Namibia was the first African country to incorporate protection of the environment into its constitution, giving people living in communal areas the opportunity to manage their natural resources through the creation of communal conservancies. These conservancies have helped to restore populations of elephants, lions, cheetahs, black rhinos, zebras and other native wildlife, though human-wildlife conflict is a concern as these populations grow and come into more frequent contact with communities. Farmers see significant losses when elephants raid crops or break down fences and water tanks, or when predators kill livestock.

The effects of climate change, including increasing temperatures and inconsistent rainfall, also place pressure on natural resources. Areas receiving less rainfall are more susceptible to drought and fires, while other areas face more frequent floods of greater magnitude. Such changes make agriculture difficult and reduce productivity. It also leads to increased problems with wildlife as fewer resources mean animals push into human settlements.

What WWF is Doing

Improving livelihoods: WWF’s work in Namibia focuses on supporting the country’s communal conservancy program—a successful model for balancing the needs of people and wildlife. WWF partners with local communities to help them manage their natural resources and ensure a future that includes healthy wildlife populations and sustainable economic growth. Today, there is a direct relationship between the health of wildlife populations and prosperity of local communities. As a result, poaching has declined dramatically and there are now restored populations of numerous species.

Protecting species: WWF works closely with the Namibian government and other partners to monitor, research and protect its wildlife. They have worked together to develop innovative new transmitters to track rhino movements and have provided antipoaching tools and technology, such as an SMS rhino hotline, to protect them against poaching.

Mitigating human-wildlife conflict: WWF works hard to increase community understanding of wildlife as an important natural resource worth conserving. This includes studying the movement and habitat requirements of large predators, and creating incentives for people to coexist with wildlife—such as income from ecotourism.

Connecting ecosystems: WWF has used satellite collars to study the movements of numerous animals and better understand the connectivity of ecosystems within KAZA, an enormous conservation area shared by five countries. This information has helped the government and communal conservancies identify priority areas to protect as animal movement corridors. They also support communal conservancies as they build networks of connected land for wildlife to move freely in response to climate change.