by year six of the project, the lodge will generate in excess of US $140,000 for the community, effectively doubling the community`s income. This figure does not include increased revenues from the community campsite, as it becomes more attractive due to the availability of food and beverage from the lodge. Also not included are revenues from community businesses serving the lodge, such as bakeries, handicrafts, and laundry services. Moreover, there will be opportunities to develop businesses catering to other, now employed, community members. In other words, the lodge can become the basis for developing a meaningful and sustainable local economy.
Beyond more dollars, the lodge and associated activities will enhance the individual dignity and social welfare of the people. Unemployment and underemployment together in Namibia is estimated at 60 percent. In a community such as Spitzkoppe, it is surely much higher. Because of the lodge, many will gain satisfaction and confidence from employment. The training and experience will allow those wishing to move elsewhere more opportunities to do so and those wishing to stay increased capacities to begin new enterprises or to advance within their current occupations. The funds going to the community will also be used to improve public services and facilities, such as schools and clinics.
The contract extends for 15 years. At the end of that time, the community will receive a 25 percent equity share in the lodge. Melt and the community will then review their relationship within what should be a much different, more prosperous, and happier environment.
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The Game Count
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Introduction
Well before dawn at the Wêreldsend camp, the six-person game counting team for "Route 5" in Torra Conservancy gathers for tea, rusks (oven dried bread), and porridge. Since 3:30 a.m., sleep has been in irregular due to the clanging of pots as the cooks prepare
food for the team. Having the longest distance to our starting point, the
"Route 5" team will eat first and then head out. To avoid double counting
swift, wide ranging animals and to catch the best light for spotting
game, all teams must start early and simultaneously. Then, this
evening, tired and sore from today`s work, one team must
travel three hours and camp by themselves to be in position
for tomorrow`s count.
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How the count works
For the past ten days across northwestern Namibia, these
scenes have been repeated hundreds of times. It will take another
week to complete the count of an area as large as New Jersey
and Connecticut combined.
Counting allows scientists and conservancies to detect changes
and take corrective actions long before they would be evident
from casual observation. The counts are carried out every two years.
The technique employed is known as a "strip count." Teams on foot or in four wheel drive vehicles move slowly across prearranged routes counting animals within a variable, but limited distance from the path. "Strip" refers to the ribbon-like area each team covers. The width of the strips vary due to changes along the route in topography and vegetation. The location of every animal is carefully recorded using GPS recordings. Employing sophisticated computer software, the results from the strip counts are extrapolated across each area. The approach, though not perfect, results in consistent, scientifically valid estimates.
Aerial counts are not being employed for three reasons. First, aerial counts have some drawbacks, including weather. A pilot familiar with the area noted that, even on seemingly beautiful days, the shifting pattern of down- and up-drafts can make you spend more time concentrating on actually staying alive than counting kudu noses. Second, aerial counts are expensive. Finally and most important, having the local people do the counts empowers them and makes the count more tangible to them. Moreover, it ensures sustainability of the process.
Huddled around the fire, I chat with, Paula, a Conservancy member who will be in the second team out. She is a small, gentle mannered woman in her late 20`s. Within her there is courage and strength of character. I later learn she is the Women`s Affairs Officer for Torra Conservancy. In a traditional, male-dominated society where abuse of women is deplored, but unpunished, Paula successfully led struggles to prosecute rapists. Along with many of the Riemvasmaaker people, the occupying South African apartheid regime forcibly resettled her family here from South Africa, over 500 miles to the south. After independence, her parents decided to return to South Africa. Paula has stayed. This is her home.
It is a dramatic, but harsh environment, with towering mountains and mesas reminiscent of the American Southwest. Gazing off into the distance, the mountains rise out of a golden sea. The land appears covered in a rich blanket of grasses or even wheat. But it is an illusion. Looking down, the dominant color is red from the brick-to-bread sized rocks ubiquitously and generously strewn across the landscape. A poor environment for ankles. What appears to be thick and lush grass from afar, are widely-spaced, spindly shoots which no self-respecting American steer, sheep, or buffalo would ever consider. Soon even this vegetation will be gone, leaving only the spare, thorny bushes and acacias.
