Module 149 · Community Conservation
The Namibia
Model
The country that put conservation in its constitution. 86 communal conservancies. 20% of the country managed by communities. 45.6% under conservation. Elephants tripled. Black rhino entrusted to villagers. Desert lions returned to the Skeleton Coast. Then drought, COVID, and a cull tested everything.
0
communal conservancies
0.0%
land under conservation
0
elephants (from 7,000)
0M+
N$ annual returns (peak)
0
residents in conservancies
001 · The Landscape
From the Skeleton Coast to the Zambezi. The entire country is the system.
Namibia’s entire coastline is protected — from the Orange River on the South African border to the Kunene River on the Angolan border. National parks form the spine. Communal conservancies wrap around them. Private conservancies fill gaps. Together they create the third-largest continuous conservation landscape on Earth. Wildlife does not stay in parks. It flows through a connected system of community-managed land where people have legal rights over, and economic interest in, the animals that share their territory.
002 · The Pioneers
1998. Four communities. One constitutional promise.
Namibia was the first African country to put environmental protection in its constitution. In 1996, the government granted communities legal rights to manage and benefit from wildlife on their land. In 1998, four pioneer conservancies were gazetted — each in a different landscape, a different culture, a different challenge. Torra in the arid northwest. ≠Khoadi-//Hôas straddling Kunene. NyaeNyae in San Bushmanland. Salambala on the Botswana border. Together they proved the model was not geography-specific. It was governance-specific.
Torra
1998Northwest Kunene · ~3,500 residents
First self-sufficient conservancy (2003). Desert lions returned. Damaraland Camp joint venture. Annual distributions to members. School renovations funded.
Proved the model. Self-sustaining by year 5.
≠Khoadi-//Hôas
1998Northwest Kunene · ~6,100 residents
Straddles Kunene north-south border. Arid northwest. Key desert lion corridor to Skeleton Coast. Grootberg Lodge partnership.
Connected Etosha to Skeleton Coast corridor.
NyaeNyae
1998Northeast (Bushmanland) · ~2,500 residents
San / Ju|'hoansi community. Different cultural context from Kunene. Community game guards from San trackers — world's best.
Proved model transfers across cultures.
Salambala
1998Zambezi (Caprivi) · ~8,000 residents
Riverine northeast. Botswana border. Elephant corridor. Part of KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area.
Transboundary wildlife movement enabled.
003 · The Expansion
Four conservancies became eighty-six. N$1 million became N$150 million.
The growth was not directed from Windhoek. Communities saw what Torra achieved and applied to form their own conservancies. Each required defined boundaries agreed with neighbours, a constitution, a wildlife management plan, and elected governance. MEFT registers but does not govern them. By 2019, 86 conservancies covered 166,179 km² — 20.2% of Namibia. Not all are profitable. Many are on marginal land with little wildlife. But collectively they form a conservation network that no government could have built alone.
Independence. Wildlife devastated. 14% under national parks only.
Nature Conservation Ordinance amended. Communities granted wildlife rights.
First four gazetted: NyaeNyae, Salambala, ≠Khoadi-//Hôas, Torra.
Income grows. Joint-venture lodges begin. Game guard system expands.
N$2.35M total income. First NACSO State of Community Conservation report.
Model gains international recognition. Elephant numbers recovering.
Over N$70M returns. Desert lions expanding westward to Skeleton Coast.
Elephant 7,600→23,600. Drought begins in Kunene. Peak lion estimate ~180.
N$150M+ annual returns. Peak pre-COVID. 67 lodge partnerships.
COVID collapse. Tourism revenue halved. CRRRF emergency fund activated.
Recovery. 11-year drought ends. 723-animal emergency cull. Model under stress but holding.
Elephant ~26,000. 45.6% of Namibia under conservation management.
Sources: NACSO, MEFT, Community Conservation Namibia. © Dancing with Lions
004 · The Return
Everything came back. Then drought complicated the story.
