Breakthrough deal in Kunene

“IT is a great achievement.”

That’s how the Chairman of the Doro Nawas conservancy in the Kunene Region describes the joint venture partnership agreement recently signed with Wilderness Safaris. Leonard Hoaeb said it was not an easy journey to come to such an agreement.”Discussions started in 2002.It was not an easy thing,” Hoaeb told The Namibian yesterday.The partnership makes members of the Doro !Nawas conservancy and the Wilderness Safaris equal owners of the luxury Doro !Nawas camp, which was opened in 2005.”We are now partners in business.They are no longer just landlords.They [the conservancy] will now sit on the board and make decisions,” said the Chief Executive Officer of Wilderness Safaris, Bruce Simpson.Wilderness Safaris, together with the Business Linkage Challenge Fund (BLCF), which contributed the conservancy’s share for the equal partnership in the camp, funded the development of Doro !Nawas camp.The initiative received 300 000 British pounds (about N$4,2 million) through BLCF, administered by Emerging Market Group.Wilderness Safaris invested the same amount in the project.Unlike other joint venture agreements, whereby the private sector builds a lodge or accommodation facility on land belonging to the community and pays a certain percentage of the profit to the community, the conservancy is an equal shareholder in this venture.Doro !Nawas camp, a super-luxury safari lodge located in the Doro !Nawa conservancy, has provided 36 full-time jobs.The conservancy measures over 4 000 square kilometres, was gazetted in December 1999 and has a population of about 1 500 people.It also derives income from a trophy-hunting quota.Leonard Hoaeb said it was not an easy journey to come to such an agreement.”Discussions started in 2002.It was not an easy thing,” Hoaeb told The Namibian yesterday.The partnership makes members of the Doro !Nawas conservancy and the Wilderness Safaris equal owners of the luxury Doro !Nawas camp, which was opened in 2005.”We are now partners in business.They are no longer just landlords.They [the conservancy] will now sit on the board and make decisions,” said the Chief Executive Officer of Wilderness Safaris, Bruce Simpson.Wilderness Safaris, together with the Business Linkage Challenge Fund (BLCF), which contributed the conservancy’s share for the equal partnership in the camp, funded the development of Doro !Nawas camp.The initiative received 300 000 British pounds (about N$4,2 million) through BLCF, administered by Emerging Market Group.Wilderness Safaris invested the same amount in the project.Unlike other joint venture agreements, whereby the private sector builds a lodge or accommodation facility on land belonging to the community and pays a certain percentage of the profit to the community, the conservancy is an equal shareholder in this venture.Doro !Nawas camp, a super-luxury safari lodge located in the Doro !Nawa conservancy, has provided 36 full-time jobs.The conservancy measures over 4 000 square kilometres, was gazetted in December 1999 and has a population of about 1 500 people.It also derives income from a trophy-hunting quota.