Challenges and Needs for Financing Biodiversity Conservation in Namibian National Parks

Purpose: The main objective of the paper is to discuss challenges and needs for financing biodiversity conservation of national parks in Namibia by exploring the challenges that hinder the financing of biodiversity conservation and propose innovative solutions to overcome them and establishing the funding needs for conservation projects and initiatives. Methodology: The study was based on the philosophy of pragmatism, used a qualitative research approach, and employed a concurrent research design. The study purposively selected 10 directors to participate in the study, although only nine have participated. To collect data, the aspect used structured questionnaires, which were self-administered online using Google Forms, whereby the questionnaire comprised of open-ended questions. Subsequently, the study employed various analytical tools to analyse the data, reflexive thematic analysis with direct quotations in ATLAS.ti. Findings: The study shows funding needs of biodiversity conservations. The study also concludes that the National Parks in Namibia are faced with numerous challenges, which hinder their ability to ensure financial stability. Additionally, evidence shows that National Parks need funding for ensuring effective and sustainable operations. Furthermore, data found that the National Parks in Namibia encounter challenges relating to financing of biodiversity conservations due to governance issues in terms of poor accountability, corruption, and misuse of resources. The findings signify that National Parks in Namibia depend highly on foreign aid and international donors for conservation funding, which makes funding vulnerable to changes in international priorities and economic conditions in donor countries. The issue of insufficient budget allocation to biodiversity by the government was highlighted. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that the National Parks in Namibia suffer environmentally related challenges, such as those aligned with climate change, desertification, and water scarcity, which place significant strains on both the existing conservations and the acquisition of additional funding of biodiversity conservations. The outcomes signify that the economic challenges, such as high interest rate, inflation, and economic downturn make it difficult for the National Parks in Namibia to ensure biodiversity conservations’ financing. These results imply that the National Parks in Namibia can address the issue of financing of biodiversity by adopting strategies, which are essential for tourism development, and it can be realised through the promotion of eco-tourism, research and innovation, as well as community-based tourism. The results demonstrate a call for government support in financing biodiversity conservations through budget allocation and legal policy framework. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This article will contribute to the body of knowledge in sustainable finance as it explored the theories and literature on finance, conservation, biodiversity and National Parks which makes it an important source of information, also for future studies in those fields. The research will support the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) in coordinating closely with other Ministries on formulating policies, regulations and laws that affect sustaining finance of biodiversity conservation. Lastly, this paper results, findings and discussion gives knowledge towards the improvement of the government and private sector’s capacity by strengthening government institutions and financial institutions’ ability to more effectively design, execute, and monitor biodiversity conservation sustainable financing model in realising the goals of the National Development Plans (NDPs) and Vision 2030.