By Dhiladhila Magazine · Issue 09
Tourism is a thin strand of the programme, but where a camp plugs into an existing structure, it pays.
Among the nature-based livelihoods the N$161 million (about US$9.5 million) NILALEG programme hopes to grow, tourism is a modest strand rather than the headline. In the wetter northern regions, though, visitor income is one of the few earnings that arrives without removing anything from the ground, which is exactly what a conservation programme wants.
The programme’s enterprise aim meets an existing base. Community-run camps already operate in the Zambezi and Kavango regions, and they show both the promise and the limits of tourism as a communal livelihood.
A strand that already exists
The northern communal regions are not starting from zero. Community-based campsites in the Zambezi and Kavango areas already host visitors on conservancy and community-forest ground, run by local institutions rather than distant operators. Tourism works best here where it attaches to a structure that can hold a booking, bank a payment and share the benefit.
Tourism pays fastest where it plugs into a community institution that already functions.
Why it stays a strand, not a pillar
Visitor income is seasonal, weather-dependent and thin outside a few well-placed sites, so it complements harvesting and farming rather than replacing them. For most households, a camp fee is one income among several, and the programme’s value is in adding it to the mix, not betting the region on it.
For a fragile rural economy, a small extra income that fails at different times is worth more than a single big one.
For a lodge operator or community tourism venture, NILALEG signals that the northern regions want visitor income that leaves the terrain intact and the benefit local. The decision is whether to build a camp onto an existing conservancy or community forest that can carry it, or to treat tourism as a stand-alone bet the local structure cannot yet sustain.
Sources: The Namibian; Community-based tourism in Namibia (Namibweb); Kavango Zambezi TFCA (Peace Parks Foundation)
