Irene !hoaës
29 October 2008
Windhoek — A new conservancy will soon open its doors in the Khorixas constituency of the Kunene Region, increasing the number of conservation areas in the region.
The !Khoro !Goreb Conservancy, named after the Hartmans Mountain Zebra which is endemic to Namibia, is located in the southern part of the Kunene in the north-west of the country.
The conservancy borders on the Ugab river in the south-west, and shares boundaries with Ohungu, Sorri-Sorris and /Audi conservancies, commercial farming areas and Khorixas town lands.
The conservancy, which covers an area of 11 500 hectares, is located 20 km south of the Braunfels Secondary School.
The technical advisor of the !Khoro !Goreb Conservancy, Kenneth /Uiseb said the idea of the conservancy came about so that communities could take ownership of their natural resources, as the area also faces environmental and social challenges.
"The conservancy is faced with unsustainable harvesting of natural resources, high levels of poaching, high levels of unemployment, as well as high incidences of human-wildlife conflicts," /Uiseb said.
He said wildlife or tourism-based enterprises for livelihood diversification are absent in the area, while there are no benefits or incentives for wildlife conservation and sustainable natural resource management.
The !Khoro !Goreb Conservancy is the first in the south Kunene area.
The overall goal is to establish a community-based game guard system to conserve and manage biodiversity (mainly wildlife) and natural resources in a way that would promote the sustainable livelihoods of the current and future generations.
"We will first concentrate on conservation activities for now and will with time, create tourism attraction facilities," he added.
The conservancy is yet to be registered, as there are still some boundary issues to be ironed out.
The Kunene Regional Council and the Khorixas Town Council do not want the airstrip to be part of the conservancy.
/Uiseb, however, noted that the issue will be resolved very soon and the conservancy will be officially endorsed early next year.
The project was however already launched in September 2008.
The Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) availed N$325 000 to the conservancy, which will be given out in small portions over time.
The first installment of N$100 000 has already been advanced to the conservancy, so far.
Wildlife species found in the area are the mountain zebra, kudu, springbok, and smaller antelopes such as duiker and steenbok.
Elephants occasionally move in from other areas, which in recent times have become a matter of concern because of the human-wildlife conflict.
The conservancy plans to apply for more game from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, in future.
/Uiseb said that the establishment of the conservancy will be beneficial to the local people as hunting quotas will be applied for, from which the community will benefit, both in monetary and material terms.
/Uiseb is of the opinion that people will also have a sense of ownership once they are in charge of their resources.
There are also plans to install antennas, using solar panels, which he said the community should take ownership of.
Ten people from within the conservancy will be employed, nine of them as game guards, and the tenth person will be the game guard coordinator.
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