Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:01:54.196Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Integrating governance and socioeconomic indicators to assess the performance of community-based natural resources management in Caprivi (Namibia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2010

J.G.E. COLLOMB ,
P. MUPETA ,
G. BARNES  and
B. CHILD
J.G.E. COLLOMB*
Affiliation:
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, 103 Black Hall, PO Box 116455, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
P. MUPETA
Affiliation:
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, 103 Black Hall, PO Box 116455, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA Center for African Studies, University of Florida, 427 Grinter Hall, PO Box 115560, Gainesville, FL 32611-5560, USA
G. BARNES
Affiliation:
School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Newins-Ziegler Hall, PO Box 110-410, Gainesville, FL 32611-0410, USA
B. CHILD
Affiliation:
Center for African Studies, University of Florida, 427 Grinter Hall, PO Box 115560, Gainesville, FL 32611-5560, USA Department of Geography, University of Florida, 3141 Turlington Hall, PO Box 117315 Gainesville FL 32611-7315, USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr J. G. E. Collomb e-mail: jgcollomb@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The achievements of community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) in southern Africa over the past 20 years have been hampered by the struggle to develop institutions of good governance. This paper explores what good governance is, how it can be measured and why it is relevant to communities' socioeconomic development goals. Horizontal accountability, used as a proxy for good governance, and people's perception of CBNRM benefits were documented through 236 individual interviews in five conservancies in the Caprivi Province (Namibia). These complex concepts were captured in order to strengthen performance assessments of CBNRM. Horizontal accountability was weak across the five conservancies studied and conservancy leaders could transfer more information to their constituents. Smaller and older conservancies displayed higher rates of information transfer, but horizontal accountability was not linked to different levels of socioeconomic benefits. In order to properly study the potential connections between good governance and the provision of socioeconomic benefits within CBNRM, the measures used in this study require further refinement.

