Namibia

Approximately 45% of Namibia is under different types of conservation management, including national parks and other protected areas, freehold or private farms, and communal conservancies. A relatively young country, Namibia achieved its independence from South Africa in 1990 and was the first African country to incorporate environmental protection into its constitution. In an effort to address the past injustices under apartheid law, the Namibian government gave people living in communal areas the rights and responsibilities to manage and benefit from their natural resources through the creation of communal conservancies. These conservancies – supported by  government, nonprofit organizations, and other entities – have restored populations of lions, cheetahs, black rhinos, zebras and other native wildlife to the world’s richest dry land. Through initiatives such as ecotourism, wildlife has generated income for their communities and helping incentivize communities to protect and conserve wildlife.

In line with their constitutional values, Namibia is also part of three transboundary initiatives, Iona Skeleton Coast, the /Ai-/Ais Richtersveld, and the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), the world’s largest terrestrial transboundary conservation area. Spanning parts of five southern African countries, KAZA was officially created in 2011 by Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe due to its valuable, connected ecosystems and high biodiversity. Much like Namibia’s pledge to conservation in its constitution, the heart of KAZA’s vision is that conservation can be the economic driver of the region, creating a landscape where people and wildlife coexist. 

More than two million people, the majority of Namibia’s population, live in the northern part of the country. Among Namibia’s 14 ethnic groups, 26 different languages are spoken. The communal conservancy movement, which links conservation to poverty alleviation through sustainable use of natural resources, is a key development strategy for rural Namibia. Approximately one in four rural Namibians now belongs to a registered conservancy. 

Namibian women have traditionally been excluded from natural resource management. WWF works with our Namibian partners to change this. Women now make up 35% of conservancy committee members, including three committee chairs and the majority of conservancy treasurers. As a result, a Women in Conservation movement has been established and women are receiving a larger share of benefits and exerting a growing influence over resource management and community development. 

For more than three decades, we have worked with partners and local communities to support rural communities’ rights to manage and benefit from their natural resources and ensure a future that includes healthy wildlife populations and sustainable economic growth.

Improving livelihoods

To reconnect local people with wildlife, local Namibian leaders and the Namibian government, along with WWF, established Namibia’s communal conservancy program shortly after the country’s independence in 1990. This program creates conservancies—bordered areas where communities manage and benefit from their own wildlife—that aim to improve the livelihoods of rural people through the sustainable use of natural resources.

Renowned as a global conservation success story, WWF remains involved with Namibian partners to help foster the knowledge, skills, and capacity for local communities to benefit from their wildlife resources. Currently, there are 86 conservancies, established and run by local communities, that encompass more than 20% of the country’s land. These areas help protect wildlife outside of designated protected spaces and generate over $10 million USD yearly that directly supports communities and continued wildlife management.

Protecting species

WWF works closely with the Namibian government and other partners to monitor, research, and protect its wildlife. For example, WWF is helping parks and conservancies to install and use the area management software EarthRanger, which combines historical data with current field reports to provide a unified, holistic view of an area under conservation management. This technology allows protected area managers to better monitor and protect wildlife. Currently, WWF has helped install EarthRanger at Nyae Nyae Conservancy, Waterberg National Park, and Khaudum National Park.

WWF also works with local communities like the San people, who use their Indigenous knowledge and tracking skills combined with new technology to monitor and collect data on Namibia’s pangolins. The information will help inform conservation management plans and reduce the poaching of pangolins and trafficking of their scales, while also providing direct benefits to the San including jobs, training, community education, and increased tourism.

Fighting wildlife crime

WWF works with the Namibian government, local communities, and international partners to disrupt illegal wildlife trade, dismantle criminal networks, and reduce demand for illegal wildlife products.

• Strengthening enforcement: Over the years, WWF has collaborated with the government of Namibia to implement a successful ‘whole-of-government’ approach to tackle wildlife crime. With WWF’s support and financial support from the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and other sources, the country opened its first Environmental Crimes Court in 2024—one of the few of its kind globally—to increase capacity to try complex, transnational wildlife crimes. WWF also helped restore horse patrols in Etosha National Park to boost on-the-ground protection.
• Using technology to fight poaching: WWF is helping Namibia develop advanced rhino tracking transmitters, run an SMS rhino hotline for quick tip-offs, and train officials to use the Rhino DNA Index System (RhODIS), a tool that helps identify individual animals and support legal cases against poachers.

Managing human-wildlife conflict

In order to protect conflict species like elephants, lions, and spotted hyena, it is critical to manage and reduce human-wildlife conflict. Reducing conflict can help increase community acceptance to live alongside dangerous wildlife as an important natural resource worth conserving.

While WWF helps communities implement approaches like predator-proof livestock enclosures and elephant-proof water sources to minimize human-wildlife conflict, we also work to prevent conflict from occurring in the first place. Satellite collars allow us to track wildlife movement and identify conflict hotspots, helping communities make informed decisions about grazing, farming, and land use. In the Zambezi region, early warning systems alert communities when a collared predator approaches, giving them time to protect livestock and use deterrents to scare the animal away.

Monitoring incidents of human-wildlife conflict helps communities better understand and manage conflict. WWF helped develop a system of monitoring and recording damage inflicted by human-wildlife conflict. The Event Book System is owned and managed by each community and records vital information on the time, place, species, and magnitude of damage from each conflict. This data can be used to better understand the surrounding wildlife and inform conservancy management.

Adapting to climate change

Namibia faces growing threats from climate change, especially prolonged droughts affecting both people and wildlife. WWF is working with partners to build resilience by diversifying livelihoods, supporting conservation finance, and providing emergency water access. 

Through WWF’s Climate Crowd initiative, we work with communities that are being impacted by changes in weather and climate to develop and implement climate adaptation solutions, such as rainwater harvesting systems, solar-powered boreholes, and diversified livelihoods.  

As climate change threatens water availability, WWF collaborates with local and regional partners to help protect and manage vital water sources. For example, we monitor the health of the Cuando River Basin through an annual report card to help guide sustainable, cross-border water governance across Angola, Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana, the four countries through which the river passes.