Local conservation organisations lack access to funding

A new report found that African-led grassroots organisations are hamstrung by funding processes and short term thinking

(Catherine Merlin)

By Boniface Keakabetse for Okavango Express

Oaitse Nawa, 47, is a qualified professional safari guide and founder of the budding Botswana conservation nonprofit, Elephant Protection Society (EPS).

Nawa founded Elephant Protection Society in 2018, an NGO whose mandate is to protect elephants and the livelihoods of people living in wildlife areas.

He started from the bottom in the country’s Okavango Delta tourism sector working as a scullery then waiter for Wild Lifestyles Mobile Safari.

Five years later in 2001, now working for Elephant Back Safaris, Nawa had an opportunity to serve the young Prince William and his brother Prince Harry in the Okavango Delta.

“I was their butler while they were camping with Randall Moore of Elephant Back Safaris. Prince William was a well reserved guest compared to his energetic brother Prince Harry,” he said, adding “from his demeanor you could hardly know Prince William was heir to the throne of such powerful royalty.”

Nawa’s passion for conservation led to the formation of EPS, so far involved in a number of conservation initiatives at the grassroots level. In 2019, EPS spearheaded a feeding programme for hundreds of hippos stranded by drought in Nxaraga. The project was a success in saving the besieged hippos facing one of the worst climate crises from what seemed like their inevitable death.

EPS also implemented ‘Project Buffalo Fence’, involving maintenance of the veterinary fence separating the Okavango Delta from human settlements, commonly known as the Buffalo Fence.

The Buffalo fence was erected by the Botswana Government in 1982 as a strategy to protect the beef sector from Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks from contact between cattle and buffaloes.

Nawa explained: “Due to its poor maintenance there has been increased human and wildlife conflicts caused by mixing of cattle and buffaloes. Some farmers end up shooting wildlife especially elephants that they blame for destroying the fence.’’

However, EPS, like many other grassroots conservation organisations, faces challenges in accessing international funding. Nawa told The Okavango Express that they are currently working with farmers in Boro on the fringes of the Okavango Delta.

“Our work here entails undertaking elephant patrols to help stop rampant human-elephant conflicts in the area caused by elephants damaging ploughing fields. Lots of elephants in the area end up getting shot by farmers.’’

He said they are however facing an acute shortage of resources they need, like vehicles, GPS devices and solar lights, adding that accessing international funding has so far been a challenge.

This revelation comes shortly after a new 40-page study, Greening the Grassroots: Rethinking African Conservation Funding by Maliasili and Synchronicity Earth, featuring interviews with close to 50 African local and grassroots conservation, climate, and environment organizations, and their funders.

The study published last month found that local conservation organizations in Africa struggle to grow or increase their impact because of inbuilt barriers and challenges in how they are funded.

Maliasili’s research further reported that this is despite smaller, African-led groups working directly with local communities becoming increasingly recognised as key to securing indigenous and community land rights, improving rural livelihoods, conserving nature, and addressing climate change.

It stated that globally, Indigenous Peoples and Local Community (IPLC) organizations receive less than 1% of all climate funding while African conservation entities receive only 5% to 10% of private philanthropic funding invested in all of Africa.

Fred Nelson, CEO of Maliasili, said: “We cannot hope to address conservation and environmental challenges in Africa today if we can’t get the right kind of investment to the most talented and effective organizations in the field.

“Conservationists need to come together to improve funding practices, partnerships between funders, international organizations and local groups, and develop more effective and efficient funding mechanisms. We hope this report will provide guidance on ways to rethink and reform funding practices in African conservation, and get more of the right kind of funding to African organizations.”

Maliasili’s portfolio includes more than 30 leading community-based and national civil society organizations as well as more than 80 conservation leaders working across eastern and southern Africa and Madagascar.

The research findings are echoed by Siyoka Simasiku, Director of Ngamiland Council of Non Governmental Organisations, whose membership includes 60 community organisations based in Ngamiland and Chobe districts in Botswana.

Simasiku stated that the funding coming to Africa is miniscule, affecting many grassroots conservation organisations.

He explained: “We are now witnessing a worrying trend where some of the funding organisations have moved into project implementation. They are now implementing projects at grassroots levels pushing aside the rural grass roots organisations.”

Further, Simasiku opined that the short span of project funding does not work for the organisations due project funding period.

“What we need in Africa is sustainable long term project funding models, not these short projects. Right now a lot of projects crumble as soon as funding runs out. For example in Ngamiland, Botswana, we have had the Sustainable Land Management project funded by the United Nations Development Programme over a five year period. All the pilot projects funded under SLM crumbled as soon as the UNDP funding ran out.”

Simasiku further reiterated that another problem faced by organizations in Botswana is the funding organisations’ policy of not covering staff salaries and overheads for the funded projects.

“Conservation organisations are forced to depend on volunteers because funding organisations do not pay staff salaries or overheads. This is problematic because different organisations need specialized skills for project implementation. A lot of organisations are failing to retain skills required for these projects because funding does not cover salaries.”

This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organization Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Read the original story here.