OBJECTIVES



New Institutions for Sustainable Natural Resource Management
in Communal Conservancies
(Nadine Faschina)

 

Since the 1990ies, Namibia’s Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) aims to combine the protection of natural resources with the development of rural indigenous communities. The program delegates usufruct rights and control over natural resources to a communal user group, institutionalised in “communal conservancies”.

This research project focuses on the impact of New and Old Institutions on range management. In particular, it investigates communication networks and forms of conflict resolutions in communal conservancies situated in Namibia’s Kunene Region.

Key issues

  • Network analysis of institutions involved in CBNRM at national, regional and local level;
  • Communication and information flow;
  • Local governance of New Institutions relating to land management;
  • Relations between former management institutions and the conservancy committees in terms of power, co-operation and conflict;
  • Decision-makers and personal networks;
  • Local conflict resolutions relating to range management (institutional level, household level).

Background

Land reform und Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM)

After independence, equal access to land and other key resources was on top of Namibias post-apartheid political agenda. Since the 1990ies, the government initiated a land reform consisting of mainly two parts:

  1. The resettlement program was dedicated to settling formerly expulsed indigenous groups on commercial farmland bought by the Namibian government.
  2. The Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) should re-organise the status of the communal lands (former homelands).

Like a number of other countries in Southern Africa running similar programs since the 1990ies, Namibia’s CBNRM program aims to combine the protection of natural resources, especially wildlife, with the development of rural indigenous communities which were, before independence, politically and economically at the margins of the society. The program delegates usufruct rights and control over land and natural resources to a group of users, institutionalised in a so-called conservancy.

Conservancies

A conservancy is an area with clear-cut boundaries, where the corporate user-group should directly benefit from the profits evolving from sound natural resource management. To be registered as a conservancy, the community has to negotiate boundaries with its neighbours and to vote democratically for representative leadership and management in form of so-called conservancy-committees.

The conservancy program so far has reached a striking popularity among Namibias rural communities, especially in the Kunene Region, where the majority of the conservancies is registered. As local socio-geographic conditions differ widely throughout Namibia, CBNRM creates a heterogeneous picture of conservancies - not only concerning size, but also concerning economic potential and strategies of natural resource management.
(further information: http://www.met.gov.na/dea/index.htm)


Relevance

Concervancies offer exclusive usufruct- and control-rights over natural resources to their members. Thus they lead to political and economic empowerment. Nevertheless, the model is heavily based on external actors like national and international NGOs and other donors. Local actors are influenced by external actors - not only financially (only few conservancies are financially independent from donors), but also ideologically. The dictum of democratic and representative management committees may not always fit in the traditional political background, where chiefs and councillors are the prevalent authorities. As a consequence, the conservancy model often leads to the existence of hybrid institutions and to rivalry and conflicts.

In this context, the research project investigates institutional change and asks:

  • Which institutions of land management and management control exist and how have they evolved?
  • How are they socially accepted?
  • Which conflicts arise due to institutional change and changes of natural resource management?
  • How are former management institutions (e.g. Traditional Authorities) and the conservancy committees related in terms of power, co-operation and conflict?
  • How are conflicts resolved, and which institutions are involved in conflict resolution?
  • What is the new body of rules relating to range management?
  • How are those rules socially accepted?
  • Which economic alternatives does the conservancy offer as risk-minimising strategies?

Methods