Impacts of commercialising Commiphora wildii in two conservancies in North Western Namibia

Includes bibliographical references.The role that non-timber forest products (NTFPs) play in the lives of rural people is increasingly acknowledged. Commercialising these products is seen as a strategy to alleviate poverty in developing countries. In this study one such product is explored, namely an essential oil derived from the Namibian plant Commiphora wildii (C. wildii). This NTFP is valued for its scent and is used in the manufacturing of perfumes. The resin is harvested by the Himba indigenous group in north western Namibia. The harvesters who took part in this study reside in the Puros and Orupembe registered conservancies and community forests, which are part of the Namibian government’s community based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme. Commiphora wildii is used traditionally by the Himba as a perfume in a daily beauty ritual. The aim of this research is to determine the impacts of commercialising C. wildii on the communities in the two conservancies. This study 1) examines the process of commercialisation 2) analyses the impacts on the harvesters in terms of changes in culture, economic impacts, social benefits and problems that have arisen and 3) To provide recommendations to the options that could be considered to mitigate negative impacts

Benefit sharing and environmental sustainability in policy and practice: the commercialisation of the resurrection bush (Myrothamnus flabellifolius) in Southern Africa

The trade of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), also known as biotrade, has existed for hundreds of years - as has the traditional knowledge associated with such products. More recently, this form of trade has advanced to include genetic resource components found within natural resources (bioprospecting). International agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Nagoya Protocol came into force in 1993 and 2010 respectively, to ensure that biological diversity is conserved, sustainably utilised, and that the benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources and/or associated traditional knowledge are shared in an equitable manner. In practice, however, there is a lack of evidence to suggest whether the provisions of the CBD and Nagoya Protocol are being adequately implemented and achieved. This research focuses on the commercialisation of the resurrection bush (Myrothamnus flabellifolius) in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa and critically evaluates how the requirements of the CBD and Nagoya Protocol are applied. The resurrection bush spans a number of countries and has been used traditionally by a variety of ethnic communities residing in Africa. Traditional medicinal uses for the resurrection bush include using the plant to treat colds and flu, scurvy, coughs, abdominal pain, epilepsy, and asthma. This study aims to uncover and understand the way in which benefit sharing and environmental sustainability are interpreted and implemented in various resurrection bush commercialisation approaches. Six objectives are articulated to achieve this aim: (1) to review the historical use and traditional knowledge associated with the resurrection bush; (2) to describe the different ways the resurrection bush is commercialised and the different processes each commercialisation strategy follows; (3) to describe the actors involved in the different resurrection bush commercialisation strategies and their roles in the commercialisation process; (4) to explore, within each commercialisation strategy, how commercial actors gain access to resources; (5) to describe and analyse the range of benefits derived from each commercialisation approach; and (6) to assess the policy implications and practical applications of current resurrection bush commercialisation approaches. This research adopted a qualitative case study methodological approach, in which 26 key informant interviews and 137 semi-structured harvester interviews were conducted in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The key informants consisted of private companies, NGOs, and government officials across all three countries. Interviews with these informants were carried out to determine the diversity of commercialisation approaches associated with the resurrection bush, the actors involved, the ways in which commercial entities gain access to resources, how benefits are shared, and what measures are put in place for environmental sustainability. Further interviews were conducted with resurrection bush collectors in Namibia and Zimbabwe to review the historical and traditional uses associated with the resurrection bush. Understanding these uses provides insight into the types of agreements developed for its commercialisation and associated environmental, social and economic benefits. It was found that there are three commercialisation approaches associated with the resurrection bush across Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. They are: (1) Informal trade, where harvesters sell raw material directly to consumers based on informal, verbal agreements; (2) Biotrade, where the value chain is longer and consists of more formal agreements; and (3) Bioprospecting, where research and development of the resurrection bush is a strong component, involving negotiations with harvesters and formal written agreements. Several key findings emerged to inform current and future commercialisation approaches. The inadequate implementation of regulatory frameworks within each commercialisation approach has negatively impacted harvesters and overall economic growth. Harvesters are not receiving maximum benefits from commercialisation due to elite capture of benefits from resurrection bush cultivation sites and significant profit margins on end products. Traditional knowledge holders are not adequately compensated and acknowledged for their innovations and practices due to the absence of sufficient historical records of traditional knowledge, and cooperation between countries and communities who share resources which are commonly used. Long-term conservation efforts associated with the resurrection bush are lacking in all commercialisation approaches due the belief that because there is an abundance of the resource in the wild, additional conservation measures are not needed

