Women for Conservation Association - an organisation of women supporting nature conservation in Namibia

Women in the developing world are predominantly responsible for management and conservation of resources for their families. Women spend vast amounts of time collecting and storing water, securing sources of fuel, food and fodder, and managing land. Women need to be equally and actively involved in processes to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity because they play critical roles as primary land managers and resource users, and they face disproportionate impacts both from biodiversity loss and gender-blind conservation measures.

In Namibia, the Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) Programme have been around for close to 40 years, with a total of 86 conservancies and community forests registered to date. The proportion of women elected as treasurers is approaching parity at 43%, while only 13% of the chairpersons and 24% of conservancy staff are women. Developing and supporting woman leadership and participation therefore remains high on the agenda for the CBNRM in Namibia.

About 18 women from five Kunene conservancies convened a workshop in from 25 - 27 March 2019 to provide an opportunity for the women to identify challenges, weaknesses and opportunities experienced by women in their conservancies. This workshop provided an opportunity for these women to brainstorm and discuss an ideal structure to ensure inclusivity of women participation in conservancies and in decisions regarding the use of natural resources in their communities.

This led to the formation of the Woman for Conservation association, which is now formalized with a constitution and the association’s action plan. After the constitution was finalized, there was a critical need to engage the women from the respective conservancies to understand the constitution. Therefore, the interim committee including the founding chairperson, successfully undertook constitution awareness meetings in 6 conservancy Clusters in Kunene North. The process allowed more than 120 women to participate in the formulation of the “Women for Conservation” constitution before adoption.

The constitution was later adopted at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) which was successfully held on 18th of November 2020. They elected a management committee to serve the association for a three-year period. The AGM was attended by 90 women from 18 Kunene north conservancies, who actively participated in the discussions.

Some participants indicated that the men should be involved and engaged about the vision and purpose of the Women for Conservation group. It is understood that this will re-address the expected societal norms, which in many cases are the hinderance to women’s participation, especially married women. Another discussion revolved around the need for women to empower fellow women. For example, the women observed that women are hesitant to vote fellow women into management positions during normal elections in respective conservancies. Fortunately, the participants were confident again that the Women for Conservation association is the right platform to advocate for women involvement in conservancies leadership positions.

Another pillar or objective for the Women for Conservation association is to support and strengthen sustainable development in their respective conservancies. In the wake of drought, as well as impacts of COVID-19 on tourism because of travel restrictions, the Women for Conservation will continuously seek opportunities to diversify their income and seek alternative income-generation opportunities to tourism. It is against that background that 15 women were elected as “agents of change” to attend a week-long training on poultry production, piggery and horticulture in December 2020. The agents of change are expected to transfer the knowledge to fellow women in their conservancies and neighboring communities.