**4. Implemented measures to mitigate climate change risks and emerging gaps that need decision-making**

#### **4.1. Existing responses to reduce climate risks in Kunene and Zambezi regions**

The adaptive capacity for climate change is crucial for minimising the effects that climate change may have on the community. This involves adjustments of actions and attitudes within the community to better cope with the impacts of climate change experienced. During focus group workshops with communities, coping strategies and adaptations to boost the tourism sector during drought or flooding were highlighted at different levels. The conservancy programme is hailed as a local-based institutional framework that works closely with the Namibian government to promote natural resources management and development of local-based tourism in rural communities. Most international and established local investors have been working with conservancies in developing local tourism to ensure long-lasting impacts of tourism on communities.

The responses to climate change risks on the tourism sector include improving the benefits accrued from natural resources in the event of droughts and floods. The major responses for the Kunene region in the case of drought were to particularly ensure water security for drinking, farming, business and wildlife. Initially, the response of the government has been reactive rather than proactive and long-term due to the absence of early warning information. The government spent millions in reacting to emergencies, which still left people unprepared for the future hazards. During the 2003/2004 drought, the government spent approximately US\$ 21 million in provision of emergency relief [55]. However, recently, the responses have been geared towards adaptation and increasing the capacity among residents during such risks. The government has implemented projects in the Kunene region to drill boreholes and build earth dams in different constituencies of the region. Activities such as aquifer recharge and acquiring earth-moving equipment were among the responses suggested by communities for ensuring water security in the regions. Sustainable forest management strategies were also among the responses to prevent adverse impact of drought on tourism, emphasising mainly on the veld fire management such as putting up firebreaks and promoting sustainable harvesting of forest products through permits and capacity building. Women in the Kunene region harvest the *Commiphora* species products, which are used to produce perfumes for export and for sale to local tourists as a source of income to support their families. This initiative receives great support from government and some relevant stakeholders [56].

In terms of flooding in the Zambezi region, the Government spent about US\$ 8,241,099 on flood emergency response during 2009 [55]. Conservancies and government have also been working on adaptation strategies to reduce the impact of flooding hazards on communities, mainly providing assistance for people in lowlands to move to higher grounds permanently and promoting the use of flood resilient materials for residential and business construction. In addition, the government budget was also mainly geared towards ensuring connection and accessibility, even during floods, to different services location such as schools, hospitals, tourism areas and connecting communities. In order to sustain the source of income from the tourism sector, several strategies are employed by communities. Women from Zambezi region diversify to more drought resistance crops in order to supply the tourism-sector business outlets with local fruits and vegetables, despite the climatic events. In other areas, women travel long distances to collect antique natural products, including handcrafts that they supply to local tourism businesses. Although some products such as grass and fibre crafts are sold only by men, both men and women use different strategies to ensure the supply chain of these products. In general, the efforts in the country to increase the adaptive capacity and reducing the sensitivity to climate change risks, for both men and women, are presented in **Figure 3**.

#### **4.2. Identified gaps and problems for building resilience**

40 years and had more devastating effect in the region than in the year 1969 [40]. For example, local people and tourists had to travel to and from Zambezi lodge or other reachable parking areas by boat, similarly Kalizo, Island View Lodges and Kalimbeza Fishing Camp were all only accessible by boat. In 2008, several other tourism establishments in Zambezi region were affected by the floods such as the Malyo Wilderness Camp, Camp Kwando and Namushasha Lodge's Airstrip, while in 2007, the Mukusi River Lodge was closed as the buildings were

Tourism is the source of livelihood diversification of households in both regions. Livelihood diversification strategies are important in Namibia because of the sensitivity to climate change presented in the form of semi-arid conditions. In addition, the impact of climate change on tourism business affects women more or leads to vulnerability among women through reduced earnings. In Namibia, women enjoy an advantage in the tourism workforce as well as most local-level Small-and-Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) owned by women in the CBNRM sector [54]. Despite dominating the workforce, women from Kunene and Zambezi regions generally receive low wages, which make them more vulnerable to the toll of climate change. Generally, women in rural areas have limited educational qualifications, capital and access to land or property to compete with their male counterparts [55]. Many rural-based tourism opportunities have assisted women to obtain employment locally and other economic gains because they are not mobile or better skilled to migrate elsewhere.