But a wide range of African wildlife can thrive here, including: kudu, oryx, springbok, leopard, cheetah, lion, ostrich, giraffe, rhinoceros, and elephant. With USAID assistance, the people of the region and the Government of Namibia are establishing communal area conservancies, which turn much of the responsibility for maintaining wildlife back to the local people. Before independence, an elephant or oryx was the property of the State in distant Pretoria. Poaching was an accepted, even respected, occupation. With USAID`s assistance, provided through the World Wildlife Fund, the Namibian government changed the laws in 1996 to allow communal area communities to organize themselves and take responsibility for the wildlife in their area. Now poaching means stealing from their own people. Wildlife and scenery bring tourists, with the community sharing the benefits. Only a few years, ago local people viewed wildlife only as competitors for food with goats and other livestock and as potential dangers. Today they sit around campfires before dawn, waiting to begin hours in the hot sun of bone-jarring, eye-straining work and hoping the count will be good. There is a new saying: Our rocks [and wildlife] have become our diamonds. For the Torra Conservancy, the `diamonds` have already brought self-sufficiency. One source of the income is a joint venture with the Damaraland Camp, which last year earned the conservancy over US $60,000.
The count will be good. While the tally will not be ready for a few weeks, it is evident that there is more game than in past years. For example, that day and covering much less than one percent of the total area for the count, the team has seen the equivalent of a fourth the number of springbok in the entire region 20 years ago.
As can be seen from the chart below, the numbers and value of wildlife in Northwest Namibia has grown steadily since the beginning of USAID`s intervention in 1992, and the trends are expected to continue at the same rate. The growing numbers of game will increase the value of conservancies for tourism, enable increased protein consumption and provide opportunities for additional trophy hunting.
That evening, we sit around the campfire talking with Garth Owen-Smith and Dr. Margaret Jacobsohn, who founded Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, an NGO supported, in part, by USAID. If any two people embody the spirit and vision of community based natural resource management, it is they. Garth and Margaret established and for 19 years have lived at Wêreldsend (meaning `end of the world` in Afrikaans). These gifted, educated individuals would be welcome on the faculties of prestigious universities throughout the world or they could earn lucrative fees on lecture circuits. But they choose to live here. Their kitchen and combination living room/dining room/office is in a converted cargo container (cleverly camouflaged to appear like a wood and bamboo bungalow) and they sleep in a pillbox shaped travel trailer. Garth and Margaret do not see themselves as repositories of truth, but as facilitators, helping communities find their own solutions.
Our conversation is interrupted by a visit from an ovaHimba chieftain and his advisors. The ovaHimba are from the extreme northwest of Namibia, where there are few conservancies. The chieftain came down to view the count and how conservancies work. He is very impressed: "There is so much game here. In our area, there are only goats." Garth, Margaret, and Torra Conservancy members explain that it used to be the same here. The chieftain implores Garth to come help them set up conservancies. Garth agrees, but warns that it will take years of work and commitment before the ovaHimba begin to see any benefits. The chieftain acknowledges that this is true, but says it is the road he and his people must take.
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CBNRM Program Improves Lives at the Conservancy Level
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Introduction
It is a dramatic, but harsh environment, with towering mountains and beautiful mesas. The dominant color is a deep reddish brown from rocks strewn everywhere. When the sun bakes down, the vegetation withers, leaving only thorny bushes and acacias. But a wide range of African wildlife can thrive here, including: kudu, oryx, springbok, mountain zebra, leopard, cheetah, lion, ostrich, giraffe, rhinoceros, and unique desert elephant.
Situated in the middle of this environment in the Kunene region of northwestern Namibia is Torra Conservancy, one of Namibia`s 29 legally registered Communal Area Conservancies. Established in 1998, it covers over 2000 square miles with 450 registered members and a total population of one thousand. The main village is Bergsig, which accommodates a police station, clinic, primary school, several local government offices, shops and the Torra Conservancy office, built from conservancy funds.
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Community Action and Private Sector Participation
Only a few years ago, local people viewed wildlife as competitors for food with goats and other livestock and as potential dangers. Now they say: "our wildlife are our diamonds."
