EU approves two grants to improve governance in the community-based natural resource sector
The European Union (EU) recently approved two grants to organisations working to improve governance in the country’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management Sector (CBNRM).
This comes after the governance of conservancies and other CBNRM structures came under scrutiny in recent years and support was needed to improve transparency and community involvement in decision making and accountability within CBNRM.
The first grant (€ 798,000) has been awarded to a consortium consisting of the Namibia Nature Foundation, Namibia Development Trust and Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, who will focus on improving equitable benefit distribution through enhanced accountability of management structures and active community inclusion in decision making.
This will involve working with Conservancies and their members to develop a good governance culture, improving conservancy management capacities and working with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to support better monitoring and adaptive management in relation to governance.
The second grant (€ 436,817.70) has been awarded to Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia, to improve the management/leadership, community participation and visibility of the most marginalised and vulnerable indigenous San conservancies (Nyae Nyae and Na Jaqna).
All these organisations are members of the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations whose collective goal is to work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, to bring together technical expertise and resources, to address systemic issues in the CBNRM programme.
The formal launch of two grants will take place this Friday in Windhoek.
