The Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Indileni Daniel, has stated that the government supports community conservation through programmes that help to manage natural resources, protect wildlife, and benefit from tourism and sustainable resource use.
She was responding to IPC MP Rodrick Likando, who questioned what steps the Ministry has taken to ensure that communities benefit from wildlife conservation and green jobs.
Daniel said communal conservancies support wildlife management and tourism and create jobs.
Other programmes include the Community Forest, which gives rights to manage and benefit from forest resources, as well as the Community Association, where communities living inside protected areas are given rights to benefit from tourism and hunting concessions.
“Tourism partnerships and concessions allow the Ministry to enable conservancies to enter into joint ventures with private tourism operators, generate revenue and create jobs. This ensures that communities benefit from Namibia’s tourism industry, particularly activities linked to wildlife. Sustainable hunting is also one of the benefits of this system. Conservancies receive regulated hunting quotas set by the Ministry, allowing communities to generate income and obtain meat. This promotes the sustainable use of wildlife while also generating income for communities.”
She also explained how the Ministry is ensuring that wildlife protection policies are enforced in communal areas.
“We came up with a strategy that involves not only people in the Ministry, but also communities and those working in conservancies. This is to ensure that wildlife protection policies are effectively enforced in communal areas. The Community Game Guard system has been established through the CBNRM programme in communal areas, and a wildlife crime informant reward system is also in place.”
She said the Ministry has also initiated skills development training programmes in natural resource management, women as community game guards, and sustainable agriculture and eco tourism.
These are designed to equip youth and women with entrepreneurial skills.