Communal land reform and tourism investment in Namibia's communal areas: a question of unfinished business?

The policy and legislative environment affecting natural resource management in Namibia's communal areas has undergone significant reform since independence. This article traces the history of this process and illustrates some of the advances and difficulties that have emerged in post-independence attempts to create durable tenure security in communal areas. It does so by reviewing key pieces of legislation which devolve certain resource rights to local communities and renovate the administration of land in communal areas. It describes the gains but also notes the limits of these reforms: the restricted powers of conservancies impede their ability to offer investment partners basic security of tenure, and the tourism leases available under the new system of communal land administration are of questionable commercial value. It also touches on the complexity of a modernising reform process that proceeds alongside – and has to accommodate – long-established customary systems of land tenure and management.