A PROCLAIMED community forest and three emerging community forests were recently joined to the Nâ‰a-Jaqna Conservancy near Tsumkwe in northeastern Namibia.

Jana Arnold of the German Development Service (DED), which supports the Community Forestry in Northeastern Namibia project, said in the past conservancies and community forests were developed separately.

"It was therefore difficult to co-operate and especially the benefit distribution system was restricted to certain people," said Arnold.

The decision to join the projects was taken at the annual general meeting of the Nâ‰a-Jaqna Conservancy on April 24 at Mangetti Dune in the Otjozondjupa Region.

The forests that were joined with the conservancy are the M'kata, Pespeka, Mangetti-South and Omatako-South community forests.

A working group consisting of support organisations and members of the existing management committees will now draft a joint constitution that will unite the formerly separated projects and lay the foundations for co-management.

Joining community forests with conservancies for the benefit of integrated natural resource management became possible with the latest extension of the Community Forestry programme of the Directorate of Forestry in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry.

A community forest is an area in which local communities manage and use forest resources for their own benefit.

Community forests are being created under the Forestry Act of 2001.

A conservancy is an area in which local communities manage and use wildlife resources for their own benefit.

They are being created under the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

Currently there are 13 registered community forests in Namibia and 51 registered communal conservancies.

This is the first merging of a conservancy and community forests in Namibia.