Namibia - Biodiversity Conservation and Integrated Ecosystem Management Program Project

Report No. PID10758 Project Name Namibia-Biodiversity Conservation and ... Integrated Ecosystem Management Program in Namibia through the National Conservancy Network Region Africa Sector Natural Resources Management Project ID NAGE73135 Borrower(s) Government Of Namibia Implementing Agency Nacso Namibian Association Of CBNRM Supporting Organization Address: P.O. Box 98353, Pelican Square, Windhoek, 57 Pasteur Street Contact Person: Patricia Skyer Tel: +264-61-230-888 Fax: +264-61-230-863 Email: nacso@iafrica.com.na Environment Category C Date PID Prepared November 5 2001 Projected Appraisal Date October 1, 2002 Projected Board Date February 4, 2003 1. Country and Sector Background Namibia is a vast, arid country with the majority of its population lives on marginal communal lands.Though Namibia boasts a rich diversity of ethnic and cultural groups (speaking eleven different languages), the apartheid legacy of the country has left a fractured and distorted socio-economic setting. Fully half of the population is considered below the poverty line, and the top seven percent of the population account for 48% of national consumption. Only 40% of the adult population is literate; the unemployment rate is between 35 and 40%; and malnutrition rates in many rural areas are among the highest in southern Africa. In 1998, Namibia ranked 108 (of 173 countries) on the United Nations Human Development Index Report - considerably below South Africa's 95 and Botswana's 74 ratings.Three major types of land tenure occur in Namibia. Private lands, found mostly in the central and more productive regions of the country, compose approximately 44% of the country. While in contrast, communal lands (found mostly in the north, east and south central regions) encompass around 42%, and protected state lands almost 14%. The socio-economic disparity between different ethnic groups in Namibia is further reflected by inequitable settlement patterns. The 1991 census data indicated that 67.6% of the population lives in the communal areas, while 32.4% are resident in the commercial lands - with roughly 24% of this latter population living in commercial urban centers. Industries and sectors such as mining, fisheries, tourism, wildlife, agriculture and livestock production, as well as energy, are currently the main contributors to the gross domestic product (GDP). These are almost  entirely natural resource based and require a careful management of water, land and wildlife. Poverty and lack of regulation normally leads to environmental degradation and wastage of resource and loss of biological diversity that leads to a continuing cycle of poverty and degradation. Preservation and wise use of these resources will ensure sustained economic growth and ultimately an increase in the standard of living of the Namibian people. This supports government's policy of poverty reduction, equitable distribution of national wealth and greater prosperity for all Namibians.Global significance of Namibia Biodiversity Resources: The greater part of Namibia support the large biomass of African wildlife including high proportions of endemic species (i.e. largest unfenced, free-roaming black rhino population of the world, desert elephants and the welwitschia plant) and contain some of the most spectacular scenery and wilderness in Southern Africa. Most of Namibia's rich and unique biodiversity wealth can be found outside protected areas, therefore Namibia has embarked upon an unconventional path toward conserving its valuable biodiversity heritage and natural resource base. While biodiversity conservation is an official national policy applied on 14% of Namibia's land area through formally established state-controlled parks and reserves, great strides have been made to create incentives for the larger masses of communal area residents to participate in conservation initiatives. Root causes of biodiversity loss and unsustainable management of the ecosystems include high population pressure, unsustainable patterns of resource consumption and production, lack of resource and ecosystem planning skills, poor implementation of sectoral policies, slow decentralization progress therefore still existing centralized planning and decision making over locally managed resources, lack of secure and exclusive land tenure for communities and overall poverty inequality. A National Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) initiative was begun in the early 1990s, and has since, become characterized by the establishment of communal area conservancies. Conservancies are legally recognized natural resource management institutions that have been created by the residents of an area to engage in specific natural resource management activities. In turn for taking on the responsibility for applying sustainable natural resource management practices, conservancies are accorded the rights to the benefits that accrue from the sustainable use of the resources being managed. Conservancies are constituted bodies, having legally identified geographic boundaries, and once approved, are officially listed in the government gazette. The legal foundation for communal area conservancies was established as Act No. 5 of 1996: Nation Conservation Amendment Act, 1996. Namibia's parks, reserves and communal conservancies are also complemented by an increasing amount of freehold land being managed as private reserves and game farms. The Namibia Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) view conservancies as predominantly wildlife management and tourism development mechanisms. Yet the MET also recognizes the multi-purpose values conservancies can contribute towards sustainable, integrated management of other complementary natural resources (i.e., forests, land, water, fish, grazing, etc.) and the development role conservancies can play in rural development and local governance. The MET has developed a further set of sectoral policies that complement and reinforce the intent of using conservancies as integrated ecosystem management institutions, including:a) The MET Forestry Policy & Legislation, which allows for the creation of "Community Forest Reserves" and recognizes conservancies as an optional institution for managing such reserves;b) The MET Community-Based -2 -  Tourism Policy, which provides for the allocation of exclusive tourism rights to all commercial tourism activities found within the boundaries of a conservancy;c) The MET Parks & Neighbors Policy, which recognizes conservancies on the borders of protected areas as potential legal management partners for government in the operations, management and benefits derived from the protected area's natural resources; andd) The MET Biodiversity Strategy, which recognizes the role that both freehold and communal area conservancies can play in the preservation of Namibia's biodiversity heritage.The MET is part of the larger Namibian Community-bases Supporting Organizations (NACSO) which includes national NGO's, the University of Namibia and other partners. Over the last year, NACSO spearheaded a strategic vision process that will provide the basis for the development and implementation of this project. 