Terminal review of the Sustainable Use of Wildlife in Namibia Project

Background:
The Sustainable Use Project that WWF-Norway supported with Norad funds, was built on the foundations prepared over more than two decades by pioneers of community based natural resource management (CBNRM) in southern Africa, and was undertaken as an integral component of the broader Namibian CBNRM Programme. It supported the Namibia CBNRM Natural Resources Working Group, one of three working groups under the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO), to build capacity in natural resource management and monitoring capabilities amongst CBNRM practitioners.
This evaluation was undertaken in accordance with the WWF Network Standards which stipulates that all projects require an evaluation to assess whether it achieved what it set out to do.  This is a crucial element of adaptive management and part of our programme cycle.

Purpose/objective:
The aim of the project was to ensure that use of wildlife is sustainable in community conservancies so as to sustain healthy wildlife populations and that the benefits possible from sustainable use are maximised for communities, to contribute to improved livelihoods. It supported the development of community conservancy management and monitoring systems (such as game counts, daily data collection and management planning), capacity building amongst CBNRM practitioners in these systems, and working with national stakeholders to improve implementation of regulatory controls for wildlife use, trade and transport.

Methodology:
The review commenced with a desktop assessment of all relevant documentation provided.   This was followed by intensive interviews with key stakeholders and informants, both in Windhoek and in the field (Torra and Doro !Nawas conservancies).  The field trip also afforded the team the opportunity to view the cold room and meat processing facilities which were developed through this project as a pilot to  “add value” by adding an additional level of benefits to wildlife hunted on the conservancies; and to engage with field based Project, NGO and conservancy staff and to observe them at work. 

Key findings:
The evaluators found that:
• the Project has contributed to achieving the goal of “Improved quality of life for rural Namibians through sustainable wildlife utilization and conservation”.
• the Project, working on a very modest budget in relation to the growing number of conservancies that require assistance, is largely achieving the Log Frame Objectives.
• the project is assisting to ensure that  use of wildlife is sustainable: from the game count to the final quota approval by the Minister, sound and externally assessed census techniques coupled with data-based quotas for trophy and non-trophy animals are applied  
• based upon scientific data and systems, harvesting quotas are set together with all relevant stakeholders, with communities playing an increasingly active role along with the Ministry.
• that the conservancy movement is firmly rooted in older conservancies and is gaining increasing traction with other communities, with the perceived benefits (additional livelihood opportunities and income) outweighing the perceived risks and disadvantages (human wildlife conflict). 
• wildlife numbers are stable and/or increasing across the communal areas (although increasing, in some instances, the potential for human-wildlife conflict);
• whilst quality of life indicators at the household level are not yet available (a strategy for recording such has been developed and is being rolled out), cash flows to communities has reached the level of some N$45 million per annum (2010 figures);
• detailed investigations have and are being conducted to identify practicable ways of adding further value to sustainable use of wildlife and thus to generate more benefits for communities, through supporting of activities aimed at adding value to meat hunted on conservancies, such as exploring the potential of smoking prime cuts and biltong production, the preparation of hides for sale and the introduction of field slaughtering facilities and cold rooms to several conservancies. 
• an intern and “Conservation Leaders” Programme has been launched to train and mentor young Namibians, as a means to enable sustainability of the programme

Recommendations:
• Expansion of the currently over-stretched project team, with the provision of associated required funding.
• Secure funding to provide a career path for the for promising young Namibians who are currently exposed to an initial one year of training and mentorship programme (“Conservation Leaders Porgramme”), but are not assured of further gainful employment or suitable employment contracts following their second year of attachment to a partner organisation;
• Optimise income from consumptive use, including facilitating co-operation between tourism and hunting operators to ensure cooperation in this regard
• That because of the varying wildlife levels and opportunities for income generating activities, it is unlikely that all conservancies will be able to be entirely self-sufficient and a certain minimum level of funding for the provision of technical support will likely always be required. This needs to be understood by all concerned, including donors, and creative, sustainable finance mechanisms will be required to allow Namibia to fund these costs independent of external donor support.
• The widespread success of the conservancy support systems should be recorded in the relevant scientific and semi-popular literature. The meticulous attention to fulfilling identified needs of conservancy management, on an ongoing and adaptive basis, is worthy of recording for all potential interested parties (academic, political, administrative and conservation managers), including the process involved. In order not to add to the workload of project personnel, this could be prepared in collaboration with a commissioned expert.

Comments from the organisation, if any:
WWF-Norway is continuing to support the Namibian CBNRM Programme, through WWF in Namibia, but on a programmatic level. The recommendations from this evaluation will, as far as possible, be integrated into the programme, however, as noted, this requires additional funding in many cases, which is not always available.