SUPPORT FOR NATURAL RESOURCES WORKING GROUP

1. SUPPORT FOR NATURAL RESOURCES WORKING GROUP Goal: To assist the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), Namibian Non-Governmental Organisations, existing and emerging communal area conservancies to promote sustainable development based on sound natural resource management throughout Namibia, through the development and implementation of monitoring and management systems.

2. OBJECTIVES • To provide assistance to the Natural Resource Working Group (NRWG) to develop synergies between NRM partners and to coordinate their efforts of providing an integrated approach to resource management, monitoring and reporting in conservancies. • To provide critical support to MET in developing and maintaining natural resource data management systems and a dedicated Geographic Information System (GIS) and to provide similar appropriate services to other partner institutions. • To develop “roll out” management, monitoring and reporting systems for conservancies and to provide technical support to support agencies with their implementation. • To provide assistance to the MET in developing capacity of their staff to support conservancies and implement, where required, their own appropriate monitoring systems.

3. ACHIEVEMENTS Providing assistance to NRWG to develop synergies between NRM partners • Establishment of NRWG which has the core principle of developing systems and approaches and supporting local implementing agencies to screen and customise. • Engagement of diverse partners BUT still need to engage on a wider front.

4. To provide critical support to MET in developing and maintaining natural resource data management systems and a dedicated Geographic Information System (GIS) and to provide similar appropriate services to other institutions. • Mapping – boundaries and features. • Dedicated GIS • Based on common directory. • Widely used. • Platform for other activities – game counts, management plans, tourism planning etc. • Sharing data and approaches has resulted in considerable savings. • Acknowledged as an innovative and robust approach. • Holds all geo-spatial data related to conservancies. • Dedicated wildlife database and reporting system (not complete). • “Paper-based” data management system developed for NW game count data.

5. To develop “roll out” management, monitoring and reporting systems for conservancies and to provide technical support to support agencies with their implementation. • Management plan • Wildlife monitoring – NW, EC, Nyae Nyae • Event book, reporting and data management system for conservancies.

6. Management & Monitoring System

7. To provide assistance to the MET in developing capacity of their staff to support conservancies and implement, where required, their own appropriate monitoring systems. • GIS support in Katima, Rundu, Outjo, Windhoek and Keetmanshoop. • Incident book in north-east. • Training – mapping, game count techniques, management plans and analysis.

8. This project proposes to: • Support the activities of a the natural resource advisor, and by doing so, the NRWG and NACSO for a further 19 months; • continue supporting the development and implementation of management and monitoring systems for both conservancies and the MET; • support the CSD by way of building skills and sharing approaches for supporting conservancies in respect of the registration process and natural resource management; • support DSS and Directorate of Wildlife Management (DWM) in developing appropriate monitoring and reporting systems in support of conservancy wildlife management; • continue developing, maintaining and sharing the dedicated CBNRM GIS; and • support applied biological research aimed at getting a better understanding of the resource base and improving monitoring and management.

9. Project ActivitiesTo provide assistance to the NRWG to develop synergies between NRM partners and to coordinate their of providing an integrated approach to resource management, monitoring and reporting in conservancies. • Provide appropriate support to the NRWG. • Maintain relationships with regional partners and, where required, leverage outside support.

10. To provide critical support to MET in developing and maintaining natural resource data management systems and a dedicated Geographic Information System (GIS) and to provide similar appropriate services to other institutions. • Maintain existing GIS and data systems and make available to partners with special emphasis on institutionalisation within MET. • Support efforts to make spatial data available to all potential users who do not require full GIS capabilities. • Refine participatory field data collection techniques.

11. To develop “roll out” management, monitoring and reporting systems for conservancies and to provide technical support to support agencies with their implementation. • Implementation of event book. • Support game counts and refine approaches and analysis. • Support development of conservancy management plans. • Provide the required training for partners to implement and maintain these systems.

12. To provide assistance to the MET in developing capacity of their staff to support conservancies and implement, where required, their own appropriate monitoring systems. • Support skills development of MET staff. • Support of MET monitoring systems by refining, where required, the already developed “roll-out” systems.

13. Expected Outputs • An up-to-date and easily accessibly GIS. • Implementation manuals for game counts, event books, management plans, wildlife utilisation options and a conservancy guide for interpreting data. • A conservancy natural resource reporting system which shall be based largely on the event book. • Enhanced capacity of conservancy NRM support institutions to support conservancy development. • Sustainable natural resource management systems for conservancies.