When Namibia gained independence in 1990, teenager Pascolena Florry was herding goats in the country’s dry, desolate northern savannah. Her job ‘unpaid and dangerous’ was to protect her parents’ livestock from preying jackals and leopards. She saw wildlife as the enemy, and many of the other indigenous inhabitants of Namibia’s rural communal lands shared her view. Wildlife poaching was commonplace. Fifteen years later, 31-year-old Pascolena’s life and outlook are very different. She has built a previously undreamed-of career in tourism and is the first black Namibian to be appointed the manager of a guest lodge. Her village and hundreds of others have directly benefited from government efforts to devolve wildlife management and tourism development on communal lands to conservancies run by indigenous peoples. “Now we see the wildlife as our way of creating jobs and opportunities as the tourism industry grows”, she also says. “The future is better with wildlife around’ not only for jobs but also for the environment” (Florry 2004).
When Namibia gained independence in 1990, Pascolena was herding her animals in the country's desert and protecting them from predators; meanwhile, she and many other rural people saw the wildlife as the enemy; after fifteen years, she has built an unbelievable job in tourism becoming the first black Namibian to manage a guest lodge; therefore, her village and its inhabitants profited from government attempts by improving tourism on communal lands running by indigenous people.
