Restoration of game migration routes across the Namib Desert (Namibia)

Seventeen former sheep farms have been joined to form the world’s largest private nature reserve aimed at regenerating biodiversity to support high-quality low-impact tourism, environmental education and research. All farm owners are members of the management association.

The NamibRand Nature Reserve is a not-for-profit organisation in south-western Namibia. It was founded in 1984 through the initiative of one farm owner, Albi Brueckner, who agreed, with 16 neighbouring farmers, to jointly manage their 215,000 ha for nature conservation and tourism. Its aims are:
To conserve biodiversity for the benefit of future generations and protect the sensitive and fragile environment.
To create a nature reserve with a healthy and functioning ecosystem, providing a sanctuary for flora and fauna, and to facilitate seasonal migratory routes in partnership with neighbours.
To promote sustainable utilisation – through ecologically sustainable and high-quality tourism and other projects.
To achieve a commercially viable operation to ensure continuity and financial independence.
The NamibRand Nature Reserve’s contributions to biodiversity conservation, in accordance with the environmental management plan, include the following:
• Removal of over 2,000 km of fencing to reinstate wildlife migration routes.
• Re-introduction of giraffe and cheetah.
• Bolstering numbers of red hartebeest and plains zebra.
• Removal of alien invasive vegetation such as Prosopis species and replacing these with indigenous Acacias.
• Zonation according to land use areas, including the setting aside 15% of the reserve as a wilderness area.
• Limiting overnight visitors to an average of one bed per 1,000 ha, and 25 beds per location.
• Conducting annual game counts, with results posted on the website www.namibrand.org
• Monitoring the endemic Hartmann’s mountain zebra through the use of camera traps. Results are at: http://www.nnf.org.na/project/mountain-zebra-project/13/1/12.html
• Continuous monitoring of drivers and determinants of environmental change to guide the management plan. Results are posted online at: http://www.landscapesnamibia.org/sossusvlei-namib/rainfall-monitoring
• Hosting researchers to study game migration routes. Results of wildlife monitoring, through the use of GPS collars are at: http://www.landscapesnamibia.org/sossusvlei-namib/research
• Hosting the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET), to empower and educate schoolchildren for a sustainable future. It operates an environmental education and sustainable living centre (www.nadeet.org).
• A lighting management plan to qualify as an international dark sky reserve that avoids negative consequences of light pollution on biodiversity – which can interfere with animal navigation, reduce the hunting success of predators and prevent moths from pollinating (http://www.darksky.org/idsp/reserves/namibrand)
• A water management plan, including monitoring of the impact of a water hole on the surrounding vegetation.
• Implementation of tourism and land use zonation plans.
• Capture and sale of live game for wildlife population management purposes.
• Plans to develop a horticultural project to grow indigenous medicinal plants for commercial production, creating local jobs and income for conservation.
Rangeland management is achieved largely through continual monitoring and control of animal populations, and the balance between functional groups of their species, and turning off the water supply where grasses are in need of rest. Local outreach efforts focus mainly on predator-livestock management on neighbouring farms.
Stakeholders comprise the land owners, who agree on joint management, and the tourism concessionaires who operate in the reserve under contract. The reserve employs 12 people who are responsible for day-to-day management and maintenance. Biodiversity and land management are funded from park fees collected by the concessionaires from tourists who stay at their establishments. This small management team is possible, because tourism concessionaires offer scenic game drives across the reserve, while on the lookout for required action. For example, guides report issues such as leaking water pipes, unusual wildlife sightings, injured animals, and trespassers (etc.) to reserve managers, who can then react.
Land owners who have connected their land to the reserve and are members of the NamibRand Nature Reserve Association have the option of serving as directors of the association, with joint decision making powers. Those who choose not can still contribute to the strategic mission of the reserve at annual general meetings.