Introducing the Living Convention and Landscape Approach to Legal Empowerment

The fragmentation of law and related institutional arrangements continue to undermine Indigenous Peoples and local communities intent on self-determining their futures and retaining the social and ecological integrity of their territories and other areas. In this light, new approaches to understanding the law and to using the law are required. The Living Convention attempts to employ a new approach in order to make international law more accessible to Indigenous peoples and local communities. In doing so, it helps increase access to justice by democratizing the law and allowing a range of non-lawyers to identify and to utilize provisions in international law that are relevant to their needs. The Living Convention and the concept of ‘legal empowerment for landscapes’ are modest contributions to this ongoing and multi-stakeholder endeavor. It is the authors’ sincere hope that these ideas contribute to the on-going work in this area and, by promoting an unorthodox reading of an existing legal landscape, helps Indigenous Peoples, local communities and their supporters to identify “space to place new steps of chang

The Economics of Open Source Hijacking and Declining Quality of Digital Information Resources: A Case for Copyleft

The economics of information goods suggest the need for institutional intervention to address the problem of revenue extraction from investments in resources characterized by high fixed costs of production and low marginal costs of reproduction and distribution. Solutions to the appropriation issue, such as copyright, are supposed to guarantee an incentive for innovative activities at the price of few vices marring their rationale. In the case of digital information resources, apart from conventional inefficiencies, copyright shows an extra vice since it might be used perversely as a tool to hijack and privatise collectively provided open source and open content knowledge assemblages. Whilst the impact of hijacking on open source software development may be uncertain or uneven, some risks are clear in the case of open content works. The paper presents some evidence of malicious effects of hijacking in the Internet search market by discussing the case of The Open Directory Project. Furthermore, it calls for a wider use of novel institutional remedies such as copyleft and Creative Commons licensing, built upon the paradigm of copyright customisation.Economics of information and knowledge, intellectual property rights, copyright, copyleft, public domain, open source, open content, hijacking, customisation, Creative Commons, DMOZ, search engine, directory.

Enactment of ‘community’ in community based natural resources management in Zambezi Region, Namibia

This thesis is about community based natural resource management. This form of resource management is well known globally and locally through its acronym: CBNRM. It stands for the devolution from the state to local communities of rights to manage and reap the benefits from natural resources. One of CBNRM’s objectives is to empower rural communities through providing material and non-material incentives for assuming management responsibility over natural and wildlife resources. CBNRM initiatives have globally been triggered by substantial losses in biodiversity and marginalisation of rural communities. Enduring poverty in communities residing in communal areas bordering protected areas and non-involvement in management, decision-making and access to benefits are often seen as causing biodiversity losses to occur. For many academics, NGO-practitioners, rural people as well as national and regional policymakers, CBNRM has evolved to become an important model for conservation and rural development. The realisation and widespread failure of centralised, top-down approaches, also referred to as ‘fortress conservation’, combined with the belief that wildlife could be sustainably conserved if its management was partly transferred to the people who live with these resources, contributed to the growth and expansion of CBNRM projects and programmes across the globe. CBNRM - if well designed and implemented – is positioned and believed to be a model that potentially simultaneously conserves biodiversity and reduces poverty. This thesis explores a critical dimension of CBNRM: the community, and particularly the community in interactions with a range of actors operating at global and local levels. CBNRM stands analytically a multi-actor and multi-level project. CBNRM projects evolved to be the sites where global and local processes and projects interact and intersect creating in turn many interesting interfaces and learning moments for all that are involved in conservation. Such focus helps to understand what a conservancy actually is and how these were introduced and enacted in villages. The idea gradually developed that a conservancy evolves as an area where a diversity of actors socio-politically relate to each other and operate to satisfy their specific but different needs and interests in distributing the benefits of CBNRM and to attempt to access jobs and yield power in the process. I conceptualise the conservancy as an ‘arena’, as the social setting or site of enactment of conservation practices, social relations and processes and, simultaneously, the site where the struggle over control over conservancy resources and power takes place. This focus allows for a detailed analysis of a range of critical issues including socio-economic inequality, gender, traditional authority, benefits sharing, elite behaviour or capture, competition, transparency and accountability. The empirical setting of the thesis is three conservancies in the former Caprivi Province of Namibia: Wuparo, Sobbe and Kwandu. The author has worked with these conservancies for over 8 years, in many capacities: as researcher, as practitioner/consultant and as a more then interested bystander given his involvement with nature conservation from his high school years.</p

