Address to corporate members, donors and other partners on the occasion of the NNF's annual function, November 2006
By Dr Chris Brown, Executive Director
Friends, colleagues - partners in conservation and sustainable development:
Welcome to our 2006 Annual year-end function. The purpose of this evening is to thank you - our Namibian Corporate Members, who provide financial and in-kind support to the NNF; to thank you, our Donors, who provide financial support to our projects and programmes; and to thank you, our partners, in both the public and civil society sectors, with whom we work closely to implement activities to make the greatest possible impact for sustainable development and the people of Namibia.
It has become customary for me to say a few words about what is happening in the environment sector and to throw out some challenges for the year ahead.
At this event last year I said that "Our challenge for 2006 is to harness the economic benefits and incentives for good conservation and sustainable development that our geographic and developmental positions and rich resource base afford us. We need to unleash our comparative and competitive advantage. We need to be bold. We need to take a few risks. Government needs to trust its citizens, and devolve more rights over natural resources. It needs to open up the protected areas to park-neighbour partnerships. It needs to look to the private sector to help secure investments, markets and achieve efficiency."
In the past year there has been some progress and some revelations that will forever change the way we think about land and its use in Namibia. It is true that Africa has a preoccupation with farming and agriculture. It is also true that farming does not make people or nations rich. One just has to look to the more developed countries of the world and the challenges that these nations have to keep people on the land and to keep them farming. There is an inverse relationship between per capita GDP and the percentage of a nation's population that is rural. And particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, farming is more of a poverty trap than a salvation. Let me hasten to clarify that my remarks are not in any way linked to land reform. I am a firm believer that the ownership and custodianship of land in Namibia should represent an equitable cross-section of Namibian society. My remarks go to the issue of how land is used.
Until recently, agriculture in all its forms was the second most important contributor to the national economy, after mining. This is no longer the case. Information from 2005 tells us that farming in both the freehold and communal areas contributed about N$1.8 billion to the national economy, while indigenous biodiversity production systems (wildlife, wild plants, tourism, etc) in the commercial sector alone contributed N$3.2 billion. Add to this the subsistence use of indigenous biodiversity, and this sector is then seen to be earning at least 2.5 times more for the national economy that the farming sector.
What this means is that land managers are simply responding to market forces. They make more money from wildlife, tourism and other related enterprises than they make from farming. Of course, this is not true for all land, and most wise managers do two things - they look at the opportunities and comparative advantage offered by their particular piece of land, and they look for a combination of different uses: in short they diversify. This makes good sense. The old adage "don't put all your eggs in one basket" is very relevant to farming in arid climates, and that is why the Ministry of Agriculture has, as one of its objectives in NDP2, to encourage farmers to diversify their activities.
While the dramatic growth of the indigenous biodiversity production system has come as a surprise to many people (it sort of sneaked up, because the national accounting system was not structured to track this sector), it offers Namibia huge advantages.
First and foremost, this sector builds on Africa's and especially Namibia's comparative and competitive advantages - its wildlife, its open spaces, its cultures, its friendly people and its good infrastructure and services. No other continent can compete with our wildlife resources. Only a few other countries in Africa are in the same league, and few have our quality of infrastructure and services. As long as we don't do something silly, we have a winning set of assets for the long-term.
Second, many of our best attractions are in the poorest parts of the country, the communal areas, which have some of the best wildlife, best scenery and richest cultures. The assets are thus where people are poorest. This sector offers the best potential for job and wealth creation and poverty reduction - and this potential is currently being addressed via the conservancy programme. While on this subject I can report that there are now 50 registered communal conservancies, covering some 11.5 million ha, with over 200,000 people and with some N$20 million earned during 2005, up by 43% over 2004 earnings, and projected to be over N$25 million for 2006. However, there is an urgent need to increase investor confidence in the communal areas before its true potential can be realised.
And third, the sector overall has considerable growth potential. It requires minimal state investment. The private sector has, and will continue, to grow the industry. However, it does require state support, mainly in the form of developing a more conducive operational environment and further incentives. This development needs to focus primarily on four things (a) a shift in mindset - the state asking the private sector "what can we do to support you better?", (b) a revision of policy to devolve more rights over natural resources to land managers and custodians - and the default setting should be on full devolution unless regulations are absolutely necessary for conservation because of market failures, (c) harnessing the full economic value of parks and surrounding areas and making this work both for economic development and good conservation, and finally, (d) creating good, operational mechanisms for broad-based Black economic empowerment in indigenous biodiversity production systems. This is a challenge to both the public and private sectors, to work together to make this a reality. Until this sector achieves equitable participation of the full cross-section of Namibia society, it will not achieve its full potential and will actually be at risk.
These then are the challenges for 2007.
In conclusion, I would like to sincerely thank you all for your commitment and support to the NNF and to Namibia's environment. I would also take this opportunity to thank the staff and the Board of the NNF for another good year.
To show our appreciation in more tangible form I would like to invite Jonas and Sally to come forward and hand out our small gifts of appreciation.