**4. Implemented measures to mitigate climate change risks and** 

**4.1. Existing responses to reduce climate risks in Kunene and Zambezi regions**

The adaptive capacity for climate change is crucial for minimising the effects that climate change may have on the community. This involves adjustments of actions and attitudes within the community to better cope with the impacts of climate change experienced. During focus group workshops with communities, coping strategies and adaptations to boost the tourism sector during drought or flooding were highlighted at different levels. The conservancy programme is hailed as a local-based institutional framework that works closely with the Namibian government to promote natural resources management and development of local-based tourism in rural communities. Most international and established local investors have been working with conservancies in developing local tourism to ensure long-lasting

The responses to climate change risks on the tourism sector include improving the benefits accrued from natural resources in the event of droughts and floods. The major responses for the Kunene region in the case of drought were to particularly ensure water security for drinking, farming, business and wildlife. Initially, the response of the government has been reactive rather than proactive and long-term due to the absence of early warning information. The government spent millions in reacting to emergencies, which still left people unprepared

**emerging gaps that need decision-making**

impacts of tourism on communities.

submerged in water [40].

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The climate change adaptation programmes and initiatives implemented should ultimately contribute to resilience of local communities and structures. The combination of the adaptive capacity assessment and the gendered social relations frameworks was used to analyse the gaps for resilience building resulting from the community consultations in the two regions. Both men and women from Kunene and Zambezi regions indicated to be accruing benefits from community-based tourism in different ways as well as participating in several activities involving natural resources management. Community-based tourism was rated in most consultations to play a crucial role in employment, training, income generation and empowerment opportunities for different segments of the communities such as the poor, unskilled and lowly educated, women, men and also the youth. A representative of the Namibia EcoAwards facilitating and promoting community-based tourism reflected on the following

fires and variable rainfall. The exposure to these climatic risks to the local people are also exacerbated by non-climatic factors involving population pressure, poverty levels of the people, cultural practices and belief systems and also governance-related aspects. Although men were likely to possess some levels of knowledge they use for leadership and acquiring better employment, communities in both the Kunene and Zambezi regions tend to be characterised by low levels of education and skills, which increase their expo-

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**b.** Human wildlife conflicts affecting farming and tourism operations: men and women from both regions are at the receiving end of human-wildlife conflict (HWC), which is worsened during the occurrence of the climatic events. During droughts, the water-dependent elephants cause damages as a result of water scarcity; they overcrowd water points and causing damages to water infrastructures. A community member from the Puros conservancy in the Kunene region cited their encounter on human-wildlife conflict when elephants raided homes in search of food during the 2016 drought. Women were more vulnerable to such incidents because traditionally they stay at home while men have travelled to the field with the livestock in search of pasture. The flooding periods in Zambezi put men, women and children at risks as they have to use canoes to access schools, markets and also work places. Crocodile attacks on community members are the highest during floods

**c.** Gender division of labour within the tourism sector: men continue to dominate highpaying activities such as game-drive, tour-guiding and timber harvesting, while women mainly occupy low-paying jobs, such as cultural dance performers, cooks of traditional dishes, cleaners, waitresses and receptionists in the tourism accommodation establishment. Men's activities turn to be seasonal, resulting to short-term contract employment arrangements, while women's activities lead to permanent. Women are less engaged in negotiation of joint-venture deals in their communities, excluding their input on how to benefit from such ventures. Tourism joint venture negotiations remain the prerogative of men, resulting to women's views not taken into consideration. Generally, there exist lack of negotiation and legal skills among community members when entering into joint venture deals, making community member vulnerable in the process and unable to derive economic gains from these ventures. Conflict over the control over funds generated from joint ventures is a problem that is experienced and cause disruptions in the local leader-

**d.** Gender parities decision-making and leadership in community-based institutions: although Namibia is historically a patriarchal society, great strides had been made in local-based institution and tourism initiatives to engage women in leadership position. The Kunene and Zambezi regions are generally the strongest regions in practicing traditional values, which support the male domination in leadership. There are still some scattered instances in the two regions where women prefer to rely on their husbands for information, thus perpetuating gender inequality. However, through empowerment efforts, women have started forming part of leadership structures in these two regions. On average, 35% of women are conservancy committee members and the majority of the

sure to these hazards.

in Zambezi region.

ship structures.

