By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK
Minister of Environment and Tourism, Reverend Willem Konjore, says conservancies are community-driven institutions that should assist in accelerating rural development.
Konjore was speaking in Gam last week when he launched the Ondjou Conservancy that was registered in 2006.
He said in assisting rural development, conservancies would ensure economic development through building rural economies as well as ensuring community empowerment.
Ondjou is among 50 communal area conservancies that have been registered since the advent of the Community-Based Resource Management Programme (CBNRM) in 1996. He said the conservancy was the first bold step in the journey to improve the livelihoods of Gam’s future generations. Gam, whose inhabitants are mostly resettled from Botswana, is reeling in poverty and remains underdeveloped.
But through conservancies, many rural communities have changed their misfortunes by deriving benefits from the natural resources placed at their disposal. The country’s economy has also benefited from economic activities in the conservancies, earning N$140 million in 2005 through the CBNRM programme through direct and indirect benefits.
The minister said although the government remained committed to delivering basic services to its citizens, its resources were overwhelmed by competing demands considering the continued population growth.
“Our economy needs to be stimulated to create job opportunities for many of our people, more specifically in rural areas in order to limit urban migration.
“The migration of people from rural areas to urban centres and towns continues to put a heavy burden on the infrastructure of the urban areas and can be seen as a contributing factor to poverty, and lack of shelter and basic services in these urban centres,” he added.
Living with wildlife has created conflicts such as attacks on domestic animals by predators, loss of human life and destruction of infrastructure and crop fields.
However, Konjore said, benefiting from the resources would depend on how hard the communities work to ensure that the benefits derived from the conservancies exceed the costs of managing the challenges.
“Through the benefit that the conservancy will bring to its members, the equation is normalised and gradually the community will realise the value of our wildlife species,” he said.
The goal of the conservancy, whose process of registration started in 2001, is to harmonise the relations between game and people by creating avenues for direct and indirect benefits to flow into the community and also to restore ownership of natural resources in the area to the majority of the country currently living in poverty.
A brief on the conservancy says Gam has vast potential for investment because of its vast game, unspoilt spectacular landscape, unique vegetation, birds, medicinal plants, wild fruits and a warm, cultured people.
Income-generating and tourist activities that the Gam community is going to undertake include three campsites, a picnic site and a lodge.
Considering the huge capital involved in building a lodge, the community is looking for partners with whom they can go into joint ventures.
They will also undertake mountain hikes and guided tours to take tourists to the caves that are in the area.
Gam has a natural water fountain where most members of the community wash their clothes, cars and water their livestock. The community wants the area to have a vegetable garden and an aquaculture project to improve the community’s food security.