Indigenous-run tracker training school
The community is working to set up an indigenous-run tracker training school which would service Namibia and potentially also neighbouring Botswana. Due to low literacy levels in the region, indigenous peoples were previously kept out of formal conservation employment or underpaid for their sophisticated skills. Though anchored in Khwe traditional knowledge, the training and assessment methodology is based on international standards and is accessible to people from any background who have sufficient biodiversity and faunal / floral knowledge of a specific ecosystem. Research thus far indicates a strong demand for certified trackers by both government and private sector for conservation, anti-poaching and natural resource management.
The Khwe community has the first internationally certified trackers and assessors able to work with low literacy communities. Namibia has a national framework of Community Conservancies where trackers can be employed for wildlife conservation purposes. The Namibian government is open to setting national qualifications standards but this still needs to be developed independently and proposed to the national government.
Tracker assessment and certification helps address the bias and valorizes knowledge held in the community.Training school has been slowed down by resource constraints and the absence of a national capacity building framework to support decentralized training and certification for trackers and traditional knowledge holders.