Local development impact of wildlife? Evidence from Namibia (from: ‘JUST WILDLIFE?’ OR A SOURCE OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT? by Caroline Ashley and Joanna Elliott, 2003) In Namibia, tourism and hunting are developing in the communal areas, particularly inside community-run ‘conservancies’ where communities have rights over wildlife use. Analysis of local livelihood impacts suggest reasons to be cautious about tourism potential: • communal income from tourism is limited, concentrated in few conservancies and still largely unspent; • evidence for significant impact on spin-off businesses and job creation is unclear; • there is little new investment in infrastructure or public services to support diversified rural livelihoods leveraged through tourism; • there is a lack of private sector confidence in investing in communal areas, in part because of perceptions of high entry and maintenance costs; • high-end market operations require land to be set aside for wildlife, and therefore impinge on alternative livelihood strategies such as livestock, in areas where people face uncertainty about livestock markets, grazing and water management as well as large household cash deficits. …and reasons to be hopeful: • there are signs of local level institutional strengthening, capacity building and improved governance; • tourist arrivals and expenditure in communal areas appear to be growing steadily; • small scale non-tourism enterprises based on wild resources are having success, including devil’s claw, narra melons and marula fruit, though more support is needed for market access, marketing, and scaling up production. Source: adapted from Long, A., persm.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 14:30:00 +0000
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