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Please find available for download the document: Desertification, NGOs, and Capacity Building in Communal Lands of Southern Namibia
The research addresses the topic of desertification in Namibia, and efforts by non-government organisations (NGOs) to combat desertification. Data collected over a 6 month period at 3 Napcod pilot sites located in southern Namibia is presented. Three community-based organisations in the communal area of the Hardap region are documented; a farmer’s league, a tourist campsite, and a wildlife conservancy. In total, over 50 household surveys are presented. Research was conducted during 2001. Namibia’s Programme to Combat Desertification (Napcod) is discussed.
To download the Executive Summary, click here.
To download a pdf file of: Deutsch, Cralan (2002). 'Desertification, NGOs, and Capacity Building in Communal Lands of Southern Namibia', click here.
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Related Publications:
Deutsch, C. 2003. Barking Dogs: Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) in Post-Apartheid Namibia. Practicing Anthropology v25 no2
Deutsch, C. 2003. Asking Namibian Farmers to Discuss Desertification. Ruminations: Newsletter of the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program. Winter 2003. pp.1, 8-11.
Useful Links:
DRFN: Desert Research Foundation of Namibia
National Programme to Combat desertification (NAPCOD)
UC Davis: International Agricultural Development
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
FAO: Desertification informational site
Namibia's Desertification Portal
Document Summary:
(Desertification, NGOs, and Capacity Building in Communal Lands of Southern Namibia)
The three research sites are compared and differentiated variously in terms of :
- Social organisation, range management and livestock herding
- Perceptions of desertification
- Drought-coping strategies
- Income and wealth distribution
- Transitions into market-oriented systems of livestock off-take
- Savings mechanisms
- Levels of participation in local development projects
- The goal of this research is to examine the relationships which exist between NGOs, farmers, and the formation and continued existence of CBOs, in relation to desertification and/or land degradation, opportunistic management, and drought-coping strategies.
- Comparisons are based on interviews and survey data collected from 50 households at 3 sites.
- A detailed treatment of the formation of community-based organisations (CBOs) is presented.
- Potential indicators for evaluating project success are presented.
- Local incentives for participating in community projects are reported with the conclusion that investment opportunity is a primary motivating factor for participation.
- Capacity-building is examined as a means to halting land degradation and facilitating community-based natural resource management (CBNRM).
- Community perceptions of CBOs and NGOs are presented which give some insight into local expectations and form a ‘client-driven’ approach in terms of providing a set of future recommendations solicited directly from community members.
- The emergence of waterpoint committees (WPCs) is also discussed. In particular the emerging struggle between the WPCs and traditional leadership for control and decision-making as regards land allocation is brought to light. All 3 sites are engaged in the formation of waterpoint committees (WPCs). Local communities are assisted by governmental service organisations (SOs) in this endeavour, in anticipation of the mandated government handover of waterpoint infrastructure management scheduled to occur by 2007.
- The initial stages of CBO formation are discussed in depth.
- Findings are presented from interviews which reveal that although tangible benefits are slow to accrue, a major contribution to date of CBOs has been the emergence of community discussion forums.
- The concept of desertification is critically addressed biophysically and culturally.
- Specific to desertification, what household practices contribute to land degradation, and how can NGOs design programs that help rural inhabitants by making their lives easier?
- Conclusions are presented which suggest that work to create sustainable management strategies suited to increasingly sedentary herding conditions is facilitated through the creation of community-based rural organisations.
- In southern Africa, environmental conservationism, along with numerous colonial methods of governance, has created a specific history of land management and human settlement patterns. Efforts are made in this work to historically contextualise contact between Nama pastoralists and various external influences which have affected herd sizes, labor availability, human settlement patterns, and access to land. Tenure and fencing are important issues which are discussed on various levels including management and investment strategies, intensification of market-oriented livestock production, and reduced mobility as an impingement on traditional drought-coping strategies.
- This thesis is also concerned with farmer perceptions and experiences, and social organisation in communal areas. Farmers were asked to elaborate on the changes they have seen in the 11 years since independence was achieved in 1990, specifically on the substantial increase in NGO activity. The recent increase in activity provides a case study demonstrating the various effects which have resulted from a dramatic increase in NGO activity in an area where services have been negligible, and provides indicators for future evaluations.
- The last 15 years of developmental pastoralist and range management literature on the subject of arid lands of Africa have been concerned with a paradigm shift towards understanding drylands as non-equilibrium environments. Under non-equilibrial conditions herders are said to practice a form of opportunistic management, reacting to the environment instead of causing change themselves.
The author of this document also writes poetry, click here to visit the poetry site.