The Orupupa, Okangundumba and Ozondundu Conservancies are part of the more expansive Kunene Highlands ecosystem that forms part of the extensive, connected and open conservation landscape stretching from Etosha National Park in the east to the Skeleton Coast National Park in the west. These three Conservancies are located on the eastern end of this conservation complex and represent a keystone block for connectivity.
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To secure the ecological integrity of the landscape such that it acts as a perpetual and healthy reservoir of ecological goods and services. We are determined to resolve human-elephant conflict and to unlock a nature-based economy that provides a wider diversity of livelihood opportunities. We are investing in education and skills development so the people of the area are suitably capacitated to oversee and run all aspects of the operations. We also aim to expand our reach to neighbouring conservancies who wish to contract our services so that the benefits of improved management and human capital development can be realised at a landscape-scale.
Signed an initial long-term mandate with Orupupa Conservancy and have since signed long-term partnership agreements with three neighbouring conservancies.
Established Kunene Conservation as the in-country legal entity for project delivery, a subsidiary of Conserve Global in Namibia.
Created seven permanent job positions and are supporting a further 32 employment opportunities through game guard jobs.
Prepared a detailed rangeland restoration plan and moved the rangeland restoration carbon project from feasibility to formal registration with Verra.
Implemented 60:40 revenue sharing model; 60% of funds go directly to community blocks with local signatories, increasing accountability and transparency.
Repaired and transitioned 13 water points from diesel to solar power in order to keep them full at all times thus preventing pipe damage by elephants.
This ensures water provision for people, livestock and wildlife. Two community vegetable gardens received electrified fencing to mitigate human-wildlife conflict.
Developed a mid-market tented camp at the Ekoto Cliff with Forgotten Valley Camps. The lodge opened in October 2025 as a 50:50 joint venture.
This creates long-term tourism revenue opportunities. Conserve contributed 50% of the funding to erect the lodge on behalf of the community to secure their equity in the venture.
Undertaken detailed socioeconomic baseline study, followed with detailed participatory-planning using the Gender Action Learning System (GALS).
This methodology helps us to properly understand community needs and aspirations. Held numerous meetings with the various conservancy committees and attended the Conservancy AGMs. We engage regularly at grassroots level through block-level meetings leading to the articulation of a Resilient Societies Framework that lays out pathways for improved wellbeing.
Each of the conservancies fall under the jurisdiction of their Community Conservancy Association. It is through the authority of each Association that Conserve has concluded a 25-year service level agreement to provide a conservation development, financing and management service to the Association and its people. For each conservancy, we have established a Joint Management Committee to act as the platform for ongoing engagement and collective decision-making between Conserve and the Conservancies.
Generally, the Kunene Highlands are home to low-density settlements scattered across the landscape in a pattern that closely follows availability of year-round water provision. There are several secondary roads that bisect the landscape and ribbon development along these roads is evident. Villages are scattered across the conservancies, all located near natural springs. The largest village, Ekoto, is home to only 100 people and many of the other villages represent extended family homesteads.
Dependency on ecosystem provisioning is high, verging on absolute. Human impact in the landscape is mostly limited although overgrazing by livestock is a growing problem, with severe degradation evident in certain places. This is a landscape where people and wildlife have largely co-existed mostly in harmony for centuries. The Kunene Highlands are populated predominantly by people of the Herero language and culture but Himba people are also present.
The Kunene Highlands contain several spectacular landscape features, most notably some incredibly impressive Tufa cliffs. Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water and a Tufa cliff is formed whenever calcium carbonate-saturated waters pour over a cliff, or emerge from a spring, releasing carbon dioxide and precipitating a porous calcium carbonate. The Tufa Cliff at Ekoto in Orupupa is a sight to behold.
When standing at its base, this towering structure feels like a living organism of the Tolkien type. The cliff is literally heaving with rosy-faced lovebirds who find shelter in its porous structure. The unique geology of the area has also led to the creation of several little known but truly spectacular cave formations that warrant greater exploration. There is also a steep waterfall pockmarked by San rock art and legend has it that elephants slide down this waterfall as the path of least resistance from the Upper Plateau to the floor of the so-called Forgotten Valley. This is a landscape of delights and wonders that are gradually revealed to those who are patient and deserving.
The Kunene Highlands fall at the intersection of three ecoregions. These include the Zambezian, Kalahari-Highveld and Namib Karoo ecoregions. It is an arid environment that receives less than 150 mm of rain per year, and it is situated predominantly in the “Grassland with Trees” biome, interspersed with occasional “Woodland”.
The Highlands support a free roaming population of elephants estimated to number around 500. Leopards continue to stalk the crags and gulleys, and giraffe, black-faced impala, kudu, springbok and zebra all call this rugged mountainous landscape home. The birdlife is simply astounding. Being an arid environment, mammal populations naturally occur at low densities.
The three conservancies remain ecologically intact but, in the absence of intervention, will witness a steady demise of certain key ecological attributes. As an arid environment, the landscape is especially vulnerable to transformation, erosion and over-utilisation. Threats are limited but include some poaching for protein and rangeland degradation through unmanaged livestock grazing. Human-elephant conflict is an ever-present challenge around water and vegetable gardens. Rural households are overwhelmingly reliant on the collection of dead branches for firewood as a domestic cooking fuel, but deforestation is not extensive.
CHIEF KAPARA KAPARA | CHIEF OF EKOTO VILLAGE
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