World Wildlife Fund

IRDNC-trained community game guards pose for a picture in the Kunene Province of Namibia. WWF's support of IRDNC and other Namibian organizations has empowered locals to manage their own natural resources.
© WWF-Canon / John E. Newby

The WWF-supported LIFE Project, in partnership with a range of Namibian civil and government organizations, has helped to make conservation a national imperative and numerous species are recovering. WWF is focused on four areas that are the most critical to the wellbeing of Namibia's people and wildlife.

Encouraging the Namibian government to make conservation a priority
WWF works with the Namibian government to demonstrate the value conservancies and wildlife represent to rural livelihoods, employment and sustainable land use. We also seek to increase the benefits community members receive by helping expand community members' rights over their conservancies. In the last two years, direct revenues from joint venture tourism, sustainable wildlife uses and other enterprises grew by more than 80 percent to $5.1 million. 

Building a sustainable conservancy system
The LIFE Project has facilitated impressive growth in conservation capacity, from two partners in 1993 to 12 in 2006. WWF will continue to work with these partners to increase the amount of land managed by conservancies from 14 to 20 percent of the country. We will assist our partners to expand the conservancies program, increase our work with the government and ensure the project's long-term sustainability.

Accelerating the recovery of wildlife
Many conservancies contain vast tracts of prime wildlife habitat but significantly low populations of animals. With support from the Namibian government, in 1998 WWF initiated a program to promote rapid recovery of wildlife populations through the capture and translocation of animals from national parks and and private-sector donations to designated conservancies. This process is speeding up the recovery of wildlife populations and expediting the generation of income to conservancies from tourism and wildlife-related enterprises. This initiative has since become a national conservancy program that is now fully supported by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. 

Increasing the involvement of women in natural resources management
Namibian women have traditionally been excluded from natural resource management. WWF is working with our Namibian partners to change this. Women now make up 35 percent of conservancy committee members, including three committee chairs and the majority of conservancy treasurers. This means women are receiving a larger share of benefits and exerting a growing influence over resource management and societal development decisions.