Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC)

IRDNC works in Namibia and has pioneered one of Africa’s leading models of community-based natural resource management. Their Mission and Philosophy IRDNC strives to improve the lives of rural people by diversifying the socio-economy in Namibia’s communal areas to include wildlife and other valuable natural resources. They believe this will secure a long-term place for wild animals outside of national parks, and significantly reduce future pressure on these areas. History IRDNC’s origins lie in the arid northwest where in the politically unsupportive climate of the early 1980s it pioneered community-based wildlife conservation in Namibia. With community leaders they implemented joint action to stop widespread commercial and subsistence poaching of wildlife, including black rhino and desert adapted elephant. Within two years the massive decline of wildlife was halted.