A NEW team has been appointed to lead the Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), one of Namibia's largest and oldest NGOs and a pioneer of the community-based natural resource management programmne.

The new co-directors are John Kasaona, Colin Nott and Karine Nuulimba, who have taken over from the founding co-directors, Garth Owen-Smith and Dr Margaret Jacobsohn. The latter started the NGO and registered it as a trust just before Independence.

IRDNC grew out of a conservation and development partnership with communities in the 1980s which laid the foundation for Namibia's communal area conservancies. These community organisations have created hundreds of rural jobs, boosted the tourism industry and now earn tens of millions of dollars each year.

The new co-directors, who will head different sections of the NGO which works in northern Namibia and western Zambia, all have extensive experience in CBNRM and are well-known figures in the region.

Kasaona, named Conservationist of the Year by the Cheetah Conservation Foundation earlier this month, worked his way up through IRDNC's ranks and was head of the NGO's community-based tourism unit, and an assistant director.

Nott, who was IRDNC's first project manager and also an assistant director, is a range ecologist who has pioneered a community-based approach to holistic rangeland restoration in Kunene.

Nuulimba, an anthropologist, recently returned to Namibia after six years in Botswana where she was deputy director of that country's biggest field NGO.

Three assistant directors were also appointed by IRDNC's board of trustees.

They are Janet Matota and Beavan Munali, both Caprivi-based, and Lucky Kasaona in Kunene Region.

Multi-award-winning conservationists Garth Owen-Smith and Margaret Jacobsohn will stay involved in the national CBNRM programme, working part-time as technical specialists for IRDNC and doing consultancy work. They will also remain on the IRDNC board of trustees.

IRDNC provides technical, logistic and financial support to more than 50 registered and emerging communal area conservancies in Namibia and is a member of a consortium that is supporting the Zambian government to initiate a community-based project with more than 20 village action groups (VAGs) in western Zambia.