Impacts of Wildlife Tourism on Rural Livelihoods in Southern Africa - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 139

committees of community members. Once registered, a conservancy acquires
rights and responsibilities for the consumptive and non-consumptive use and
management of wildlife, on behalf of the community it represents. The main
requirements for registering conservancies are that they must have a defined
membership and a committee that is representative of community members.
Conservancies must also be legally constituted with clearly defined boundaries
that are not disputed with neighbouring communities. The government formally
owns conservancy land but communities have rights of occupation (NACSO,
2004). There were 42 registered communal conservancies in Namibia by 2005
(MET, 2005). In addition, 24 private wildlife conservancies have been established
by commercial farmers since 1968 (Zeppel, 2006). Areas within conservancies
can be zoned for different uses, including wildlife use, hunting and wildlife
viewing, and agriculture. Wildlife quotas can be recommended by conservancies,
and they can enter agreements with private tourism operators and develop
tourism facilities. Members elect committees that manage the natural resources,
and then distribute incomes from hunting and tourism (Jones, 1998).
Communal and household benefits
The impacts on employment of tourism in protected areas in Namibia were
estimated in 2003 using a Social Accounting Matrix. The analysis found that
approximately US$44.3 million was distributed to rural and urban households in
Namibia, through wages and salaries, businesses, pensions and gifts, and tradi-
tional agriculture (Turpie et al, 2004).
Most of the income from Namibian communal conservancies comes from
community-based tourism and campsites (35 per cent), followed by joint tourism
ventures (27 per cent) and trophy hunting (21 per cent) (Novelli and
Humavindu, 2005, cited in Zeppel, 2006). In 2000 community-based tourism
generated US$216,135 out of the total $504,315 accrued from all CBNRM activ-
ities on conservancies. 3 Joint-venture tourism operations generate the largest
source of income for conservancies - paying bed night levies, rental fees, annual
flat-rate fees and percentages of their business income, game for hunting, training
and employment (Ashley and Garland, 1994).
Financial benefits generated by rural communities within the conservancy
programme have increased dramatically, from around US$188,019 in 1998 to
US$1.2 million in 2004. 4 The Namibian economy earned about US$16 million, 5
either directly or indirectly from CBNRM in 2003. Money earned by conservan-
cies is generally used for conservation and land management, salaries/wages or
benefits (dividends) for member households. Wildlife populations have also
increased substantially in association with the programme (NACSO, 2004).
Barnes et al (2002) calculated the values of five wildlife conservancies on
communal land in Namibia (see Table 7.3). The conservancies were found to be
economically efficient and able to contribute positively to national income and the
development process. They also found that the financial returns for communities
from wildlife use initiatives were very attractive and exceeded their investments.
The generally highly positive returns come from two sources: (1) direct use