**Figure 3.** Key attributes for increasing the resilience of communities by increasing adaptive capacity and reducing exposure to climatic change impacts (source: authors).

**Photo 1.** A woman employed at a community-based tourism establish in the Zambezi region. Source: [25, 12].

'The pillars of tourism in Namibia are women, I have seen women growing from cleaners to a quality manager within the tourism sector'. There are several stories that can be told about women employment in community-based tourism enterprises: **Photo 1** shows a woman who is a receptionist at the Camp Chobe in the Salambala Conservancy situated in the Zambezi region. This illustrates women empowerment a factor that has a potential to enhance agency and strengthen adaptive capacity of women residing in patriarchal communities. Patriarchy is dominant in Kunene and Zambezi regions.

Gaps identified from the analysis during the community consultations:

**a.** Climate change risks and exposure affect both men and women: communities in the two regions face climate risks such as droughts, seasonal flooding, high temperatures, veld fires and variable rainfall. The exposure to these climatic risks to the local people are also exacerbated by non-climatic factors involving population pressure, poverty levels of the people, cultural practices and belief systems and also governance-related aspects. Although men were likely to possess some levels of knowledge they use for leadership and acquiring better employment, communities in both the Kunene and Zambezi regions tend to be characterised by low levels of education and skills, which increase their exposure to these hazards.


'The pillars of tourism in Namibia are women, I have seen women growing from cleaners to a quality manager within the tourism sector'. There are several stories that can be told about women employment in community-based tourism enterprises: **Photo 1** shows a woman who is a receptionist at the Camp Chobe in the Salambala Conservancy situated in the Zambezi region. This illustrates women empowerment a factor that has a potential to enhance agency and strengthen adaptive capacity of women residing in patriarchal communities. Patriarchy

**Photo 1.** A woman employed at a community-based tourism establish in the Zambezi region. Source: [25, 12].

**Figure 3.** Key attributes for increasing the resilience of communities by increasing adaptive capacity and reducing

**a.** Climate change risks and exposure affect both men and women: communities in the two regions face climate risks such as droughts, seasonal flooding, high temperatures, veld

is dominant in Kunene and Zambezi regions.

exposure to climatic change impacts (source: authors).

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Gaps identified from the analysis during the community consultations:

**d.** Gender parities decision-making and leadership in community-based institutions: although Namibia is historically a patriarchal society, great strides had been made in local-based institution and tourism initiatives to engage women in leadership position. The Kunene and Zambezi regions are generally the strongest regions in practicing traditional values, which support the male domination in leadership. There are still some scattered instances in the two regions where women prefer to rely on their husbands for information, thus perpetuating gender inequality. However, through empowerment efforts, women have started forming part of leadership structures in these two regions. On average, 35% of women are conservancy committee members and the majority of the women are in treasurer or secretary positions? [44]. Despite, being reluctant to take up leadership positions, women tend to show high level of participation in several voluntary community initiatives.

vulnerabilities should consider that our societies are facing inequalities that could hinder the effectiveness of climate change adaptation efforts, and therefore, there is a need for responses to climate change risks to be gendered. In order to ensure that adaptation efforts are sustained, gender-responsive actions/activities that address and strengthen the inclusion of all members of the society including the most vulnerable women and men in local-level natural resources management and tourism sector should be implemented. The gender-responsive actions/activities should be designed in association with gender performance indicators and sex-disaggregated targets linked to the results framework that would guide the Monitoring

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Additionally, the involvement of men and women must also consider marginalisation, age and social status of individuals in a given community in order to be inclusive. The methods of consultation must recognise existing cultural barriers in order to ensure women are represented as well as collaborating with local NGOs that work with women and other marginalised communities. Where there are disparities in capacities, training is recommended in order to participate meaningfully. In order to build a resilient community, the gender disparity between men and women in accessing information and capacity building opportunities should be addressed through gender-responsive initiatives. They should provide community wide training on critical areas to ensure equitable sharing and benefit of resources. For instance, they should provide legal training or support to local communities to improve negotiations of joint-venture partnerships. Therefore, in order to address impacts of climate change in the community-based tourism in Namibia, there is a need to identify and enhance synergies between mitigation actions and the adaptive capacities of women and men to

and Evaluation (M&E) of the initiatives.

deliver long-term benefits.