Taking stories: The ethics of cross-cultural community conservation research in Samburu, Kenya

Biodiversity is under threat at a global level, and many of the most biodiverse hotspots are in developing regions of the world. In many of these communities, livelihoods are often dependent on the same natural landscapes that support biodiversity. As a result, achieving global conservation and development goals is a priority in these regions, and therefore they attract the interest of both local and international researchers. However, research by outside, Western-based researchers can present ethical and practical challenges in these areas. Fortunately, community-based participatory research (CBPR), if managed well, can contribute to responsible conservation research in these regions. In this article, we investigate strategies to address ethical issues associated with cross-cultural conservation and development research. Our analysis draws on the experiences of a women’s village in northern Kenya and six Western researchers. Using qualitative methodologies, we identify common themes in ethical conservation and develop research including critical consciousness, relationship-building, reciprocity, and adaptive research processes. We discuss the implications for ethical CBPR and, specifically, the need for both researchers and funders to only conduct such research if they can devote the resources required to do so ethically.&nbsp

Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas

The goals of conserving nature have changed over the last decades, but setting aside areas for nature protection is still a major part of environmental efforts globally. Protected areas often include indigenous and local communities' territories, and although indigenous rights have been strengthened through international policies and laws, conflicts over land entitlement are still common. A couple of notable events internationally in the context of Human Rights and nature conservation discourses have marked a significant shift in the attitudes and approaches to the role of indigenous people and local communities in natural resource governance. Contemporary approaches enable them to define themselves and to own and manage land and natural resources. Domestic policy makers are faced with the challenge of creating national laws and policies to implement this contemporary approach. This thesis looks at the concept of ICCAs as a tool for facilitating participation of indigenous and local communities in natural resource management. It begins with an analysis of the form, nature, origins and value of ICCA's- and specifically key legal elements which should ideally be included in a legal framework to give domestic effect to them. This analysis indicates that in order to recognise and protect the indigenous people and local communities and for ICCAs to be a success, their land tenures and resource rights have to be legally secured, they have to be deliberately involved in management of natural resources and they have to enjoy the benefits that arise as a result of their input and use their traditional knowledge to protect and conserve natural resources. The dissertation then turns to consider whether these elements are present in Kenya's legal framework. 2010 is used as a benchmark because of the significant reform introduced giving an edge in the way indigenous people and local communities and their contribution to natural resource management were recognised

Surviving 'Development' : Rural development interventions, protected area management and formal education with the Khwe San in Bwabwata National Park, Namibia