2. Objectives The project development objective is to assist Namibia in the sustainable organizational, ecological and socio-economic biodiversity conservation and integrated ecosystem management through the conservancy (communal and private) network. The main project objectives are to: (i) reinforce the legal, organizational and policy framework for sustainable integrated ecosystem management for conservancies including enhancement for sustainable funding mechanisms; (ii) improve the national capacity responding to demand-driven services to conservancies and other stakeholders; (iii) support investments for biodiversity and integrated ecosystem management in selected conservancies; and (iv) support the creation of integrated monitoring and evaluation systems including awareness raising and communication.Global Objective: To engage in a long-term participatory, integrated and innovative approach towards the effective conservation, management and utilization of the vast and diverse, fragile natural ecosystems found within Namibia in order to foster global benefits (with a focus on biodiversity and land degradation), and to improve rural livelihood, and sustainable economic development. 3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement To date the main focus of the national CBNRM program has been on the establishment and use of conservancies as a tool for the management of wildlife within communal areas. Initially, individual conservancies were undertaken on a pilot level in a number of strategic regional locations. However, as individual conservancy support initiatives grew from numerous, fragmented area-based projects to a National Conservancy movement, a need arose to develop an effective national conservancy support structure. Based on the preliminary success and a broad-based participation, ownership and interest of stakeholders, the Government and the National Conservancy Program have decided to step up this effort in particular (i) to respond to requests for an integrated approach for ecosystem management from a growing number of communities country wide, in particular in areas (and administrative Regions) that have not been targeted by the Program yet and that do include biodiversity of global importance, (ii) to strengthen support for conservancies in key areas that are not fully financially sustainable yet and to support sustainable financial mechanisms that will contribute to sustain conservation efforts in particular in conservancies that can not be fully financially self sustainable and, (iv) to develop comprehensive M & E systems. The World Bank's/GEF's assistance will be used to cover a wide range of issues - 3 -  relating to biological diversity and integrated ecosystem management and will involve a number of institutions subscribing to the common objective of supporting the GRN poverty alleviation strategy through economic and social development. It will stress ownership by the partners, cooperative partnerships between varying stakeholders and take a long-term holistic approach to development based on the building of national consensus. The program will also give equal weighting to social and structural issues as it does to conservation and financial ones. The Bank can build on its experience of similar projects in Africa which provides insight into adequate design and implementation of conservation and ecosystem management objectives, jointly with development efforts based on a participatory community-based approach.The program will focus on: Framing legal, policy, organizational and socio-economic conditions conducive for integrated ecosystem management at different levels; and Increasing capacity of community-based organizations to plan and sustainable manage their natural resource bases and to promote diversified livelihood; Strengthening capacity of community-based service organizations; Reinforcing existing monitoring systems to track and help understand integrated ecosystem management at national and conservancy level;Sharing experiences, dissemination of best practices for replication and policy recommendations.In the process, the program will augment the existing protected area system by more than 7%-. This will bring the amount of land in Namibia under some level of conservation management to approximately 21%-, and at the same time, place numerous Namibian key ecosystems under integrated management. Concomitantly, this program will bolster the capacity of NACSO to further establish and maintain an operational framework to provide support to its member organizations to service communal area conservancies. 4. Description The following 4 components have been identified and will be further refined during preparation: 1. Support the financial, legal, policy and organizational framework for sustainable community-based integrated ecosystem management through the conservancy network. 2. Improve national capacity to respond to demand-driven services to conservancies and other stakeholders. 3. Supporting investments for biodiversity and integrated ecosystem management in selected conservancies. 4. Support the creation of integrated monitoring and evaluation systems including awareness raising and communication. 5. Financing Total ( US$m) BORROWER 1 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY 8 LOCAL GOVTS. (PROV., DISTRICT, CITY) OF BORROWING COUNTRY 1 WORLD WILDLIFE FUND 3 BILATERAL AGENCIES (UNIDENTIFIED) 16 Total Project Cost 29 -4-  6. Implementation Namibia's National Conservancy Program has been developed and implemented as a partnership between a number of Namibian NGOs and the Namibia Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) represented through NACSO (Namibia's CBNRM supporting organizations). The primary roles of NACSO are to:a. Coordinate and support conservancy development activities;b. Advocate for policy and legislative changes; c. Recruit and foster more support institutions into the program; d. Generate funding for conservancies and conservancy support activities; e. Ensure the conservancy program maintains a high public visibility; and f. Monitor the effectiveness and impacts of the national communal area conservancy support effort. In particular the Directorate of Environmental Affairs (DEA) , the Department of Resource Management (including Department of Forests, Parks and Wildlife) and to a certain extent the Directorate of Tourism are governmental partner institutions of the NGO led NACSO and will be responsible together with NACSO NGO members for the partial execution of the project. 