The Tsiseb Conservancy: How Communities, the State and the Market Struggle for Its Success

Abstract

This chapter empirically analyses how the new policy framework in Namibia has allowed previously disadvantaged rural communities in the Erongo region to regain rights over their natural resources (wildlife and tourism) and eventually benefit from these. The Tsiseb conservancy, managed by an elected community committee, has indeed generated significant income from hunting and photographic tourism within its jurisdiction. Locally, a guides’ association in the Brandberg mountain has allowed local young people to sustain their family livelihoods while a private investor, building lodge infrastructure in the Ugab river, has paid lease fees to the conservancy fund and has created a significant number of rural jobs. These revenues, together with the emergence of strong institutions regulating the use of natural resources in the area, have allowed the conservancy to preserve and increase wildlife numbers, including endangered species. This chapter nonetheless uncovers a situation where a lack of members’ participation in decision-making processes and a capture of conservancy affairs by a small well-connected group of people may jeopardize institutional stability and biodiversity conservation. This finally calls for investing more effort, time and money in managing on-going governance structures (community projects and partnerships) so as to avoid institutional failure after some years.