Tourism Awareness And Its Impact On Conservancy Management Strategies In Namibia: A Case Study Of The Tsiseb Conservancy

ABSTRACT

Tourism has been regarded as one of the most suitable industries for the development of remote rural locations in Namibia. The potential for tourism activities to enhance the standards of living among rural communities is a viable endeavour. Towards that end, Community Based Natural Resource Management concepts have been applied all over Namibia in an attempt to empower local communities and allow them to generate economic benefits from their natural environments. The problem concerning the effective management and utilization of natural resources is that the community members and management committees lack the necessary knowledge and awareness about tourism and conservation concepts and therefore lack the capacity to effectively engage in decision-making over conservancy developmental activities. The research was aimed at determining what conservancy efforts were undertaken during the past five years. It was also geared towards ascertaining the effectiveness and efficiency of conservancy efforts during the same period. Finally, an attempt was made to examine factors influencing the impact of conservancy efforts among community members. The methodology employed to achieve these objectives involved both primary and secondary information. The research results revealed that there is a low level of tourism and conservation awareness among the community members due to the lack of effective awareness and training programmes offered to them. They lack willingness to participate in training workshops offered was because they were not offered incentives such as money or food to participate. This became a major factor that contributed to the lack of development among the community members. The research also revealed that the management committee has received very limited amount of tourism and conservation related training which has resulted in the failure of their plans, the plans that were intended to develop the community and the conservancy as a whole. The capabilities of the iii committee in terms of strategically managing the activities of the conservancy remain limited because their experience and awareness levels are insufficient. Yet, local communities are experiencing a number of problems. The most salient of these problems relates to the effective management and utilization of natural resources. The absence of awareness-raising-programmes about potential benefits to be accrued suggests an acute deficit that calls for intervention. Awareness- raising is also necessary to inform conservancy residents about their legal right to participate for monetary benefit in conservancy programmes. Finally, awareness also needs to be raised about the income-generating potential of participating in conservancy efforts.