Elephants grew from 7,000 to 26,000. Mountain zebra from 3,000 to 27,000. Springbok, gemsbok, kudu — all recovered. The government entrusted black rhino custodianship to communal conservancies, guarded by community game guards and Save the Rhino Trust rangers. Desert lions expanded from ~20 individuals in the late 1990s westward to the Skeleton Coast. But the 2022–2023 systematic survey — the first ever — found only 57–60 adults. The drought, running since 2012, had taken its toll.
Peaked ~180 in 2015. Drought + HLC reduced to 57-60. Lowest density in Africa: 0.11/100km²
005 · The Coverage
45.6% of a country. Under conservation.
No other country in Africa has this ratio. National parks provide the core. Communal conservancies wrap around them. Private freehold conservancies fill remaining gaps. Community forests add another layer. The result: a connected landscape where wildlife moves freely from Etosha to the Skeleton Coast, from the Zambezi to the Kalahari. At independence in 1990, only 14% was under conservation. In thirty-five years, that tripled.
17.6%
National parks & state concessions
20.2%
Communal conservancies
6.1%
Private freehold conservancies
1.7%
Community forests
45.6%
of Namibia’s land under conservation management. Third-largest continuous conservation landscape in the world. Entire coastline protected — Orange River to Kunene River.
006 · The Money
N$150 million. Half from hunting. All of it debated.
Conservation hunting generates roughly 50% of conservancy benefits. Photographic tourism provides 30%. The rest comes from crafts, community meat harvesting, grants, and concession fees. The hunting question is the most politically charged debate in African conservation. In Namibia, 91% of conservancy members oppose a hunting ban. Elephant hunting alone funds 55% of hunting revenue. Western donors frequently condition aid on anti-hunting policies. The communities who live with the elephants disagree.
44 hunting concessions. Quotas set by MEFT game counts. Elephant hunting = 55% of hunting revenue. Community meat harvesting included.
67 joint-venture lodge agreements. 866 full-time employees. Private sector brings capital; communities bring land and wildlife.
Natural materials, primarily women producers. NACSO partners support quality and marketing. Growing revenue stream.
Community meat harvesting. Dietary supplement for rural populations. In-kind value significant but hard to monetise.
Park concession fees, NGO grants, emergency funds (CRRRF during COVID). Variable year to year.
The trophy hunting question
Conservation hunting generates ~50% of conservancy benefits. 91% of community members oppose a hunting ban. Elephant hunting alone accounts for 55% of hunting revenue. This is the most complex policy debate in African conservation — the model that produces the best wildlife outcomes relies partly on a mechanism many Western donors oppose.
007 · The Stress Test
Eleven years of drought. Then COVID. Then a cull.
The model was built for normal years. What happens when the rains stop for a decade? When a pandemic destroys tourism revenue overnight? When the government authorises the killing of 723 animals — including 83 elephants — to feed communities during a drought emergency? The Namibia model faced every possible stress test between 2012 and 2024. It bent. It did not break. But the desert lions fell from an estimated 180 to 57–60. The question is not whether the model works. It is whether it works fast enough.
Kunene drought begins
Livestock losses accelerate. Prey base declines. Lion-human conflict intensifies.
Desert lion peak ~180
Population high creates more conflict. Retaliatory killings increase. Drought deepens.
Lion population declines 22-37%
MEFT releases Human-Lion Conflict Management Plan. Lion Rangers programme formed.
COVID-19 hits
Tourism revenue halved. Gate fees collapse. Rangers go unpaid. CRRRF emergency fund launched.
Post-COVID poaching spike
Without tourism revenue, conservation economics collapse. Community game guards face funding gaps.
Kunene lion survey: 57-60
45-60% lower than previous estimates. Lowest density recorded for free-ranging lions in Africa.
Drought emergency declared
723-animal cull approved. 83 elephants, 300 zebras. Communities fed. Conservation questioned globally.
Drought breaks
Rains return. Elephant at 26,000. Model under stress but intact. Recovery begins.
Bar width = approximate severity of impact on conservation system. Sources: NACSO, MEFT, Heydinger et al. (2024), Mongabay. © Dancing with Lions
008 · The Architecture
What Namibia built that nobody else has.
