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Box 3 Namibian land reformIn Namibia, legal reforms in 1996 created a frameworkfor community-based natural resource management(CBNRM). Namibians who form conservanciesnow have legal rights to manage wildlife andto benefit from tourism. With these secured rights,rural Namibians have reduced levels of poaching,have seen wildlife numbers increase substantially,and are seeing their ecosystems rebounding. Arelated benefit is that rural Namibians now haveopportunities to pursue a new set of entrepreneurialventures. They are empowered to build businessesbased on eco-tourism and related activities. Thesebusinesses help to diversify livelihoods and providevaluable benefits for conservancy members.Namibia’s experience with CBNRM may provide astrong model for other countries: devolving securelegal rights to local people is promoting positiveoutcomes, both in terms of conservation and economicdevelopment. Source: Boudreaux 2007possession by government or outsiders, ratherthan by others within the community.• They acknowledge that community-basedsystems are also often better at reflecting thecomplex rights that individuals, families andgroups have over land, including secondaryrights of access and use — rights that mightbe distorted or lost by titling according to astandardise format that is not adapted to localrealities.• They recognise that a community’s relationshipwith land is more than an aggregate ofindividually occupied plots: it is a system thatincludes natural resources used in common.Communal lands and common natural resources.Including grazing lands, forests, water, fisheries,in many poor countries are a special case of customarytenure and crucial for the improvement ofthe legal and economic status of the poor. Theyare vulnerable to degradation and appropriationby powerful chiefs, outsiders, or state bureaucratsunless common property resource managementsystems are reinforced by legal sanction.Increasing access to, and the locally beneficialproductivity of land and natural resources, can beachieved by:• Reaffirming and codifying customary rules inparticipatory ways, reflecting diversity in theethnic, historical, and social construction ofland. Also setting legal boundaries, identifyingexisting rights that may overlap or be of a seasonalnature (e.g., between herders and sedentaryagriculturalists), and registering themas appropriate and orderly tradable.• Allowing communal land ownership as onelegal option and regular management decisionsin an accountable body that functionstransparently — for example, as an incorporateduser group — and having clear rules forconflict resolution that are respected by allinvolved. Arriving at culturally appropriate legalforms for such bodies is key.• Ensuring that customary forms of tenure canevolve towards more formal types of tenurethrough well-defined and transparent processes,if and when, in the judgment of thoseconcerned, the benefits from more individualownership exceed the cost. 109The status of informal rights has come strongly tothe fore. Most derive from, and are sustained by,community-based arrangements — i.e. indigenousor customary regimes. If inroads made thus farevolve and expand, some 400 million Africanscould benefit. No fewer than 40 million Indonesians,or 40 million South Americans — andmillions of others globally — could also benefit,should comparable tentative shifts mature. The89