Keywords

community-based natural resources managementgovernanceNamibiasocioeconomic development
Type
THEMATIC SECTION: Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM): designing the next generation (Part 2)
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 37 , Issue 3: Thematic section. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM): Designing the next generation (Part 2) , September 2010 , pp. 303 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armitage, D. (2005) Adaptive capacity and community-based natural resource management. Environmental Management 35 (6): 703–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balint, P. & Mashinya, J. (2006) The decline of a model community-based conservation project: governance, capacity, and devolution in Mahenye, Zimbabwe. Geoforum 37: 805–815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandyopadhyay, S., Shyamsundar, P., Wang, L. & Humavindu, M. (2004) Do households gain from community-based natural resource management? An evaluation of community conservancies in Namibia. DEA Research Discussion Paper 68. Ministry of the Environment, Directorate of Environmental Affairs, Windhoek, Namibia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernard, R. (2002) Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Third edition. Walnut Creek, CA, USA: Altamira Press.Google Scholar
Cahyat, A., Gonner, C. & Haug, M. (2007) Assessing Household Poverty and wellbeing: A Manual With Examples from Kutai Barat, Indonesia. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research.Google Scholar
Campbell, B. & Shackleton, S. (2001) The organizational structures for community-based natural resource management in Southern Africa. African Studies Quarterly 5 (3) [www document]. URL http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v5/v5i3a6.htmGoogle Scholar
Child, B. & Dalal-Clayton, B. (2004) Transforming approaches to CBNRM: learning from the Luangwa experience in Zambia. In: Getting Biodiversity Projects to Work: Towards more Effective Conservation and Development, ed. McShane, T.O. & Wells, M.P., pp. 256–89. New York, NY, USA: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbett, A. & Jones, B. (2000) The Legal Aspects of Governance in CBNRM in Namibia. Windhoek, Namibia: Directorate of Envirnomental Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Tourism.Google Scholar
DeVellis, R. (2003) Scale Development: Theory and Applications. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Government of Namibia (1996) Nature conservation amendment act, 1996. Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia, issue 1333, 17 June 1996.Google Scholar
IUCN (2006) Towards Vision 2016: CBNRM's Potential to Contribute and CBNRM Status Report 2006. IUCN CBNRM Support Programme, UNDP / GoB Environment Support Programme, USAID [www document]. URL http://www.cbnrm.bw/publications/Proceedings%20of%20the%204th%20National%20CBNRM%20Conference%20and%20CBNRM%20Status%20Report.pdfGoogle Scholar
Jones, B. & Murphree, M. (2001) The evolution of policy on community conservation in Namibia and Zimbabwe. In: African Wildlife and Livelihoods: The Promise and Performance of Community Conservation, ed. Hulme, D. & Murphree, M., pp. 38–58. Portsmouth, UK: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Jones, B. & Murphree, M. (2004) Community-based natural resource management as a conservation mechanism: lessons and directions. In: Parks in Transition: Biodiversity, Rural Development, and the Bottom Line, ed. Child, B., pp. 63–103. London, UK: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Long, S.A. (2001) Disentangling benefits livelihoods, natural resource management and managing revenue from tourism: the experience of Torra conservancy, Namibia. In: Wildlife Integration for Livelihood Diversification (WILD) Project Working Paper 3. Windhoek, Namibia: Directorate of Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Tourism [www document]. URL www.met.gov.na/programmes/wild/WILDworkingpapers1–5/WP%203%20-%20Disentangling%20Benefits.pdfGoogle Scholar
Miller, T., Holmes, K., Kim, A., Markheim, D., Roberts, J. & Walsh, C. (2010) 2010 Index of Economic Freedom. Washington, DC, USA & New York, NY, USA: The Heritage Foundation & the Wall Street Journal.Google Scholar
Murphree, M. (2004) Communal approaches to natural resource management in Africa: from whence and to where? Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy 7: 203–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musumali, M., Larsen, T. & Kaltenborn, B. (2007) An impasse in community based natural resource management implementation the case of Zambia and Botswana. Oryx 41 (3): 306–313.Google Scholar
NACSO (2004) Namibia's Communal Conservancies: A Review of Progress and Challenges in 2003. Windhoek, Namibia: NACSO.Google Scholar
NACSO (2006) Namibia's Communal Conservancies: A Review of Progress and Challenges in 2005. Windhoek, Namibia: NACSO.Google Scholar
NACSO (2007) Namibia's Communal Conservancies: A Review of Progress and Challenges in 2006. Windhoek, Namibia: NACSO.Google Scholar
National Planning Commission (2006) Caprivi Regional Poverty Profile. Windhoek, Namibia: Government of Namibia.Google Scholar
O'Donell, G. (1994) Delegative democracy. Journal of Democracy 5 (1): 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, R.A. (2000) Governance and public administration. In: Debating Governance, ed. Pierre, J., pp. 2–12. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rice, M. (1997) Community-based natural resource management project in the Caprivi Region of Namibia. Unpublished report, University of Florida, Cape Town, South Africa.Google Scholar
Schedler, A. (1999) Conceptualizing accountability. In: The Self-Restraining State: Power Accountability in New Democracies, ed. Schedler, A., Diamond, L. & Plattner, M.F., pp. 13–28. London, UK: Lynne Rienner Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, J.D. (2005) The role of information in public accountability. In: Governance and the Public Sector, ed. Hodges, R., pp. 13–34. Cornwall, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.Google Scholar
Turner, S. (2004) A crisis in CBNRM? Affirming the commons in southern Africa. Unpublished. International Association for the Study of Common Property conference in Oaxaca, Mexico [www document]. URL http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/1313/Turner_Crisis_040508_Paper361.pdf?sequence=1Google Scholar
Weaver, C. & Skyer, P. (2003) Conservancies: integrating wildlife land-use options into the livelihood, development and conservation strategies of Namibian communities. Paper presented at The Vth World Parks Congress To The Animal Health And Development (AHEAD) Forum. September 8–17, 2003 in Durban, Republic of South Africa [www document]. URL http://www.usaid.gov/na/pdfdocs/WPCAHEAD_2.pdfGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Collumb supplementary material

Questionnaire.doc

Download Collumb supplementary material(File)
File 76.8 KB