Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation

Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) "is a field-based non-governmental organisation and registered trust. It evolved out of a pioneering partnership with community leaders in the early 1980s to end the massive commercial and subsistence poaching of black rhino, desert adapted elephant and other species then taking place in the north-west of Namibia, formerly Damaraland and Kaokoland, now the Kunene Region.

"The community game guard system - whereby local people were appointed by and responsible to their traditional leaders - was initiated in 1983. Their role was not just to catch poachers but to stop illegal hunting - by conservation extension, monitoring wildlife and anti-poaching patrols in the areas where they lived. Although this community empowering approach went against the political climate of that time, it made a major contribution to the recovery of wildlife in Namibia's northwest. The active participation of local people in conservation also nurtured a vision of wildlife becoming a valuable cultural, social and economic resource. In 1990, at the request of traditional leaders, IRDNC started a similar community-based program in the Caprivi Region."

"IRDNC is overseen by a Board of Trustees of prominent Namibians, with Garth Owen-Smith and Dr Margaret Jacobsohn as executive trustees and co-directors. Two assistant directors, John K. Kasaona and Colin Nott, manage the NGO which has a small Windhoek office and two large field programs in the remote northwest and northeast corners of Namibia: Caprivi and Kunene...

"IRDNC has about 60 full time staff, and further supports about 100 community workers."

Funding
Accessed June 2009:

"IRDNC depends on donor funding to run its programs, and operates a non-profit-making consultancy to earn additional funding.

"Donors include:


 * WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF UK)
 * World Wildlife Fund-US
 * USAID
 * Department for International Development (DFID)
 * Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED)
 * UK Lottery Fund
 * Swedish Local Environmental Fund
 * European Union (EU)
 * French Embassy in Namibia
 * Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA)
 * British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
 * Integrated Community-Based Ecosystem Management (ICEMA) Project
 * A number of private donors.

Contact

 * Web: http://www.irdnc.org.na

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Save The Rhino Trust
 * Namibia Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management