About us

A conservancy is an area on which landowners or land occupiers have pooled their resources for the power of conservation.   The Swakoptal Conservancy was officially founded on 17^th March 1999.

The Swakop river has it’s origin in the Midgard mountains and flows through the whole area, that’s why the whole area is called the  “upper Swakopvalley”.

Our envisaged plan of integrating the Ovitoto Reserve as an integral part of our Conservancy has partly failed. They must form their own communal Conservancy and we could then have a joint management strategy.

The members of the Conservancy actively utilize the wildlife resources, and are committed to long-term conservation, scientific management, and sustainable use of the wildlife resources. The environment is like a village we all use it, but few take care of it.

What is a Conservancy

The word "Conservancy" has often been defined, and the following definition has been formulated by the Conservancies Association of Namibia: "A Conservancy is a legally protected area of a group of bona fide land-occupiers practicing co-operative management based on:
(1) a sustainable utilization strategy,
(2) promoting conservation of natural resources and wildlife,
(3) striving to re-instate the original bio-diversity with the basic goal of sharing resources amongst all members.

Conservancies ON FREEHOLD FARMLAND

The oldest Conservancy on Commercial Farmland in Namibia is the "Ngarangombe" Conservancy, which was established in 1991. Presently (2004) there are no less than 25 conservancies in our country. These are all Voluntary Associations, which came into existence through the concern and dedication of certain communities, which are presently all situated in commercial farm areas.  Presently the only promulgated legislation on conservancies in Namibia is an amendment of the Nature Conservation Ordinance No 4 of 1975, in the form of a new Chapter XVII, which pertains to conservancies in communal areas of which some 30 already exist and more are still emerging. However, the Ordinance is presently under review and we trust that the new Legislation to be promulgated in close future will make provision for the formal registration of the existing conservancies, situated on commercial farmland.