Kunene Regional Conservation Assessment
Fewer than 3,000 people, predominately Damara
and smaller numbers of Himba and Herrero survive mostly on herds of goats
and small family gardens in the 11,500,000 hectare (28,405,000 acre) Kunene
Region in northwestern Namibia. Although, heavily explored no valuable
mineral deposits are evident in the Kunene, whereby, growing economic driver
of the Kunene is conservation and ecotourism providing the largest influx
of cash into the local economy.
Ecoregional significance of the region -
The deserts of the Kunene represent one of the last true wildernesses
remaining in southern Africa. This very distinctive and floristically
rich desert ecoregion is home to the famed desert elephants, as well as,
a full complement of large carnivores (desert lion, cheetah, leopard and
hyena) and healthy populations of ungulates (mountain zebra, giraffe,
springbok, oryx and kudu). The Kunene is, also, the last remaining
stronghold of the black rhino. These free-ranging black rhino persists
as the last substantial population of any species of rhino outside of
a fenced protected area.
Save the Rhino Trust – Today’s
high wildlife numbers in the Kunene are largely the result of actions
taken by one small Namibia conservation organization, Save the Rhino
Trust (SRT). In the early 1980’s, a slaughter of desert
wildlife was taking place in the Kunene. As rhino numbers, in particular,
shrank to near extinction, a group of concerned people gathered to form
SRT. The aim of the Save the Rhino Trust was to stop the illegal
poaching. Since the founding of SRT, 20 years ago, poaching has drastically
declined and wildlife populations have recovered to historic highs. Collaborating
with both the Namibia Government and the local Chiefs and Headmen authorities,
SRT provides security for wildlife and brings benefits to the community
through conservation, as one of the largest employers in the region with
over 30 local community people working as rhino and wildlife guards.
Round River in Namibia - Round River began working with Save the
Rhino Trust (SRT) in in 1999. Round River has assisted with black
rhino population censuses, habitat modeling, tourism impact analysis
and community interviews. In 2005, Round River also assisted in
developing a strategic land use plan for the Palmwag Concession, an important
ecological core of the Kunene in cooperation with SRT. To expand our capacity to best insure conservation of this region, in 2007Round River and SRT partnered with The Nature Conservancy.
Kunene Region National Park – Skeleton/Etosha Link - In
2004, the government of Namibia declared a new national park in the Kunene
Region comprised of three units of state lands, the Palmwag, Etendeka
and Anabeb Concessions, totaling 650,500 hectares (1,606,735 acres). The
stated purposes of the Kunene Region Park are to conserve this vast wilderness
and its wildlife, while also serving to link the Skeleton
Coast with Etosha, thereby, facilitating wildlife migrations and creating
one of the largest protected area complexes in the world. Since
similar Kunene regional parks, designated in the past, were abandoned
due to a lack of local community support, President Sam Nujoma declared
this new park to be “The Peoples Park”. Therefore,
this park will not be fenced and developed “contractual conservation
agreements” will accommodate the needs of local people within and
surrounding the park.
While these state lands comprise a large area, they do not effectively
connect the Skeleton Coast with Etosha. Therefore, in
order for this new park to be truly ecologically viable and serve as an
effective corridor; communal conservancy and private reserve lands must
support the protective area system. Likewise, an integrated conservation
strategy is needed to coordinate the management actions of all the land
components. Additionally, necessary are respectful consultations that
result in conservation contracts with the local communities.
Round River recognizes the collection of accurate ecological information
and the incorporation of local knowledge and human activity patterns as
critical first steps for the establishment of an effectively designed protected
area that is without conflicts with local communities. Therefore,
Round River proposed to assist the Namibian government, with assistance
from Save the Rhino Trust, by commencing a science-based conservation planning
process that focuses on collection and mapping of key ecological and human-activity
information for the Etosha-Skeleton Coast Link of the Kunene region. We
suggested that by developing spatial biological and human activity information
at a regional scale, we could assist local communities and the Namibian
government to meet national, as well as, local conservation missions. Such
information enables sound, pragmatic conservation decisions at-scale and
serve to enhance and unify ongoing local and national conservation efforts
and provide a common vision of conservation success.
Save the Rhino Trust, Round River Conservation and the Tradition Leadership
of the Kunene: In October of 2005, Save the Rhino Trust and Round River
Conservation received letters of agreement from the Paramount Chief of the
Damara Peoples, Justus Garoeb, and from the Kunene Regional Governor, T. Dudu
Murorua.
It is with great pleasure that I offer my blessing and encouragement to
Round River Conservation Studies’ proposed work in the Kunene Region. Paramount
Chief of the Damara Peoples, Justus Garoeb
To undertake a regional ecological analysis on behalf of all stakeholders
in the region, to provide a baseline for collaboration discussions regarding
conservation initiatives. Governor Dudu Mororua.
