Our approach

Collaborative management for multiple benefits

Landscape management by landscape members

The Greater Fish River Canyon Landscape is made up of a mosaic of different land holdings around the Ai-Ais/Fish River Canyon/Huns Mountains National Park. The landscapes and its biological assets of the area are extremely important. It is critical that these are properly managed and conserved. Some areas, especially those in the northwest in the inaccessible Huns Mountains, have remained relatively undisturbed by human intervention. In contrast the areas adjacent to the Orange River and to the east and north of the Ai-Ais National Park have been severely impacted by mining, grazing and agriculture. It is especially along the Orange River that these impacts must be significantly reduced through improved management and control. Planning is critical for all new developments or extensions to existing developments and this must include the use of environmental assessments, strategic assessments and management plans, which will help identify problems and opportunities, and guide developments to achieve integrated socioeconomic and bio-physical goals.

The Landscape is managed under a co-management approach whereby there is high-level consensus amongst all stakeholders on developing an overall vision, objectives and targets that will be to the greater good of all stakeholders, achieved through the implementation of an agreed Co-management and Development Plan.

Vision

To co-manage the Greater Fish River Canyon Landscape for enhanced ecological and biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development.

Purpose

To foster and enhance collaboration and cooperation by the members of the Landscape, and where relevant, to help harmonise their planning, management and development at a landscape level, to effectively implement the Vision, Objectives and Activities contained in this Co-management and Development Plan, as may be revised and updated from time to time, within the area comprising the Greater Fish River Canyon Landscape, and to work effectively with its neighbours.

Objectives

• To conserve and wisely manage the biomes, landscapes, ecosystems catchments and biological diversity of the Greater Fish River Canyon Landscape (GFRCL) and, where necessary and feasible, to restore and rehabilitate degraded systems to their natural, productive states.
• To manage wildlife populations and ecosystems to maintain optimal biological diversity and ecosystem stability under highly variable climatic conditions, and to reintroduce and rebuild populations of plants and animals indigenous to the area within historic times, as might be appropriate under current and changing conditions.
• To promote and support appropriate land and natural resource uses that are compatible with the above objectives, with emphasis on non-consumptive uses, sustainable land management practices, low impact tourism, environmental education, awareness and outreach initiatives and research, and to create strategic and focused economic opportunities without compromising on sound conservation principles and practices.
• To establish strong co-management partnerships and an appropriate institutional mechanism between the various land owners, holders and administrators within the Landscape, so as to enhance the management and ecological and socio-economic viability of the GFRCL to the mutual benefit of all partners.
• To harness the ecological, social and economic viability, sustainability and competitiveness of the GFRCL and find ways to realizing these values to create wealth, jobs and appropriate development of the Landscape.
• To explore ways of jointly marketing the GFRCL and create synergies between the individual economic and financial activities and initiatives of the partners to enhance the development of the overall Landscape to the mutual benefit of all partners.
• To explore the further expansion of the current GFRCL as new potential partners seek to join the Landscape and co-management Institution to manage the Landscape.
• To link and seamlessly collaborate with any similar co-management Landscape that may evolve around the adjacent Sperrgebiet National Park, for the benefit of biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development in the southern parts of Namibia.
• To use the GFRCL as an example of co-management between different partners and across state and private land, for the enhancement of both conservation and socio-economic goals.

Management framework

Our approach is outlined in the Constitution of the Greater Fish River Canyon Landscape Association and the Co-management and Development Plan.

How does this fit into the national context?

State owned protected areas

Namibia has over the years become a world leader in pursuing conservation initiatives. Remarkable achievements have taken place in the conservation of Namibia’s biodiversity and safeguarding ecological integrity of our ecosystems. To date, our country boasts 20 state-run protected areas that represent nearly 17% of the total land area. Most of these parks are world renowned for their uniqueness as tourism destinations and for their species richness.

• 20 state-run protected areas
• nearly 17% of the total land area

Communal Conservancies

Complementing the network of protected areas are communal conservancies and private land used for conservation. To date, Namibia has 86 registered conservancies covering almost 20% of the country while the private land used for conservation represents slightly over 6% of the country land surface. A growing demand to create more conservancies across the country is an indication of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism's Community-Based Natural Resource Management programme’s successes.

• 86 registered communal conservancies
• over 19% of the total land area

Therefore Government, communities and private sector, in total have close to half of the country, an astonishing 42% earmarked for conservation. This is a remarkable achievement. However,  setting land aside for conservation without putting appropriate measures to manage effectively will not safeguard our biodiversity. It is against this background that the Ministry is consciously and continuously exploring new ways to improve management effectiveness through new initiatives especially those that provide positive incentives to conserve biodiversity.

Landscapes

Under the Nam-Place Project five landscape initiatives are underway to ensure that: protected landscape conservation areas are established, land uses in areas adjacent to existing Protected Areas is compatible with biodiversity conservation objectives; corridors are established to sustain the viability of wildlife populations. The landscapes are:

1. Mudumu Landscape
2. Greater Waterberg Landscape
3. Windhoek Green Belt Landscape
4. Greater Sossusvlei-Namib Landscape
5. Greater Fish River Canyon Landscape

This brings an additional 15,550 km² of land under protected landscapes management arrangements.