3 June 2009
The Conservancy Association of Namibia (CANAM) held its 13th annual general meeting (AGM) on the 16th of April in Windhoek.
Established in 1996, CANAM serves as an umbrella organization for the freehold conservancies of Namibia, with its main function being to coordinate and communicate conservancy efforts.
The AGM and integrated workshop, held at the Safari Court was attended by a large number of the 19 registered CANAM conservancies and, for the first time, representatives from four communal conservancies (African Wild Dog, Okamatapati, Otjituuo and Ozonahi) from the Otjozondjupa region.
The workshop had several presentations on Devil's Claw by Dave Cole from the Centre for Research Information Action in Africa (CRIAA-Namibia) and Wolfgang Lück and Tim Sutton from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SA) in Pretoria.
Several of CANAM's registered conservancies are producers of Devil's Claw and the information was very well received. CANAM members can now make use of this powerful tool to better manage their natural resources.
The CSIR has made images available to CANAM members and provided them with the Q-GIS software, which will allow them to map their conservancy boundaries, vegetation types, hunting areas, fences, water points and other important kinds of information, which will be used for natural resource management purposes.
CANAM chairperson Dr Laurie Marker presented the association's annual report. CANAM's membership remained steady with 19 conservancies represented and made up of 434 individual farmers and a combined size of 3,25 million hectare.
She said two new conservancies are in the process of being registered. The CANAM Exco held eight productive meetings in which routine business was conducted.
In addition, two printed newsletters and five e-newsletters were produced and distributed.
Throughout the year, CANAM's Exco focused on several main themes through the year including collaboration with the CSIR's Satellite Applications Centre, game meat utilization strategies, enhancing collaboration between communal and freehold conservancies, and advocacy with the Ministry of Environment (MET) toward recognition of free-hold conservancies.
Individual conservancies then presented reports, which provided updates from conservancies on their activities over the past year, including resource monitoring, special projects and challenges facing each conservancy.
In addition, a presentation focusing on the four communal conservancies in attendance emphasized their activities and the challenges they face as emerging conservancies.
All this information will form an important part of CANAM's new venture - the publication of a booklet highlighting freehold conservancies aimed at creating awareness of their objectives and CANAM as an umbrella organisation.
The publication will introduce member conservancies and will emphasize the efforts made to conserve and sustain Namibia's natural resources by CANAM members.
Dr Marker bid farewell to Yrida Dainat, CANAM's secretariat for the past five years, highlighting her achievements in making CANAM a truly professional and active organization.
Vicky Hamman has been appointed as CANAM's new secretariat.
The new CANAM's Exco elected at the meeting included Wilfried Pack from the Seeis Conservancy , who was voted as chairman, and Dr Laurie Marker (Waterberg), Henning Schünemann (Hochfeld), Barbara Rogel (Swakoptal) as committee members.
New members include Volker Grellmann (Namatanga), Zane Cooper (Gamsberg) and Danica Shaw (Pro-Namib).
CANAM's members agreed that the past year had been successful - continuing their mission of practising conservation through conservancy co-ordination and promotion.
In the year ahead, members will continue to strategise, share ideas, and get small successes on the ground to feed into the bigger picture of conservation in Namibia.
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