Save the Rhino Trust, Round River Conservation and the Ministry of Environment
and Tourism: In May of 2006, Save the Rhino Trust and Round River Conservation
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Namibia Ministry of Environment
and Tourism.
The purpose of this MOU is to provide a foundation for collaboration among
the Parties in their collective efforts to develop and implement a long-term,
regional conservation strategy for wildlife and other ecological values of
the Kunene Region, as a contribution to the management plan for the Etosha-Skeleton
Coast Link.
REGIONAL CONSERVATION
ASSESSMENT
Objective: Design
a draft regional conservation assessment in order to provide a preliminary
scientific and ecological basis for guiding the proposed Etosha- Skeleton
Coast park linkage.
A well-designed regional conservation assessment creates an opportunity
to collect existing and new information related to both biodiversity
and land use for a region. This information can then be integrated
and compared for the purposes of informing decisions and strategies related
to meeting stated conservation goals for the region – specifically
here, for guiding the linkage of Etosha and Skeleton Coast parks. Such
an assessment can provide a foundation of information about the underlying
ecology of the region, and creates purpose and direction for the ongoing
collection and use of scientific and local traditional knowledge. A
regional assessment, while having direct importance to the issue of linking
Etosha and Skeleton Coast parks, also creates an opportunity to integrate
regional conservation information with broader scale, countrywide conservation
frameworks that are presently under development.
Scientific Background and Context: One of the first
steps for building a regional conservation assessment is to pull together
and compile the existing scientific literature and state of knowledge
about the region’s ecology. Activities will include:
• Review scientific literature regarding key ecological processes/systems/species;
• Solicit regional and local
knowledge regarding key ecological processes/systems/species;
• Summarize information
on key ecological processes/ systems/species and outline preliminary goals,
objectives, indicators and targets.
Assessing Conservation Values: Once equipped with
a general understanding of the region’s ecology a more focused
collection and evaluation of conservation values can be undertaken. This
assessment involves gathering both spatial and aspatial data, some
of which may already exist in available databases, atlases or mapping
products. Gaps in existing information are to be expected however,
and in such cases, a concentrated effort to collect new data about
the region’s ecosystems and species will be required. Specific
activities will include:
• Classify and map special element occurrences;
• Classify and map focal
species habitats;
• Classify and map
Vegetative coarse filter;
• Identify potential wildlife
movement corridors;
• Summarize (spatially)
high conservation value areas within the region;
• Develop temporal models
of wildlife movement and habitat use within the region.
Assess Human Use Patterns: As important to assessing
the conservation values themselves, is the need to evaluate how people
are using the available land-base and natural resources. While
many existing land uses may compliment conservation strategies, others
will most certainly conflict. Understanding the distribution,
intensity, and temporal nature of these uses is critical for creating
a meaningful decision-making framework for conservation strategies. Collection
of local and traditional knowledge will be particularly important for
this phase of the project. Specific activities will include:
• Identify and map administrative and management boundaries
• Collect traditional and
local ecological knowledge and conduct interviews regarding contemporary
land use practices;
• Develop coded and searchable
database of all qualitative information;
• Identify and map key land
uses;
• Identify potential conflict
or complimentarily land uses with conservation values;
• Summarize data into spatial
and temporal conservation threat map and model for the region.
Decision Support: Equipped with a sound information
base concerning conservation values and human use, the process of integrating
this knowledge into a meaningful tool for supporting decision-making
can be undertaken. Explicit methods for comparing the overlap
of values and the potential interaction between conservation needs
and land use practices will be proposed and explored. These methods
will be specifically applied and tested for the purpose of exploring
potential core and corridor habitat for key ecological targets in the
Kunene region. In the first year of this project, such results
will be very preliminary in nature. Nonetheless the following
proposed activities are intended to allow stakeholders and decision-makers
the opportunity to frame questions and explore potential answers to
those questions, specifically in the pursuit of creating a robust conservation
link between Etosha and Skeleton Coasts parks:
• Compare overlap between conservation values and threats;
• Develop decision
support framework based on preliminary assessment;
• Pilot framework through
collaborative identification of example core and;
• Corridor scenarios for
Etosha/Seleton Coast link.
Regional Conservation Strategy: The first phase of the regional
strategy work entails identifying the additional communal conservancies
and private lands needed to ensure migrations and the park’s
long-term conservation. These lands could potentially double
or even triple the size of the park’s functional boundaries. This
phase also very importantly involves consultations with the local Kunene
populace to gather and utilize their traditional knowledge input.
