Republic of Namibia
Ministry of Environment and Tourism
Guidelines for Concession Applications in Protected Areas
What is a Concession?
A concession allows a community, conservancy or privately owned tourism business to operate a business on state land. A concession is a legal and binding contract between State and a concessionaire for rights to undertake commercial activities in protected areas. Examples of concession activities include: lodges and camp sites, horse trails, 4×4 tours, ballooning, trophy hunting, quad biking and the use of wildlife or plant resources. For a concession application to be considered the Concessions Committee requires information on:
ü Who is the concession applicant?
ü What activities you want to undertake and where?
ü What will be the impact of these activities on the park and its biodiversity?
ü How will the community be empowered and benefits from your proposal?
ü How will the State benefit?
These guidelines will assist you to put together a quality concession application that can be considered by the Concessions Committee and the Minister.
All concession applications are to be addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Tourism. Please also note that you will be asked to present your application in person to the Concessions Committee.
How are concessions awarded?
Subject to the Policy on Tourism and Wildlife Concessions on State Lands 2007 there are three ways that concessions can be awarded in Namibia. These are briefly outlined below:
The direct award process: This is where concessions are awarded to previously disadvantage communities living in or around protected areas. These communities may then operate these concessions or seek an joint venture partner, usually an experienced tourism operator to assist them.
The tender process: This is where a concession opportunity has been identified by Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) or there is more than one operator interested in the opportunity. In these cases the opportunity will be tendered via an open, transparent and competitive process in order to determine the successful operator and get the best result for the community, environment and the State.
Consideration of unsolicited applications: When a proposed activity is highly innovative and contains a high degree of intellectual property then the concession can be awarded to an applicant for a set period.
How much information should I provide?
This depends on several factors including the size, scale, duration, level of investment and the potential impacts of the activity you propose. The greater these are the more information will be required. For example a small horse trekking operation will need to contain approximately 10 pages of good quality information whereas a large lodge will need to contain approximately 30 pages of good quality information.
What information should I provide?
The following is a guideline on exactly what information should be provided in your concession application. Please note that depending on the issue surrounding your activity new information may be requested at any time.
1. Who is the applicant (1-2 pages):
Name / § Who are the individuals, the company, trust or partnership?Structure & shareholding / § Who owns the business and what shares does each owner hold?
§ What shareholding is owned by previously disadvantaged Namibians?
§ What nationality are the shareholders?
§ What are the Company/entity registration details?
Experience / § What background and experience do you have?
2. What is being applied for and where (2-4 pages):
Location / § Please tell us precisely where you would like to operate? Include maps and photos of where you propose to operate.§ Do you need exclusive access to areas?
§ Please be precise so we understand exactly where you operate.
Tourism product / § Outline the tourism product being offered, the experiences and which visitor market is being targeted (e.g. back packers, mid market, high end market)?
§ What will the demand for your product be (e.g. occupancy rates for the next five years)?
Activity / § What are the activities you want to undertake, a lodge, game drives, bird watching, 4x4 tours, ballooning, guides walks or others? Please be precise (numbers and frequency of trips) so that we can understand what you plan.
Level of activity / § How many clients do you hope to have?
§ How many trips will you run?
§ During which months of the year will you operate?
§ Try to forecast this information over five years.
Duration / § How long do you need the concession to be in order for your operation to be viable (note that activity based concessions are normally granted for 10 years and large-scale investment concessions such as a lodge are normally granted for no more than 20 years.
3. Impacts on the environment (2-4 pages):
Impacts / § All activities have impacts, what impacts will your activity have? For assistance please refer to the attached checklist in Annexure A.Minimizing impacts / § Outline how you will ensure the impacts from your activity will be avoided, remedied or minimised?
Do I need an EIA? / § Any activity in Protected Areas should be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Ministry of Environment and Tourism / § Have you got approval from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism that your activity does not require a full EIA, or, if it requires an EIA, that it has been completed to the satisfaction of Directorate of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the new environmental management act?
4. Empowerment plan (2 pages):
Benefits to staff / § How many jobs will be created and how many people will you employ from the local area?§ What level will local staff be employed at in the business (cleaning staff, managers) and how will you provide advancement opportunities?
§ What formal and informal training will you provide to staff?
Empowerment / § Will the concession rights be awarded directly to the community and if so what will the community earn from these rights?
§ How will conservancies or communities benefit financially from your proposal?
§ Will conservancies be shareholders in the business and if so what level of shareholding will they own?
§ Please note that all conservancies or communities will be asked to provide a benefit distribution plan so that the MET can be sure that the benefits derived for the tourism business flow equitably back to the community and do not benefit just a few.
Further empowerment / § Are there any other ways you can assist the empowerment of local communities or the development of local business? For example a lodge can contract out its laundry services or its tour guiding, clients may visit local communities, purchase local craft or firewood.
5. Business plan (2 pages):
A realistic business plan will prove or disprove the commercial viability of your proposed activity. The costs and income from your operation should be provided on a spreadsheet and projected over at least a five year period.
A business plan must include: / § Proposed capital expenditure.§ Proposed marketing expenditure.
§ Proposed number of beds/ campsites/ clients or trips.
§ Proposed rack rate (what you will charge) and achieved rate (the rate you will obtain less VAT, NTB levy and sales commissions).
