Vincent N. Sazita

Brian S. Lwendo

The conservancy programme is underpinned by legislative reform, the Nature Conservation Amendment Act, that has led to a paradigm shift in how communities perceive and value wildlife. 

In contrast to pre-apartheid antagonistic attitudes towards wildlife, communities across Namibia are increasingly recognising the value and contribution which wildlife and tourism can provide towards rural development and livelihood enhancement, and the importance of managing these valuable resources in a sustainable fashion.

Jean Piaget maintains that as simple as playing marbles, children respect laws that govern the game. He views this capability as a tool for passing down morals from one generation to the next. Each child in this game, therefore, learns to respect simple laws and makes application to other situations. 

The self-concept of being obedient to law,s and to what may be perceived as socially acceptable behaviour is developed from simple playtime that is observed and upheld.

Social comparison states that people have a responsibility to evaluate their own opinions and abilities and that, if they do not get an objective to that criteria of the evaluation they make, they should then evaluate themselves by comparing their opinions, capabilities and abilities with those of other people around or afar.

Breaking rules destroys societies, societal fabric, clear reasoning and obstructing social justice, and thus incriminating the state. When one thinks that he is above the law, he sends voices out there that no one can be equal to him and as such, he sets a precedence that he remains powerful, and no one equates his/her powers. 

In the end, this person becomes corrupt, and rests in the grave of trampling social justice. 

Another important lesson is that conservancies have different wildlife and tourism assets, and so need to design their activities and set their expectations accordingly. 

In addition, conservancies have been formed for different reasons, and it is important to understand the objectives of the communities when they form a conservancy, and their objectives are important for giving direction to service providers in deciding how best they can help the conservancy. 

These objectives are also important in deciding how the Government can help the conservancy to develop further, and deciding which organisations are best-placed to provide the support.

Kendra states that the “upward social comparison is when we compare ourselves with those people we believe are far much better than us. 

Downward social comparison indicates that we are able to compare others who are worse off than ourselves. It is vital to note that unfair comparison may affect criteria, judgement and decision-making. 

A reasonable human being will always consider the impact of carefully and accurately reclining to informed decision-making policies than being abstractive.

Natural resources are abundantly prevalent in Namibia, some are government controlled and extended to community-based institutions that have obtained conditional rights to use the wildlife occurring within a self-defined area. 

They are self-governed, democratic entities managed by committees that are elected by their members. Namibia has created 86 communal conservancies, covering more than 20% of the country, and encompassing approximately 227 802 community members. Communal conservancies also include community associations, community forests and community fish reserves.

The most staggering point about conservancies is that those who were elected by the community members to represent them on boards have become predators of the very nature they were elected for to fulfil as mandate and paradigm shifts in the conservancies they were supposed to serve. 

They have become unresponsive, and feel they ar above the law. To act above the law means bending social justice, then do according to one’s own accord, and then end up meddling with the resources that were supposed to benefit all the citizens as a sense of compelling and commanding social justice. 

No one came with resources, but al resources were buried in the crest of the earth by God’s own accord, and governments are to administer them for all different groups of people of that particular and specific land for the common good of all, irrespective of age, gender, sex, educational qualification, ethnicity, regionalism, physical ability, etc.  

What others do in coservancies is first to plan how they would enrich themselves from what does not belong to them alone, thereby plundering resources at the expense of the poor who were supposed to benefit more from those conservancies. 

While noting that no one is more hated on earth than the poor, we should also know that we are living and getting along with the resources that the poor were also supposed to live on. 

Conservancies have been turned into gold mines for
some, because accountability and responsibility are not being maintained to those who are in management ,or manning those resources within those conservancies. 

There are many who are managing conservancies who do not even know why they are there, and what to be accountable or responsible for. By implication, it can be deduced that so much money has been stolen from the conservancies to line the pockets of corrupt leadership of these conservancies. 

Communities in conservancies should be educated on the purpose of conservancies in Namibia; financial sourcing and funding for conservancies;,bookkeeping of financial and material resources; who should benefit from the residue of the conservancies; how conservancies are only restricted to those within the conservancies and not those outside those conservancies. 

So much leaves room to be desired when it goes to the sad story of how many people who are destitute and were supposed to benefit from these conservancies have been laid to the two-sharp-edged glaring sword of poverty. 

When you ask communities today about the benefits they get from conservancies, few would know, while the majority may live in ignorance. 

It is time communities are sensitised on the need for conservancies in their areas. These people have been disadvantaged to have given vast lands and the resources therein for the establishments of those conservancies, only to end up losers and sufferers of their own cause and effect to give more for nothing, or more for less. 

There should be an urgent wake-up call to shake the leadership of these conservancies to live up to their mandate, and fairly give the 

cake to all who must benefit from these conservancies. 

* Vincent N. Sazita (PhD)

Brian S. Lwendo (PhD)