Evaluating Eden Series Discussion Paper No.6 Community-based Natural Resource Management in Botswana and Namibia: an inventory and preliminary analysis of progress Brian T B Jones Report submitted to IIED in 1997 and published September 1999 Postscript i Postscript POSTSCRIPT Since this report was completed a number of developments in Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) have taken place in both Botswana and Namibia. There have been changes in both countries at national programme level as well as within individual projects and communities. Some of the communities have made progress and are increasing their income from wildlife and tourism, while others have struggled to develop appropriate institutions or proposed agreements with the private sector have fallen through. New projects have started and new donors, NGOs and communities have become part of the process. A brief update on new developments is provided below (the information is drawn from my own experience of both programmes and from a recent report completed in February 1999 by Tara Gujadur looking at CBNRM in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe titled: Regional Inventory of Practical Strategies in Community Based Natural Resource Management. It is available from SNV Botswana and is a useful summary of CBNRM activities in the four countries): In Botswana a number of policy advances have been made. A government community- based strategy for rural development has given additional impetus to community-based approaches to natural resource management by linking them to mainstream development strategies. A new CBNRM policy has been drafted for the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) which aims to consolidate the thinking implicit in previous policy and legislation and provide specific objectives for CBNRM and implementation guidelines. The policy will also include a section on relations between protected areas and neighbouring communities. Under the National Development Plan 8 (NDP8) the government has made financial assistance available to local communities through a Community Conservation Fund (CCF). Communities can access funding for a variety of activities such as legal fees, training, proposal development, drafting a management plan and marketing. Finance is also available for conservation projects. The establishment of the CCF represents a significant commitment to CBNRM by the Government of Botswana. The USAID-funded Natural Resource Management Project (NRMP), which provided technical assistance and financial support to Government, NGOs and communities, ended in mid 1999. IUCN and SNV Botswana have been supporting CBNRM stakeholders in mapping out the future post-NRMP and identifying best practices. They are also supporting the new Botswana Community-Based Organisation Network (BOCOBONET) which acts as an advocacy group and communication forum for community organisations involved in CBNRM activities. According to Gujadur, CBNRM in Botswana is becoming more localised; environmental NGOs are offering communities a variety of services for employment and income generation, beyond tendering hunting concessions. The challenge for government, NGOs and communities is now to shape CBNRM themselves in a way that is less dependent on outside funding, as well as to develop internal capacity to support the fledgling community institutions. ii Postscript In Namibia four communal area conservancies have been registered: Torra (Bergsig/De Riet) and #Khoadi //hoas (Grootberg) in Kunene Region, Nyae Nyae in eastern Otjozondjupa Region and Salambala in eastern Caprivi. Four more have been approved in principle by government pending clarification of some minor issues and several more communities are expected to apply for conservancy status within the next six months. A critical mass of communal area conservancies is beginning to be established which will strengthen the ability of individual communities to promote their CBNRM interests nationally. The National Land Policy has been finalised and allows legally constituted groups such as conservancies to become land holders. The Communal Land Reform Bill, still before the National Assembly recognises conservancies, but is still unclear in many respects on how they will fit into the new land administration and allocation system. CBNRM stakeholders are carrying out more lobbying with government on issues such as exclusive group rights to land and resources. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) policy on Parks and Neighbours is still in draft form, but could be approved during 1999. A draft Tourism Policy also recognises conservancies as having tourism rights on their land, but the Tourism Bill which would entrench these rights has been held up by consultations on the policy. The bureaucratic process grinds on, and hopefully will produce before too many tourism assets of communities have been appropriated by the private sector or unco-ordinated development has led to tourism facilities outstripping demand. The USAID-funded Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project entered a second phase in mid 1999 and will run for another five years. It will continue to support Namibian NGOs and CBOs in implementing CBNRM and a particular emphasis will be on ensuring that national institutions are in place to take CBNRM into the next millennium. A new umbrella group of CBNRM stakeholders, the CBNRM Association of Namibia (CAN) has been established from the former collaborative group of Namibian implementors. New NGOs from the mainstream rural development sector have joined CAN giving it greater credibility in the development community. MET has signalled its commitment to CBNRM through developing a special CBNRM unit and providing game for re-introduction to two established conservancies. CBNRM gained a political stamp of credibility in 1998 from an official launch of the communal areas conservancy programme by the Namibian President. The existing conservancies and some emerging conservancies are concluding agreements with the private sector for hunting and tourism and beginning to generate sufficient income to cover their operating costs and provide benefits to community members. By and large many of the key issues identified in 1997 in both Botswana and Namibia remain valid. In particular it still remains to be seen to what extent communities that receive income from wildlife and tourism really begin to manage these resources themselves or passively accept the benefits without the responsibility. Both countries face problems of capacity. They have small populations and CBNRM faces strong competition from other sectors for competent and experienced personnel. Resources available to conservation agencies remain generally meagre. The risk still remains that a number of communities enjoy five-star NGO and donor support while others struggle on their own. This is not so iii Postscript much an issue of funding and infrastructure support, but of the need for persistent and consistent "light touch" facilitation of high quality to assist communities build robust, long enduring and accountable natural resource management institutions and to assist them develop successful business partnerships with the private sector. Although there are still many risks and challenges, there is much positive about CBNRM in Botswana and Namibia. Brian Jones Windhoek, August 1999 iv General Introduction 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION The number, scope and scale of Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) activities in both Botswana and Namibia have grown considerably over the past five years to the extent that in each country there is now a clearly identifiable national programme. Within these national programmes, government provides an enabling framework for communities to manage their resources sustainably and provides certain extension and other services to communities. National and local level NGOs provide communities with funding support and management, institutional and organisational capacity building. Within each national programme, there is a central organisation or project which provides co-ordination of many CBNRM activities at national and local levels, and there are clearly identifiable partnerships between government, NGOs, communities, the private sector and donors. An important feature of both national programmes is the diversification away from wildlife and wildlife-related tourism as income generating activities, and the focus on sustainable resource management. Although wildlife and tourism still form the basis of many of the CBNRM activities, the government, communities and other implementers have realised the interrelatedness of natural resource use and placed considerable emphasis on diversification, focusing also on veld products and forest products. This diversification is important for spreading risk in terms of income generation, but is also crucial to the ability of communities to make trade offs in their decision making on how to use their land. Because of the interrelatedness of different types of resource management and the extent to which individual projects in Botswana and Namibia combine management of different resources, this report will not investigate community- based wildlife activities alone, but will be inclusive and focus on community-based natural resource management in a broad sense. Another important feature of CBNRM activities in Botswana and Namibia is the strength of the focus on rural development. A considerable amount of time is spent on carrying out socio-economic surveys, Participatory