In the last three decades, southern African governments and non-profit organizations, following the narrative of poverty alleviation and integrated rural development, have initiated a variety of development interventions targeting the hunter-gatherer San people. Despite these interventions, the southern African San groups, like many other Indigenous Peoples, remained economically, politically, and socially marginalized. In this doctoral dissertation, I have examined how such interventions have impacted on the contemporary livelihoods of a Namibian San group, the Khwe San. Based on a 15-month-long ethnographic field study with the Khwe community living in the eastern part of Bwabwata National Park (BNP), this thesis is compiled of four peer-reviewed articles and a summarizing report. The summary introduces the background and context of the study, outlines its theoretical and methodological framework, and discusses the main findings presented in the four articles. The study builds on decolonial and post-development research theories and looks at hunters and gatherers through the lens of the ‘foraging mode of thought’ concept. Based on the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the notion of community capitals, this study provides a critical analysis of both the practice and impacts of development interventions on local livelihoods and socio-cultural dynamics. The study focuses on three key domains of development interventions affecting contemporary foragers: rural income-generating interventions, protected area management and formal education. The ethnographic fieldwork in BNP was carried out between 2016 and 2018 and involved data collection through participant observation in various settings, as well as semi-structured interviews with local community members and a wide range of other stakeholders. In addition, a study-area-wide socio-economic census was undertaken, and the participatory photography (PhotoVoice) method was used in the case study community. This study shows that the contemporary livelihood strategies of the Khwe San people do not currently provide adequate benefits for maintaining a sound livelihood inside the national park. Restrictions due to strictly-imposed biodiversity conservation regulations limit the options for locally available livelihood activities, while community development projects initiated by external actors to date have been unable to alleviate extreme poverty or provide any substantial benefits. Most projects have failed due to dismissing local cultural, social and economic realities and disregarding proper community consultation and involvement in decision-making. The state’s formal education system, as currently practised, suffers from the same neglect of local cultural characteristics. The standardized curriculum and teaching practices, coupled with the negative stereotyping of San children and parents by the educators, are far from providing a safe and effective learning environment. Despite the above challenges, the findings demonstrate that the social life is still largely governed by principles of egalitarianism, their traditional kinship system, and the practice of sharing. The Khwe San’s traditional knowledge and skills, especially in relation to wild food gathering, still plays an important role in maintaining their livelihoods and contemporary cultural identity. However, Khwe adults and elders regard traditional knowledge far more important than do the youth, and this knowledge transmission is rapidly fading. The study also analysed exemplary initiatives that have provided some positive contributions to Khwe livelihoods. The Devil’s Claw harvesting collaborative project is a leading example of a culturally-responsive initiative contributing to several domains of local well-being, while the recently-established Biocultural Community Protocol is a model community-led legal instrument encompassing customary laws, institutions and crucial building blocks of local identity. The study indicates that further diversification of livelihood options is essential, and should be community-led, culturally inclusive and sustainable. The predominantly externally-driven interventions to date have disempowered the Khwe San and ignored the addressing of fundamental human rights issues. The Khwe and other hunter-gatherer communities now find themselves at a critical time and in need of support to self-strengthen their own capabilities and agency in order to realize self-determination and accomplish long-term positive social change for themselves, their communities, and their future generations.Pyrkiessään vähentämään köyhyyttä ja kehittämään maaseutua, eteläisen Afrikan valtiot ja kansalaisjärjestöt ovat viimeisten kolmen