Livelihoods through Conservation in Namibia

John Kasaona

Namibian Conservationist

John K. Kasaona is the Executive Director of Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC). John is one of 12 children to Himba-Herero parents and only started school at the age of eight because his cattle-herding role had come to an end due to a catastroph- ic drought in the early 1980s that killed most of his family’s cattle. He joined IRDNC as a field officer in 1992 and two years later was award- ed a bursary to study for a conservation diploma at the Polytechnic University of Namibia. John worked in all sections of IRDNC for over a decade, being promoted to Assistant Director in 2009, Co-Director in 2010 and Executive Director in 2014. After giving a TED talk in 2010, John has become a sought after community based natural resource management (CBNRM) speaker internationally, and has contributed to two United States congressional hearings on conserva- tion issues, as well as to the illegal wildlife trade meeting organised by the United Kingdom government in 2014. His passion and commitment to uplift rural Namibian communities through CBNRM has never wavered. He is the chairperson of the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO) and highly respected locally among Namibian decision-makers. Apart from his powerful community facilitation skills, John has made a major contribution to enhance understanding and support for CBNRM among top political decision-makers in Namibia and beyond.