Namibia has a very active CBNRM programme. This is facilitated at the highest level through the Nature Conservation Ordinance of 1975, which was amended in 1996. As a result of this amendment, the Ordinance now gives communal area farmers (as well as commercial farmers) the right to organise themselves into legal bodies, called conservancies, with authority over the consumptive and non-consumptive use of wildlife and some other natural resources (see for example, Jones, 1999). For rural Namibians the primary value of biodiversity is food security (bushmeat, wild fruits, water lilies), particularly in times of famine. In addition, resources are used as materials for household construction and tools, and as a source of cash income (sale of bushmeat, grass/thatch, crafts) (Ntiamoa-Bardu, et al., undated). Conservancies allow local communities to develop this use of biodiversity in a more commercial manner through, for example tourism, sport hunting and/or the sale of products, and to protect it from" outside" interests.