WINDHOEK- Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), Namibia’s pioneering non-governmental organisation in the national Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme, on Friday received a donation of 11 brand-new vehicles.

Nine of these new cars were donated by the Bread for the World (BftW), a development and relief agency of the Protestant Churches in Germany, and the other two vehicles were donated by The United States Agency for International Development (Usaid). 

IRDNC has been involved with community-based conservation in the Kunene and Zambezi regions since the 1980s and it is through committed partner organisations, donors, collaborators in government and other supporters that IRDNC is able to render the necessary support for communities to manage and generate an income from wildlife and other natural resources. 
IRDNC’s Executive Director, John Kasaona, said to date they support a total of 48 communal conservancies and one association (33 in Kunene Region and 16 in Zambezi Region) that have collectively earned more than N$75 million for rural communities in the past year alone. 

He noted IRDNC operates an ageing vehicle fleet of more than 30 vehicles, of which almost 75 percent are over five years old and almost 60 percent are more than 10 years old, resulting in increasingly high maintenance costs. 

Therefore, he said this generous donation from BftW and Usaid comes as a major relief and will support the IRDNC field teams in the vast, arid, rugged Kunene Region of northwest Namibia and the flood-prone Zambezi Region in the northeast.  
The Usaid vehicle is specifically earmarked for supporting communities in combatting wildlife crime in the Zambezi Region.
He said IRDNC’s ability to respond to community-based natural resource management needs on the ground will be greatly enhanced with these generous donations.   

On behalf of IRDNC and the conservancies and communities they serve, Kasaona expressed his utmost appreciation to BftW and Usaid, for their generous and continued support towards Namibia’s conservation efforts, as well as to Indongo Toyota who supplied the vehicles and prepared them for the field.