Most conservation models protect wildlife from people. Namibia gave wildlife to people. The 1996 legislation did something no other African government had done at that scale: it transferred conditional rights over wildlife to the communities who live with it. Not management contracts. Not revenue-sharing agreements. Ownership rights, conditional on governance and sustainability.
The structure is democratic by design. Every conservancy has an elected committee, a constitution, annual general meetings, financial reporting requirements, and a wildlife management plan. MEFT can de-register conservancies that fail to comply. This creates accountability without central control. The government sets the rules. The communities run the operations.
The joint-venture model — 67 lodge partnerships, 44 hunting concessions — brings private sector capital and expertise into community-owned landscapes. Communities provide land and wildlife. Operators provide infrastructure and market access. Revenue flows to conservancy committees who distribute it to members, reinvest in anti-poaching, and fund social infrastructure: schools, clinics, ambulances.
But the model has structural vulnerabilities. Revenue depends almost entirely on international arrivals. When COVID closed borders, conservancy income halved overnight. The CRRRF emergency fund prevented collapse, but it was a one-time intervention, not a systemic solution. The 11-year Kunene drought killed livestock, reduced prey, and pushed lions into increasingly desperate conflict with farmers earning less than $1 per day. The 2024 cull — 723 animals killed to feed communities — was legal, scientifically managed, and deeply uncomfortable for a country that built its international reputation on conservation.
The Namibian model is not perfect. It is the best working example of continental-scale community conservation in Africa. Its success is measured not in the absence of problems but in the existence of structures to address them. When lions kill livestock, there is a Lion Rangers programme. When drought strikes, there is a conflict management plan. When tourism collapses, there is an emergency fund. When corruption appears, there are governance structures to address it. No other country has this layered system operating at 20% of national territory.
What Namibia demonstrates is that conservation at scale requires architecture, not charity. Legal frameworks, community governance, private sector partnerships, government oversight, and diversified revenue. The question for the rest of Africa is not whether this works. The question is why it has not been replicated.
We just want to do the work. We don’t want to spend 90 percent of our time looking for funds and 10 percent doing the work. We are not schooled to be doing proposals to look for money. We are schooled to do ecology, to do science, to do management, to do conservation. To do the work, not to be looking for money.
Prof. Edson Gandiwa, on African conservation funding
009 · Connected Intelligence
The pattern.
The systemic view. Namibia shows what's possible. The deficit shows why it hasn't been replicated. 94% of threatened species unfunded. 5 donors provide 54% of all conservation funding.
Kenya's answer to the same problem. Different mechanism, same logic: people who live with lions are the best people to protect them. Amboseli-Tsavo model vs Kunene conservancy model — two paths to the same conclusion.
Rwanda's high-value low-volume approach. $1,500 permits, 10% to communities. Namibia's model distributes benefits more broadly but at lower per-person value. Different solutions to the same structural problem.
Continental lion decline: 200,000→23,000. Namibia's desert lions recovered from 20 to ~180, then drought pushed them back to 57-60. The economics of lion conservation at the edge of what's possible.
Sources
NACSO — State of Community Conservation in Namibia. Annual reports and web data (1998–2025).
Community Conservation Namibia — Facts and Figures: 86 conservancies, 166,179 km², 244,587 residents.
MEFT Namibia — Communal conservancy registration, wildlife quotas, game counts.
WWF — Conserving Wildlife and Enabling Communities in Namibia. Programme evaluation.
Heydinger et al. (2024) — First systematic population survey of desert-adapted lions, Northwest Namibia. African J. Ecology.
Desert Lion Conservation Trust — Dr Philip Stander. 28 years of Kunene lion monitoring.
Namibian Lion Trust — Lion Rangers programme, human-lion conflict data, Kunene conservancies.
Goergen et al. (2025) — Local management and governance improve conservancy incomes. Conservation Science and Practice.
Mongabay (2025) — Climate change tests the wildlife conservation model in Namibia.
Safari Club International Foundation — Namibia sustainable use conservation facts.
IUCN (2020) — Closing the gap: Financing and resourcing of protected areas in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Research, visualisation & analysis: Dancing with Lions
© Dancing with Lions 2026