For the Torra Conservancy, the `diamonds` have already brought increased incomes. A main source of the income is a joint venture with Wilderness Safaris. Known as the Damaraland Camp, the luxury, upmarket, tented camp has a capacity for 18 guests. Torra receives a ten percent levy per bed per night as well as an annual rental for the development site. In 2003, Damaraland Camp earned the conservancy almost US$40,000 in income. Forty one members of the community have been trained as guides, chefs, waiters and assistant managers and now work for the camp, 24 members on a full-time basis and the remaining 17 on a part-time basis. On a combined basis the staff earned salaries totaling approximately US$70,000 in 2003. Recently, the camp management of Damaraland Camp was turned over to a Bergsig resident, a woman who had received extensive training in management from Wilderness Safaris. In the past, the camp had always been managed by staff from South Africa. Damaraland Camp was rated as one of Conde Nast`s top "Ultimate Safari" destinations in March 1999. The Camp is the winner of a Silver Otter award for the best eco-tourism project in the world.
Micro and small enterprises benefit from the Camp, and from other increases in tourism, as well. There is now an increased market for products such as firewood and services such as laundry. Craft production has started and there are plans for the development of secondary industry and the informal sector. Torra also earns significant revenues from carefully managed trophy hunting. In 2003, over US$18,000 was earned through a trophy hunting contract. Community members are hired and trained as guides, skinners and butchers, and residents get the meat. Further income is earned through live game sales. In 2002, the Conservancy sold 500 springbok and earned more than US$13,200. In 2003, Torra continued to benefit from its growing game populations and sold an additional 847 springbok. It graciously shared the US$30,250 of income generated with two neighboring conservancies.
As a result of its incoming revenues, the Torra Conservancy has been able to wean itself off donor support and meet its own management costs, and still have remaining funds to contribute to community development projects, including the equivalent of US$2000 to school improvements. The conservancy has also paid cash dividends to its members. In January 2003, it distributed cash benefits equivalent to US$73 to every conservancy member over the age of 18. This amount is equal to approximately half the average annual per capita income in the conservancy.
The conservancy has realized intangible benefits as well, with an improved understanding of democratic procedures gained through the elections of conservancy management committee and the learned ability to hold the committee accountable. Just recently the Torra Conservancy was selected as on of the 26 finalists for the UNDP`s Equator Prize. The six winners will be announced in February 2004.
Before independence, all wildlife was the property of the state. Poaching was an accepted activity, and used to supplement the food source. In 1996, the Namibian government changed the laws to allow communities to organize themselves and take responsibility for the wildlife in their area. Now poaching means stealing from your own people. The result is that animal populations are rebounding. In the early 1980s, there were thought to be only 50 elephants, some 100 zebra, and 15 rhinos surviving in Northwest Namibia. A 2003 game count found 500 elephants, 14,000 zebra and the world`s largest population of free roaming black rhino. Gemsbok, springbok and Hartmann`s zebra sightings were up by 33%, 16% and 11 % respectively from 2002 to 2003.
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Involving the Right Partners
Many organizations have helped contribute to Torra`s success to date. A strong partnership exists between the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), NGOs and donors. Field based NGOs, such as Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, the Save the Rhino Trust and the private sector have been particularly important. National based NGOs, such as the Namibian Community Based Tourism Association, the Rossing Foundation and the Legal Assistance Centre have also helped.
USAID`s support to the LIFE Program, provided through the World Wildlife Fund, has been instrumental in the establishment of the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program in Namibia. LIFE provides training for Torra and other conservancy members in their development of conservancy systems. Training, institutional support and technical assistance is also available to the NGOs and the ministry staff.
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Livelihoods, Culture and Conservation: USAID helps the Nyae Nyae San to follow their own development path
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Introduction
The San are one of the world`s oldest people. They make their home in the vast expanse of the barren sun-baked savannah known as the Kalahari Desert, where they are struggling to make the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to the modem world in just a few generations. Of the less than 100,000 remaining San, approximately 40,000 live in Namibia, including the Ju/`hoansi San of north eastern Namibia.
Historically, the Ju/`hoansi were a skilled hunter-gather society moving seasonally over vast distances between Botswana and Namibia. The area they now inhabit is roughly one-tenth of the 90,688 km2 that an estimated 1,200 Ju/`hoansi occupied in the 1950`s. The reduction in land, combined with the loss of traditional skills in the younger generation, is increasingly forcing the Ju/`hoansi to adapt to a more westernized society. However, the remoteness of their land, in an area known as Nyae Nyae, and the challenge of introducing a culturally-adaptive educational system for their people have hindered their development. Extremely low levels of literacy and employment have been a persistent problem. Efforts to introduce the Ju/`hoansi to sedentary agricultural activities i.e., livestock and crop production, has had limited success.