7. Sustainability His Excellency President Sam Nujoma presented Namibia's Green Plan to the 1992 UNCED conference in Rio. This plan recognized that both the country and the national economy were dependent on the prudent and wise use of its natural resources. Sustained economic growth is dependent on adequate protection of these resources which are known to be extremely fragile because of the arid environment. Therefore, the National Development Plan II (approved in early 2001) makes explicitely cross-reference to the National Conservany Program. It indicates together with the strong interest of new communities to participate in the National Conservancy Program, its intended extension (geographically and thematically) as well the growing support from Namibian non-governmental organization and the responsible governmental agencies that project objectives and activities are embedded in a framework favorable to ensure overall sustainability. As conservation and protection of valuable natural resources requires a significant level of investment that cannot be totally met from state funds, the Government of Namibia called over the last years for the "Establishment of an Environmental Trust/Investment fund to be used for the protection of the natural resource base through support to planning, monitoring, research, management and initiation of new pilot activities for promoting sustainable development". Progress has been made and the newly established bill on the Environmental Investment Fund (2001) and it's intended operationalization in the near future is intended to secure funding for biodiversity and ecosystem management with a decrease of international support over the longer term. 8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector As mentioned above, conservancies have thus far been formed predominantly around the opportunity for communities to harness wildlife-related benefits. As a consequence, most conservancies are found in areas of relative wildlife wealth. However, it is the long-term vision of the National Conservancy Program to move away from this sectoral approach to natural resource management and promote a diversified and integrated approach to ecosystem management. The Program recognizes the need to promote the conservancy approach with a wider audience of government agencies (i.e., Directorate of Forestry; Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Rural Development; Ministry of Lands and Resettlement; and Ministry of - 5 -  Fisheries and Marine Resources), particularly those agencies who are the stewards of other key natural resources found in conservancies. Similarly, there is a need to engage local, regional and traditional governance bodies in the conservancy program through working with the Ministry of Regional, and Local Government and Housing. The involvement and commitment of the above institutions will require continued promotion of the conservancy program as a multiple-purpose development initiative. As evidenced by the NDP II, this process is already being undertaken, with conservancies being viewed as instruments not only for the promotion of sustainable natural resource management, but also for rural development, poverty alleviation, and improved governance.The long-term vision also includes the establishment of strong and smart partnerships between communal conservancies and the private sector. Such partnerships will be productive at a number of levels. Especially important will be the establishment of joint ventures to generate conservancy income to cover its operational expenses and to return benefits to its broader membership. At another level, there is longer-term merit in pooling the complementary resources, knowledge and skills that can be united between the communal area and freehold conservancies. This may best be accomplished through communal-freehold direct partnership arrangements between individual conservancies; but, much can be gained by linking the current freehold conservancy association (CANAM) with a similar association for the communal area conservancies.The longer-term success of this approach is contingent upon policy and legislative adjustments in complementary ministries; the building of appropriate knowledge and skills into the staff from such institutions; expansion of the number of NGO support organizations (and their skill areas) involved in the program; and strengthening of the National Conservancy Program framework, particularly the NACSO and MET CBNRM Unit in the Department of Resource Management.The project builds on previous donor support for the CBNRM and conservancy movement, in particular the USAID supported LIFE Program and integrates clearly identified lessons learned and occurring gaps in the project design to be further developed during preparation. 9. Program of Targeted Intervention (PTI) Y 10. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation) Issues The project will be implemented under the policy and legal framework of the conservancy movement under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The project implementation is associated with clear and tangible environmental benefits. Significant biodiversity and ecosystem assets will be carefully assessed and monitored, the management of the resource base will be done by and through conservancies and CBNRM support organizations while the overall national capacity of the conservancy supporting network will be enhanced. 11. Contact Point: Task Manager Christophe Crepin The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473-9727 Fax: (202) 473-8185 - 6-  12. For information on other project related documents contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-5454 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http:// www.worldbank.org/infoshop Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not be necessarily included in the final project. This PID was processed by the InfoShop during the week ending November 9,2001 - 7 -