evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Namibia Community-Based Natural Resource Management - Communal Conservancies

Namibia · Windhoek · See the Namibia profile · See the Windhoek profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 47% 47/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

86 communal conservancies covering 16.6M ha (about 20% of Namibia) pay 230,000+ rural members to manage wildlife and natural resources. Elephant populations rose 10-fold and zebra 28-fold since 1993; Namibia now holds the world's largest free-roaming cheetah population.

86 conservancies
Conservancies registered (2023)
16.6 million ha
Land area under conservancy management (2023)
230,000+ people
Community members supported (2023)
50 to 500+ individuals
Elephant population (northwest Namibia) (1993–2023)
500 to 14,000 individuals
Mountain zebra population (1993–2023)
2.35 N$ million
Conservancy tourism/hunting revenue (2004, across 31 conservancies)
Namibia Community-Based Natural Resource Management - Communal Conservancies

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Namibia (MEFT) / NACSO
Period
1998-present
Keywords
Savanna, biodiversity, wildlife, CBNRM

Context

Namibia's Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme is one of Africa's most-documented biodiversity-focused payments-for-ecosystem-services schemes. Enabled by the Nature Conservation Amendment Act of 1996, it grants rural communities the legal right to establish conservancies, manage wildlife, and receive income from natural resource use on communal lands.

Objectives

The programme aims to give communities a legal and economic stake in wildlife conservation, generating income from tourism, trophy hunting, craft sales and conservation partnerships in exchange for coexisting with and conserving wildlife.

Activities

The first communal conservancy was registered in 1998. NACSO (Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations) coordinates programme monitoring and publishes annual State of Community Conservation (SOCC) reports, with technical and financial support from WWF-Namibia and USAID's LIFE Project (from 1993).

Results

By 2023, 86 conservancies covered approximately 166,179 km2 (16.6 million hectares) — about 20% of Namibia's land area — and supported more than 230,000 community members. In northwest Namibia, elephant populations rose from approximately 50 in 1993 to over 500; mountain zebra from 500 to 14,000; and springbok to 100,000. Namibia now hosts the world's largest free-roaming cheetah population (estimated 2,500 individuals). Conservancy revenues reached N$2.35 million across 31 conservancies in 2004 and have grown substantially since.

Conclusions

Academic literature describes the programme as an unrecognised payments-for-ecosystem-services scheme, since wildlife-use income directly compensates communities for coexisting with and conserving wildlife on their communal lands.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Funded through USAID's LIFE Project (from 1993) and WWF-Namibia technical/financial support, alongside community-generated tourism and trophy-hunting revenue.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — First conservancy registered 1998; wildlife recovery trends are measured over 25+ years to 2023.
Staffing & skills
NACSO coordination staff, conservancy management committees and community game guards, WWF-Namibia and USAID technical/financial support

Conditions for success

  • clear legal land/resource rights (1996 Nature Conservation Amendment Act)
  • community governance structures
  • sustained external donor support
  • revenue-sharing incentives tied to wildlife outcomes

Common failure modes

  • reliance on tourism and trophy-hunting revenue, exposed to market and political shocks
  • rising human-wildlife conflict as populations recover

Where it fits

Governance type
community-based natural resource management under a national legal framework
Scale
national (about 20% of the country)
Income level
upper-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful

★ 73

West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA)

Australia

Aboriginal-owned carbon project in western Arnhem Land: Traditional Owners apply strategic early dry-season burning over 28,000 km2 to reduce late-season …