Empowered

communities

At Conserve, we believe that conservation efforts must ultimately be driven by people and institutions that are rooted in the communities that depend on and coexist with the natural environment. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) empowers local people and institutions to be the stewards of their environment and to reap the benefits of those conservation efforts.

We focus on building strong local landscape level management institutions to be ultimately controlled by the communities they serve. For example, Kunene Conservation could work with all 10 conservancies in the Kunene Highlands in Namibia.

Where communities don’t have control over the underlying natural resource base, Conserve establishes strong local institutions that are mandated to manage the landscape, with community control increasing over time.

This approach enables us to establish strong partnerships with communities, build trust, invest in local talent and leaders, and develop effective conservation plans that meet the needs of both people and the environment at a landscape scale.

The importance
of locally-led
governance

2 young gentlemen locals heading to their homes while holding fresh fish

We firmly believe that the success of conservation efforts is directly linked to the engagement, participation, and buy-in of local communities. Empowered communities take responsibility for conservation decision making, working towards a future where natural resources are sustainably managed for the benefit of all.

Governance structure

Conserve Global’s pathway to establishing local entity, strengthening local governance, and exiting

Key metrics

Conserve’s hands on management transitions over time, with the aim of supporting the capacity and leadership of locally managed entities.

A young well built game warden blowing on a 3 stone Fire at the bush

Key metrics

GOAL 2:

Well-managed, self-governed, community-led institutions

Strong local entities result in safe, fair and transparent governance of natural resources and equitable benefit flows by the end of ten years.

Conserve supports these local institutions and provides input in the form of business planning, fundraising, monitoring and adaptive management, technical support and best practices shared from across the globe.

In 2022

Tondwa Conservation Limited (TCL) was restructured with a representative governing board. We held collaborative planning sessions with Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) which is co-managing the neighbouring Nsumbu National Park.

We signed agreements with Orupupa Conservancy (Namibia) in September 2022 and formed Kunene Conservation.

We signed an agreement with Muwai Community Association (Mozambique) in November 2022 and organised a three-month governance training for members of the Association (the first of its kind!). We initiated the incorporation of Maputo Conservation Company.

In Cameroon, we joined a consortium working to better understand the health and trends of biodiversity in the Faro, Bénoué and Bouba-Ndjida ecosystem and especially the governance and benefit-sharing opportunities for communities in this complex landscape. This five-year project will launch officially in 2023.

We made bids for vacant concessions in both Zambia and Tanzania under two bespoke in-country entities that we have formed – Lunga Conservation and Piti Conservation Company – and are waiting for final decisions on those bids. In the process, we continued to gather feedback and refine our ability to proactively pursue targeted blocks and then move rapidly to support local entities with business planning, informed by community and biodiversity assessments.

Empowered

communities