Community conservation – Living with wildlife

Text and Photographs Helge Denker

The legendary Kaokoveld of old, the last wilderness, the arid Eden: that vast tract of land that is the north-western corner of Namibia – a place with a near-mythic status as a destination for travel and exploration…

Y et, what is that place today, in a world where development and change are constants?

To give insight into the modern conservation context of this ancient landscape, a new tourism route provides an in-the-field introduction. The ‘Living with wildlife in ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy Side-Track’ is a half-day four-wheel-drive route focussing on the fundamentals of community conservation in the northwest.

There’s really no place better than ≠Khoadi-//Hôas to get that first-hand account. Khoadi – as it is widely referred to – was one of the first four communal conservancies formed in Namibia almost two decades ago. It is a large, well-established conservancy that stretches across undulating hills and rugged mountains on the eastern fringes of the communal farming areas of the Kunene Region. This is an ideal entry point into Kaoko via the frontier town of Kamanjab – the perfect first stop on your safari.

The timeless rhythms of Kaoko are much the same as they have been for eons. The wildlife is still all there – elephant, giraffe, lion, leopard, rhino, zebra, all manner of antelope… and it’s wildlife viewing in the spectacular landscapes of north-western Namibia – a privilege that travellers from near and far seek to experience.

The wildlife is still there, but the human parameters have changed. And it is these changes, more than anything else, that has enabled the wildlife to continue to roam, largely unhindered. Because here, the immense spaces across which the wildlife wanders are not part of any national park. This is not a conventional tourist destination. This land has an entirely different status: it is a community conservation area.
It is also communal farmland in the traditional African sense, where people herd livestock and – if soils and rainfall permit – grow a few crops in small gardens. The farmland is overlaid by the community conservation area, which by now consists of around 40 adjoining conservancies that stretch from Etosha to the Skeleton Coast Park and from the Kunene River to the Spitzkoppe. The conservancies enable wildlife management and conservation on the farmland, in a sometimes precarious balance with traditional land uses. People tolerate elephants that may raid their crops or damage their water infrastructure, they even tolerate the lions and other predators that time and again will take some of their livestock – as long as costs and benefits can be balanced. People know that wildlife is important and that we must conserve it for a healthy future. This is what it means to live with wildlife in the Erongo-Kunene Community Conservation Area.

Because of its successes in balancing the needs of people and wildlife outside parks, Namibia’s community-based natural resource management programme has garnered widespread international acclaim. But how does a conservancy actually function? The ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Side-Track route gives you the opportunity to find out. Khoadi has a well-organised office, a variety of information displays and friendly staff in crisp uniforms. The conservancy office is right at the start of the route, and a stop is well worth it. Chat with the community game guards about their work. Study the conservancy notice board. And then go on to explore a beautiful corner of the 3,365 square kilometre conservancy.

The Side-Track brochure will be your guide. It is a full-colour publication with a large, detailed map to enable you to find your way around. And it has a variety of information that will help you interpret what you see along the way. Like all Conservancy Side-Tracks, this is a designated tourism route in a community conservation area, developed to enhance the visitor experience by providing authorised access to sectors off the beaten track, and by sharing a variety of information to explore them. The proceeds from the sale of the brochures are reinvested into community conservation initiatives.

For much of the Khoadi route, the track follows a transect of the Erongo-Kunene Game Count (also known as the North-West Game Count). This is the largest annual road-based game count in the world, carried out in early June each year, as it has been for almost 20 years. Wildlife is counted from the back of a ‘bakkie’ – the tray of a four-wheel drive pick-up truck. The count starts at sunrise in the biting cold of winter and always follows the same routes (referred to as transects) to ensure consistency. Each conservancy is laced by a number of transects, which usually take around half a day each to complete.

So while you are travelling, scan the land for game as if you were on the count. In the vastness of this wild world, animals the size of giraffe and elephant are dwarfed by huge panoramas. ≠Khoadi-//Hôas straddles the Grootberg, and its flat-topped mesas provide spectacular backdrops all around. The route meanders through the undulating landscape to the east of the Grootberg Pass.

A highlight is the Fig-Tree waterhole. The basalts of the Etendeka Plateau, of which the Grootberg is a part, are well-known for their natural springs and seeps. A large pool at the base of this cliff in an ephemeral watercourse has nurtured stately Namaqua rock figs and is visited by wildlife of all sizes. This is not an Etosha waterhole, though – game is wary and often comes only at night. It is the spoor on the game trails that reveal the presence of all the creatures. The conservancy has benefitted from various wildlife reintroductions, and red hartebeest, black-faced impala and eland now occur here again.

The diversity of vegetation in this arid land is another interesting feature. Bottle trees are aptly named and easily recognised. The enigmatic whip-stick acacia with its wispy stem is an oddity, and the gnarled and stumpy Herero sesame-tree is characteristic of many of the rocky slopes. You will pass some farmsteads and farming infrastructure on your way that give an impression of how locals live here, in these wild spaces. You are also likely to see goats, cattle and donkeys. Around 4,200 people live in ≠Khoadi-//Hôas, many of them farming with livestock.

There are a variety of accommodation options to provide a base from which to explore the route. It is comfortably accessible from Grootberg Lodge or Hoada Campsite, both within ≠Khoadi-//Hôas and conservancy-owned. Further alternatives exist in and around Kamanjab, a leisurely scenic drive away. Make a point of finding the real people, places and wildlife of Kaoko with the aid of a Side-Track brochure on your next trip to the northwest.

This article was first published in the Travel News Namibia Spring 2016 issue.