GOSCARs – Nominations for 2024 Exciting News for NCE Members and Friends!

Nominations for the 2024 GOSCARs – the Grassroots Owen-Smith Community Ranger and CBO Awards – are officially OPEN!

In the heart of Namibian community conservation, we celebrate the dedication and hard work of game guards, lion and rhino rangers, fish and community resource monitors, and outstanding community-based organisations. Your nominations shine a light on those holding the thin green line in the field, facing challenges like renewed poaching.

Happy Holidays

NACSO would like to wish you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Your consistent dedication and commitment to our shared vision have been fundamental to our success throughout 2023.

Together, we have faced challenges, celebrated victories, and made a significant impact on the conservation landscape of Namibia. Your passion, expertise, and collaborative spirit have played a crucial role in driving positive change for our environment, wildlife, and communities.

Wildlife survey in Angola

Five years of conducting annual wildlife surveys (Annual Game count) in Angola’s vast and recently proclaimed Luengue-Luiana National Park

Sharwimbo’s Gift: From Dishwasher to Camp Guardian – A Story of growth and perseverance

Sharwimbo’s Gift: From Dishwasher to Camp Guardian – A Story of growth and perseverance

Meet Gift, a dedicated general worker at Sharwimbo Camp. His name truly reflects the invaluable contribution he has made to this tranquil haven nestled between Kongola and Susiwe, just a few kilometres from the pristine beauty of the Kwando River that divides Namibia and Botswana. Gift’s journey at Sharwimbo began as a dishwasher, but over the past decade, he has evolved into much more than that.

Wildlife Monitoring in Zambezi

In the heart of the Zambezi landscape, game rangers, ministry officials, law enforcement, and support NGOs working within the community based natural resource management (CBNRM) sector came together with a shared passion to protect the wildlife that calls the region calls home. Game counts are an annual activity that started in 1999, is one of many activities that support wildlife monitoring and adaptive management within conservancies.

World Tourism Day – Launch of Tourism Expo 2024

NACSO attended the launch of the Diamond Winner Draw and the Tourism Expo held at the Windhoek Country Club. The Hon. Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism launched the Tourism Expo under the theme “Beyond Borders” which will promote the KAZA landscape which comprises of a unique conservation area that spans over Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The launch of the expo coincided with World Tourism Day, celebrated under the theme “Tourism and green investment” calling on investment in people, planet, and tourism.

Human Wildlife Conflict Conference

The Namibian Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Support Organisations (NACSO) recently attended a 3-day, first-of-its-kind, National Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Conference held by the Ministry of Environment Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) aimed at reviewing the progress, challenges and imploring opportunities that can mitigate the scourge of HWC in communal and freehold land across Namibia and the Kavango Zambezi Transfontier Conservation Area (KAZA).

Tourism Expo 2023 – Conservation Meets Tourism

The Namibian Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Support Organisations (NACSO) took part in this year’s Tourism Expo as part of a joint exhibition with the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Tourism Supporting Conservation, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, and The Namibian Wetlands Route. The joint exhibition brought these five organisations together; with each having a part to play in promoting Namibia’s conservation tourism through regulating laws, technical support to conservancies and community forests, tourism joint venture lodges, responsible tourism and travel, and tangible benefits to local communities within these areas. The Namibia Tourism Expo has an excellent reputation for providing a centralised marketing platform bringing together conservation, tourism, hospitality, and entrepreneurship. This is an excellent opportunity for individuals in the tourism industry from various parts of the country to network and to promote local tourism.

Parliamentarians visit conservancies in the Kunene region

In the Kunene region, Northwest of Namibia is a very distinctive desert ecoregion which is home to the black rhino, desert adapted-elephants, predators such as lion, cheetah, leopard, hyena, and vast game species.

NACSO Week

The Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) had an exciting week of learning, sharing, and planning with its members and other key stakeholders.

Announcing the Winners of Namibia’s First GOSCARS

The life’s work of Namibian community conservation pioneer Garth Owen-Smith will be remembered and honoured this week when four conservancy field workers from the Zambezi and Kunene Regions receive Namibia’s first annual GOSCARs – the Grass-Roots Owen-Smith Community Rangers Awards.

What’s baby pangolin got to do with it?