§ Projected occupancy for each year.
§ Proposed payment to conservancies and concession fees to MET. This should be based on a percentage of income for a lodge or campsite business, or a per person rate for an activity based businesses.
§ Proposed minimum annual payment to MET and/or conservancy.
§ Proposed wage bill and marketing costs.
6. Safety (2 pages):
Please describe: / § How will your business deal with a medical emergency? For example, a client of staff member who is in an accident or who becomes suddenly ill and requires immediate medical attention.§ What procedures will you train your staff to follow and who will they call?
§ How will staff in the field contact base if an accident takes place in the field?
What if I need further information?
All applications must be addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Tourism. P O Box 13346, Windhoek.
If you need clarification on any of the points in these guidelines please contact the Concessions Unit, Ministry of Environment and Tourism. Ph (061) 284 2578, PZN Building, 2nd Floor, 3 Ruhr St, Northern Industrial, Windhoek.
For further information please also refer to the Ministry’s Policy on Tourism and Wildlife Concessions On State Land 2007 the summary brochure or visit www.met.gov.na.
For more information regarding the environmental impact assessment contact the Directorate of Environmental Affairs (DEA) at Ph: (061) 284 2700, Capital Centre, 6th Floor, Windhoek.
Annexure A – Environmental and development checklist
Visual impact / · Requirements for particular architectural style, building materials etc. to reduce visual impact should be included in the initial documentation. This should take into account potential future users of the area.
· Visual impact of support services should also be considered.
Construction Activities /
Site definition
· The site for development must be clearly defined so the assessment can be made within this area.· During construction the site must be well marked, possibly by pegging, so that the limits are clearly understood by all.
Environmental management plan
· In the case of new developments an environmental scoping should be carried out prior to the concession being granted. Following the initial acceptance of a proposal, an environmental screening should be conducted, and thereafter if necessary a full environmental impact assessment should be carried out, and this should lead to an environmental management plan (EMP), which will incorporate the issues in this checklist.· An Environmental Control Officer (ECO) should be appointed to oversee developments and ensure compliance with the EMP.
Issues during construction
· The EMP should clearly detail what level of disturbance to surrounding areas is permitted and what may be removed or altered (e.g. large trees etc).· Penalties should be determined for violations of the EMP, including off-site impacts and trees or features that may be defaced or destroyed. Irreplaceable and/or critical features must be clearly marked.
· The EMP should specify how construction workers are to be accommodated, and what ablution facilities and other waste management are to be allowed.
· Give guidelines on use of resources, especially local building supplies. If this is permitted it should be spelt out how such use should be carried out and regulated and whether there should be any fee for it.
· There may need to be restrictions on the maximum size of vehicles used for construction, and access to an area may need to be restricted to certain times, for control purposes and to reduce impact on other users.
· It is possible that there may be chance cultural, historical and/or archaeological finds. A procedure for dealing with these should be detailed in advance.
Buildings and structures / · In the case of concessions where there are existing buildings it must be specified what changes to them would be permitted and whether a deposit or guarantee is required before structures are damaged, altered or removed.
· There may be existing ‘immovable’ assets (pumps, borehole equipment, etc) that fall within the concession area. It should be specified what will happen to these, what use may be permitted, who will maintain them and in what condition they must be in at the end of the concession agreement if the concessionaire uses them.
· If new structures are to be erected, there may be some restrictions on the types of buildings allowed, including their location within the concession areas.
· It should be made clear whether fixed structures will be permitted or only temporary structures, and if so how this is defined. Depending on the circumstances and sensitivity of the area it may be necessary to be specific on guidelines such as area, style, height, building material, colour, number of guests and staff, services etc. These are often highly subjective issues, but they must be limited firstly by environmental and cultural factors (water, sewerage, habitat etc) but also on the visitor carrying capacity for the park and the market niche to be catered for. These issues must be broadly defined in the management plan.
Roads and Tracks / · A concession, particularly one covering a substantial area, is likely to require roads and tracks. The road network must reflect the type of product offered and the expected visitor usage. Some of these will be pre-existing, while others may need to be developed. It must be clear who is responsible for maintaining these roads, and if new roads may be constructed, how these will be approved and what type is permitted (single track or built-up road). These should all require an EIA that must address the location and the sourcing of any building material from quarries.
· The cost implications to the MET must be considered if the MET is to maintain the road network since this cost may escalate with increasing usage.
· It should be specified whether ‘off-road driving’ may be permitted and if so under what circumstances.
Support infrastructure
Electricity/energy / · Depending on the site, it may be necessary to impose limitations on the type of energy source which may be used and on reticulation to and on the site (for instance whether this can be overhead or should be underground). This will be dependent on noise, air and fuel pollution from diesel or other power generation systems, the visual impact of the power supply and the costs of these systems. It must be clear who will pay for the power supply.
Water / · Water is often a major limiting factor in any development and although the risks for finding and supplying this must rest with the concessionaire, the MET should conduct an initial feasibility study to ensure that water is present and is likely to meet the specifications expected for the site. MET must define what may be used by the concessionaire, both in terms of the quantity and source. If information is available on water quality and quantity, this should be supplied, but the concessionaire should conduct tests to verify this before investing.