In 1993 a new future for the Ju/`hoansi was heralded: Living In A Finite Environment (LIFE), a program funded by USAID and implemented in a partnership including the World Wildlife Fund, Namibia`s Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and a host of strong local NGOs, provided a grant to the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation to bolster the Ju/`hoansi`s ability to sustainably manage and benefit from their natural resources, especially their wildlife, through the establishment of a conservancy.
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Livelihoods and Conservation
The Nyae Nyae Conservancy covers an area of 9,030 square kilometers of Kalahari Woodlands and is adjacent to the Kaudom Game Reserve, jointly covering approximately 13,000 square kilometers of wildlife habitat. With USAID support, conservancy members have adopted land-use zoning and established game watering points. Game has been re-introduced to bolster the recovery rate and financial viability of the conservancy. USAID funded the re-introduction of 1,826 game animals into the conservancy between 1999 - 2003. USAID has also provided support to help maintain a valuable disease-free buffalo herd in the Conservancy. As a result of these combined efforts, the Ju/`hoansi have been able to rebuild their wildlife populations. By way of example, from 1998 to 2003, the numbers of springbok increased from 0 to 880, numbers of oryx increased from 429 to 1171, and numbers of kudu increased from 283 to 947.
At these numbers, wildlife has rebounded from historical lows to levels that can once again contribute to Ju/`hoansi welfare. Benefits are generated from trophy hunting, other tourism, and sustainable game meat harvesting. There is also potential for the Ju/`hoansi to benefit from game farming and the sale of high-value species such as their buffalo and roan antelope.
The Nyae Nyae Conservancy is currently covering all its operational costs, and is one of the 15 conservancies receiving cash revenues. In 2003, the Nyae Nyae Conservancy distributed membership dividends of N$620 to each of its 770 members (a total of N$477,672 or US$68,238). This represented approximately 35 percent of total cash income to residents for the year. The Conservancy provides 28 percent of the area`s employment.
The future for the Nyae Nyae Conservancy looks even more positive with sale of live animals estimated to reach N$1,362,000 (US$194,571) by 2007 and the sale of trophy animals through hunting concessions N$I,655,600 (US$236,514). Other profit generating activities, such as tourism and craft sales are estimated to bring total revenues in 2007 to N$4,572,311 (US$653,187), translated into per capita benefits for conservancy members of N$2,031 (US$290) per member. With the growing wildlife populations and the recent opening of a border gate between Botswana and Namibia on the eastern boundaries of the conservancy, interest is being shown by the private sector in the establishment of an up-market tourism lodge in the conservancy. This will provide additional revenue and jobs for the conservancy members over the years to come.
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Expansion of CBNRM
USAID support to the Ju/`hoansi people of Nyae Nyae is part of a much bigger program of assistance it provides to promote community based natural resource management (CBNRM). The legal foundation for the program was laid in 1996, when the Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) passed legislation enabling local communities to gain rights over wildlife and tourism through forming a conservancy. The conservancy legislation catalyzed a fundamental shift in the attitudes of rural community members towards wildlife. Prior to the passage of this legislation, wildlife was deeply resented as it competed with livestock for grazing and water, preyed on livestock, and routinely damaged crops and infrastructure. With the ability of communities to reap the benefits of wildlife, there was a drastic change in the mindset and attitude of many of Namibia`s communal area residents. Today wildlife is viewed as a community asset in contrast to a community liability. This positive attitude has had a marked impact on the recovery of wildlife populations, and has led to a major decrease in poaching and the creation of community stewardship over wildlife resources. It has contributed significantly to sustained biodiversity and, to a certain extent, the preservation of cultural heritage.
Today, there are 29 registered conservancies, which encompass more than 74,000 square kilometers of wildlife habitat and are home to over 150,000 people. Approximately 30 other communities are at some stage of the registration process, making one out of every 12 Namibians resident in a registered or emerging communal conservancy. In FY 2003, CBNRM provided financial returns of more than N$46,000,000 (US$6.5 million) and rural employment of 542 fulltime and 2,933 part time jobs in the conservancies. In a cash-starved economy with an estimated unemployment rate of 31 percent, promoting CBNRM and tourism related activities is a sound investment in Namibia`s future.
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