A/HRC/24/41/Add.1 27. Established in 1998 after significant efforts and years of advocacy by the Ju/’hoansi people, the Nyae Nyae Conservancy was the first conservancy created over communal lands, and is currently one of the most successful conservancies in the country. 7 Nyae Nyae is situated within the traditional lands of the Ju/’hoansi San, where there is a high diversity of wildlife, especially in the rainy season. Within the conservancy area, the Ju/’hoansi in Nyae Nyae have rights to manage natural resources and promote tourism, including through safaris and trophy hunting. They also have the right to hunt traditionally with bows and arrows; they are the only San group in the country that has this right under Namibian law. The conservancy is a community-based organization of the Ju/’hoansi people, although it has received over the years significant support from both the Government and nongovernmental organizations, to which it owes much of its current success. Nyae Nyae, however, is facing ongoing encroachment by outsiders and the Government has not stepped in to remedy this situation. 28. Within the N‡a Jaqna Conservancy, which was created in 2003 in the western Tsumkwe area, the majority !Kung San people are authorized to harvest wildlife sustainably and collect wild foods. However, this conservancy is located in an area with minimal wildlife or other tourist potential, so it has not been able to draw the same economic benefits as has Nyae Nyae. Like Nyae Nyae, the N‡a Jaqna Conservancy is threatened by encroachment by outside groups and the erection of illegal fences. The conservancy is also threatened by the proposal to convert part of its land area into mixed farming settlements, a resettlement effort that, according to information received, is being pushed by the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement. 29. The conservancies are in a sense flagship programmes for the Government of Namibia and have been promoted as models for community-based resource management. Certainly the conservancies, especially Nyae Nyae, have allowed communities to have some measure of control over and derive benefits from the natural resources within the communal areas in which they live. However, a limitation of the conservancies is that they can be created only within communal lands or freehold lands, and thus, among the numerous disadvantaged San groups, only the Ju/’hoansi and !Kung San have been able to benefit from the conservancy arrangement. 30. In addition, the laws and policies affecting communal lands and conservancies, including the Communal Land Reform Act and the Nature Conservation Amendment Act, have yet to be harmonized effectively, resulting in a confusing and difficult-to-navigate regulatory regime within these areas. The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, which has responsibilities with respect to communal lands, and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, which has responsibilities with respect to conservancies, often promote competing uses over the same lands, according to sources consulted. 3. The land reform process and resettlement farms 31. Whatever the limitations of the communal land and conservancy regimes, it is apparent that those San and other groups that do not have recognized communal lands are currently faring worse than those groups that do. Most San groups in the country have been dispossessed of their traditional lands, both by private parties for the creation of agricultural farms and by the colonial and apartheid governments, including in the context of the process of creating national parks or other protected areas. Exacerbating this already devastating situation, following the dispossession of their lands many San lived, and 7 For a history of the Ju/’hoansi in the Nyae Nyae, see Megan Biesele and Robert K. Hitchcock, The Ju/’hoan San of Nyae Nyae and Namibian Independence: Development, Democracy, and Indigenous Voices in Southern Africa (Berghahn Books, 2011). 9