ASSAR Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions

EIF Environmental Investment Fund

GCF Green Climate Fund

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

CBNRM Community-Based Natural Resource Management

IECN Integrated Environmental Consultants Namibia

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

MGECW Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare

NACSO Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations

MET Ministry of Environment and Tourism

IFRC International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

**List of acronyms**

**e.** Cultural barriers to adaptations to building resilience in the community-based tourism: Kunene region experiences cultural myths and perceptions that emerged as one of the biggest obstacles in obtaining gender equality among the OvaHimba community. There is a tendency to frown upon men who do not participate in male-dominated activities and on women who talk openly in meetings.

In both Kunene and Zambezi regions, the gender division of labour is rigid, where women are expected to be nurturers and men to be providers. For example, women are expected to stay at home and look after the household and children, while men are working outside the home. Both men and women lack the desire to diversify their livelihood and engage in activities that are not common in their cultures. Culture and slow attitudinal changes remain the key challenges to adaptation and building resilience in people of the Kunene and Zambezi Regions. Women attend meetings but do not contribute constructively owing to cultural norms that inhibit women to dominate discussions in public or to specific in the presence of men. A greater gap still exists between men's and women's roles in the conservancy and tourism enterprises.

The adaptation strategies that are generated through the analysis are used in the Harvard Gender Analytical Framework and the Social Relations Approach Framework to analyse the complexities in building resilience among communities in these regions. There is a need to find mechanisms to address issues that are hindering resilience building among communities through various programmes to sustain adaptation measures to reduce the impacts of climatic events on the contribution of tourism on communities. Local institutions such as conservancies are evidently important arrangement to reduce the vulnerability to climate change impacts through collective capacity building, income generation, empowerment, social networking, and lobbying agent for community members. The active participation of women in local institutions, either by attending meetings or being voted into leadership position, allows them to be part of a collective voice, leading to strengthening of common identities and local democracy. It is also believed that this will lead to collective learning and equal accessing of information for both men and women. Although women's representation on committees and attendance during meetings is strong, the views of women are still often not taken as seriously as those of men at meetings and other important platforms such as negotiation and or review of tourism joint venture contracts.

## **5. Conclusion**

To this end, the book chapter has presented an assessment of gendered vulnerabilities in CBNRM focusing on Kunene and Zambezi regions of Namibia. The National Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (NCCSAP) clearly indicates that climate change adaptation in Namibia especially among rural communities is crucial. The approach to address vulnerabilities should consider that our societies are facing inequalities that could hinder the effectiveness of climate change adaptation efforts, and therefore, there is a need for responses to climate change risks to be gendered. In order to ensure that adaptation efforts are sustained, gender-responsive actions/activities that address and strengthen the inclusion of all members of the society including the most vulnerable women and men in local-level natural resources management and tourism sector should be implemented. The gender-responsive actions/activities should be designed in association with gender performance indicators and sex-disaggregated targets linked to the results framework that would guide the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the initiatives.

Additionally, the involvement of men and women must also consider marginalisation, age and social status of individuals in a given community in order to be inclusive. The methods of consultation must recognise existing cultural barriers in order to ensure women are represented as well as collaborating with local NGOs that work with women and other marginalised communities. Where there are disparities in capacities, training is recommended in order to participate meaningfully. In order to build a resilient community, the gender disparity between men and women in accessing information and capacity building opportunities should be addressed through gender-responsive initiatives. They should provide community wide training on critical areas to ensure equitable sharing and benefit of resources. For instance, they should provide legal training or support to local communities to improve negotiations of joint-venture partnerships. Therefore, in order to address impacts of climate change in the community-based tourism in Namibia, there is a need to identify and enhance synergies between mitigation actions and the adaptive capacities of women and men to deliver long-term benefits.
