Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation

“ Conservancies empower local people to make their own decisions about their own resources, while enabling them to benefit from these resources. Conservancies should be seen as creating the institutional structure in helping to diversify rural economies. Through the conservancy system my government has created the opportunity for natural resources based industries to develop.”
His Excellency, President Sam Nujoma, 2003

IRDNC and Saving Planet Earth

Jack Osbourne is an unusual international celebrity...

... no doubt this is why he chose the Namibian community-based elephant project to visit for the forthcoming BBC Saving Planet Earth series.

We're no ordinary conservation program.

We're proudly African with unique skills and a 'southern' view of conservation.

We don't 'compartmentalise' conservation into a separate 'environmental' box: we know that management of natural resources is linked to economic development and to the growth of civil society. You can't do one properly without engaging in the others. Therefore our work stands firmly on all three of these legs - environment, economics and human rights.

We know that sustainable use of natural resources is, in fact, the foundation of social and economic development and we try to take this into account in all our actions.

As the Namibian proverb says: you cannot pick up even a grain of sand with one finger. It's all about partnerships and we nurture ours, both local and international.

With this approach we and our partners (44 community-based organisations called conservancies, the Namibian Government, other NGOs including WWF, and private enterprise), have achieved some notable African conservation successes.

IRDNC is well positioned to continue and expand this work for which we have been honoured by some of the most prestigious international and local conservation awards.

Successes

  • We pioneered a people-centred approach to conservation that works and helped stop massive commercial and subsistence poaching of our wildlife in the north west of Namibia - including the now famous desert adapted elephants, back rhino, giraffe, kudu, gemsbok and springbok. Populations of these animals continue to rise.
  • Conservation-based activities make a substantial contribution to the thriving, and growing, Kunene and Caprivi tourism industry, providing the local communities with income and motivation to protect their wildlife.
  • 105,038 km2 of Namibia is now under conservancy status and being actively managed for conservation by the communities who live there. This is a far cry from the usual situation in Africa.
  • 1 in 4 rural Namibians is a member of a conservancy and a strong local vision of conservation has taken root.
  • In 2005, almost N$20 million (over £1.4 million) in income and benefits was paid to rural communities as a direct result of community-based resource management. Just 11 years earlier, in 1994, this income was zero. The conservancies decide how to use their income. They pay their own conservancy management costs and have upgraded schools, built a crèche, developed tourism and created local jobs, improved water supplies, assisted the elderly, funded local events and even sponsored a soccer tournament.

The future

You can help us to sustain and grow an African success story.

Namibia has made huge strides but there is still much to be done. Many communities are still in the process of forming conservancies and need support. As wildlife numbers increase as a result of community management for conservation, new problems arise and new solutions are needed. The BBC Wildlife Fund will allow us expand and intensify our work into the areas where we are most needed. We also believe we can make a valuable south-north contribution to international conservation efforts.