Getting the lion's share from tourism: private sector-community partnerships in Namibia

• Main Authors: D. Roe, M. Grieg-Gran, W Schalken
• Format: Publication
• Language: English
• Published: International Institute for Environment and Development 2001
• Subjects: Agriculture and food; Agriculture and food.Land tenure; Agriculture and food.Land tenure.Communal land; CBNRM; CBNRM case study; CBNRM policy; common property; Conservancies; Ethical business; Ethical business.Sustainable tourism; Ethical business.Sustainable tourism.Sustainable Tourism Case Studies; Feature tourism; Finance policy; Finance policy.Private sector; Finance policy.Private sector.Private sector public-private links; Governance; povcons; Poverty; PPT; Pro-poor tourism; Namibia

In a number of developing countries, partnerships between the private sector and local communities are becoming more and more common, especially as communities are increasingly gaining rights to wildlife and other valuable tourism assets on their land through national policy changes on land tenure. In other cases, partnerships are developing on private land as tourism operators recognise that not only is local support essential for the long-term maintenance of the tourism assets on which the industry depends, but that many communities have cultural resources which can greatly enhance or diversify and existing tourism product.In Namibia, recently introduced communal conservancies legislation, which gives local people use rights to wildlife and tourism on communal land, coupled with a national programme on community-based natural resource management, provides a framework through which both biodiversity conservation and rural development goals can be achieved by enabling communities to benefit from commercial ventures on their land. Partnerships are therefore being encouraged between the private sector and communities in order to both improve the standard of living of local communities and ensure the long-term economic viability of the new conservancies.This report reviews the current experience of private sector-community partnerships within the tourism industry in Namibia and provides guidelines for the development of future partnerships. The report is based on fieldwork in Namibia in late 1999 and early 2000 and on discussions with a number of key stakeholders in the sector.This report is divided into three volumes,:volume one is a background report on the tourism industry and policy context for community based tourism in Namibiavolume two contains practical guidelines and recommendations for both communities and the private sector for the development of future partnerships, based on the analysis in the preceding chaptervolume three comprises a detailed description, including a summary of strengths and weaknesses, of all theexisting partnerships in Namibia that were identified during the course of the fieldwork. This alone provides a valuable source of previously undocumented information and is the basis for the analysis and guidelines in volumes one and two of the report.The report is available in in 3 volumes: Volume 1 <A http://www.propoortourism.org.uk/namibia_vol2.pdf">Volume 2 Volume 3 .[adapted from authors]