vuosikymmenen kuluessa aloittaneet useita kehityshankkeita, jotka kohdistuvat metsästyskeräilytaloudessa elävään san-kansaan. Näistä yrityksistä huolimatta eteläisen Afrikan san-ryhmät ovat, monien muiden alkuperäiskansojen tavoin, edelleen taloudellisessa, poliittisessa ja sosiaalisessa marginaalissa. Tämä väitöstyötutkimus tarkastelee, kuinka tällaiset interventiot ovat vaikuttaneet yhden namibialaisen san-yhteisön, khwe sanin, nykyiseen toimentuloon. Väitös perustuu 15 kuukautta kestäneeseen etnografiseen kenttätyötutkimukseen Bwabwatanin kansallispuistossa (Bwabwata National Park, BNP) itäisessä osassa asuvan khwe san -yhteisön keskuudessa. Työ koostuu neljästä vertaisarvioidusta artikkelista ja yhteenvedosta. Esittelen yhteenvedossa tutkimuksen taustan ja kontekstin, teoreettisen viitekehyksen ja metodit sekä neljän artikkelin tärkeimmät tulokset. Tutkimus pohjautuu dekolonialistisiin ja kehityksen jälkeisiin tutkimusteorioihin ja se tarkastelee metsästäjäkeräilijöitä ’keräilyajatusmallin’ (foraging mode of thought) kautta. Perustuen kestävän toimentulon kehysmalliin (sustainable livelihoods framework) ja yhteisöpääomien käsitykseen tämä tutkimus analysoi kriittisesti sekä kehityshankkeiden käytäntöjä että niiden vaikutusta paikallisiin elinkeinoihin ja sosio-kulttuuriseen dynamiikkaan. Tarkastelen nykykeräilijöiden elämään vaikuttavia kehityshankkeita erityisesti kolmella alueella: maaseudun tulonmuodostukseen vaikuttavat interventiot, alueelliset suojeluhankkeet ja virallinen valtion koulutus. BNP:ssa vuosina 2016–2018 toteutettuun etnografiseen kenttätyöhön sisältyi osallistuvaa havainnointia erilaisissa tilanteissa sekä paikallisen yhteisön jäsenten ja monenlaisten sidosryhmien kanssa tehtyjä puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja. Lisäksi tutkituissa yhteisössä tehtiin sosioekonominen väestönlaskenta ja käytettiin osallistavaa valokuvausta (PhotoVoice-menetelmä). Tutkimus osoittaa, että nykyiset khwe san -kansan toimeentulostrategiat eivät kykene tarjoamaan riittävää toimeentuloa kansallispuiston sisällä. Tiukasti sovelletut luonnon monimuotoisuuden suojelusäännökset rajoittavat paikallisesti tarjolla olevia toimeentulovaihtoehtoja, eivätkä ulkopuolisten toimijoiden aloittamat yhteisön kehittämishankkeet ole toistaiseksi kyenneet helpottamaan äärimmäistä köyhyyttä tai tuottamaan mitään varteenotettavaa hyötyä. Suurin osa hankkeista ovat epäonnistuneet, koska ne ovat jättäneet huomioimatta paikalliset kulttuuriset, sosiaaliset ja taloudelliset erityispiirteet. Lisäksi ne ovat laiminlyöneet neuvottelun yhteisön kanssa ja sen osallistamisen päätöksenteossa. Myöskään valtiollinen koulutus nykymuodossaan ei huomioi paikallista kulttuuria. Standardisoitu opetusohjelma ja opetustavat eivät kykene takaamaan turvallista ja tehokasta oppimisympäristöä, mitä lisäksi pahentaa opettajien san-lapsiin ja heidän vanhempiin kohdistuvat kielteiset stereotypiat. Edellä mainituista haasteista huolimatta tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että khweien keskinäistä kanssakäymistä ohjaa edelleen yhdenveroisuuden periaatteet, perinteinen sukulaisuusjärjestelmä ja hyödykkeiden jakaminen. Khwe san-kansan perinnetiedot ja -taidot, erityisesti ne, jotka liittyvät ravinnon kerääminen luonnosta, ovat edelleen tärkeitä kansan toimeentulon ja nykyisen kulttuuri-identiteetin säilymiselle. Khwe-aikuiset ja -vanhukset pitävät kuitenkin perinnetietoja paljon suuremmassa arvossa kuin nuoret, ja niiden välittyminen sukupolvelta toiselle on nopeasti heikentymässä. Tutkimus myös analysoi sellaisia hankkeita, jotka ovat jonkin verran hyödyttäneet khweien toimeentuloa. Yhteistyöhanke harpagojuuren hyödyntämiseksi on hyvä esimerkki paikallisen kulttuurin huomioivasta aloitteesta, joka hyödyttää monipuolisesti yhteisön hyvinvointia. Hiljattain perustettu biokulttuurinen yhteisösäännöstö (Biocultural Community Protocol), on malli yhteisön johtamasta laillisesta toimijasta, joka käyttää hyväksi paikallista tapaoikeutta, sen instituutioita ja paikallisidentiteetin tärkeitä elementtejä. Tutkimus osoittaa, että toimeentulovaihtoehtojen monipuolistaminen on ensiarvoisen tärkeää, minkä pitäisi tapahtua yhteisön ohjaamana sekä kulttuurisesti inklusiivisella ja kestävällä tavalla. Enimmäkseen ulkoisesti tehdyt interventiot ovat toistaiseksi vieneet khwe san-kansalta vallan omiin asioihinsa ja sivuttaneet perustavaa laatua olevat ihmisoikeuskysymykset. Khwet kuten muut metsästäjä-keräilijäyhteisöt elävät tällä hetkellä kriittistä aikaa ja tarvitsevat tukea vahvistaakseen omia kykyjään ja toimijuuttaan taatakseen itsemääräämisoikeuden toteutumisen ja saadakseen aikaan pitkävaikutteisia sosiaalisia muutoksia omaksi, yhteisönsä ja tulevaisuuden sukupolviensa hyväksi