How wildlife crime affects the trafficked, the offspring and the planet

Whenever wildlife crime is mentioned, one thinks how it always resonates with dangers of species extinction, loss of biodiversity, threats to human life. Images of either dead animals or their products displayed in markets or people shelves further intrench these ideas. However, little light is shed on the effects wildlife trafficking has on the offspring of the trafficked animal, especially the world’s most trafficked mammal – the pangolin.

The year ahead

The past year was one of learning and adapting for NACSO and all its partners. Despite the negative impacts of Covid-19, conservation work in Namibia continued. Before 2021 came to an end, NACSO members together with the Ministry of Environment Forestry and Tourism, came together for a three-day workshop to share successes and challenges as well as plan and budget for this new year. Extensive work goes into ensuring that the wheels of the CBNRM program keep turning. Good collaboration, teamwork, and teambuilding are important contributors to this success.

Women for Conservation on CBNRM governance

On 3 December 2021 in Namibia’s far northwestern Opuwo, conservation NGOs such as Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) together with Namibia Development Trust (NDT), and Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), celebrated the perseverance and hard work of the Kunene Women for Conservation group.

The celebration took place during their annual agenda planning meeting that was facilitated by the three organisations under the theme “Improving Governance in the National Community-based Natural Resource Management Programme project”.

Honouring Rhino Rangers

As we wrap up our annual work and celebrate our conservation successes despite the challenges, first and foremost, we would like to thank all the frontline workers on the ground who work – and walk – in the field to monitor and protect our natural resources, including the conservancy game guards, conservancy lion or rhino rangers, fish guards or community resource monitor.

On 18 November 2018, Rhino Rangers were honoured for their critical contribution to the protection of the world’s largest free-ranging black rhino population in Twyfelfontein at the Uibasen conservancy office. 41 Rhino Rangers in the Kunene and Erongo regions of north-western Namibia were honoured at the 2nd Annual Kunene Rhino Awards for their tireless work to protect the country’s free-ranging black rhino.

Simson !Uri-≠Khob wins a lifetime award

Congratulations to the man of the hour, Simson!Uri-≠Khob for winning the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa, in recognition of the 30 years he has worked to save black rhinos, and in his role as Chief Executive Officer of Save the Rhino Trust in Nambia (SRT).

This is a lifetime achievement award that recognizes outstanding dedication and exceptional contribution to conservation in Africa. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, who launched the annual TUSK Conservation Awards in 2013 in his role as royal patron of the Tusk Trust, handed over the awards with honour and a few words, “our wildlife plays a vital role in keeping nature in balance and maintaining this precious cycle of life.” Said his Royal Highness.

First Ever KAZA-Wide Coordinated Aerial Survey

Namibia, Windhoek, 11 November 2021 – On behalf of the Partner States of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), I am pleased to announce the launch of the first ever KAZA-wide coordinated aerial survey of elephants. Our Coordinating Ministries represent the Republics of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe where this survey will be conducted. This is a demonstration of our concerted efforts to implement the KAZA Treaty, which calls for regionally integrated approaches towards harmonizing policies, strategies, and practices for managing shared natural resources straddling the international borders of KAZA Partner States.

Community Leaders Network formalised

Founder members of the Community Leaders Network of Southern Africa (CLN) met in Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek at Avani Hotels from 18-22 October to formalize the network.

The GOSCARs reminder! (the Grassroots Owen-Smith Community Ranger Awards)

The GOSCARs (the Grassroots Owen-Smith Community Ranger Awards – to be presented annually to up to three top-performing Namibian conservancy game guards, conservancy lion or rhino rangers, community forest guards, fish guards or community resource monitors) are still open for nominations.

Horticulture training to Small-scale Farmers

The Namibian Organic Association (NOA) and the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) conducted a horticulture training to various small-scale farmers and farmer-trainers from 23-30 September 2021.

Two incredible Namibian facilitators, Mr Erastus Ndungu from Lima Farms in Katima, a commercial organic vegetable producer, agroforestry specialist and facilitator, as well as Mrs Wiebke Volkmann, from Earth Wise Enterprise, an accredited holistic management trainer, long term community facilitator and passionate organic gardener, over the 3 workshops managed to train over 79 small-scale farmers around Rundu, Kongola and Katima Mulilo.