Namibia has an environmental and economic problem with anthropogenic overuse of
natural resources. The paradigms of development and conservation, exemplified
through the catch-term CBNRM, dominate public discourses on how to influence
individual and collective behavior towards sustainability. However, cosmological
drivers of action, e.g. witchcraft, are widely missing from these discourses. Based on
empirical evidence of the prevalence of cosmologically influenced action in Kavango,
as well as of potentially detrimental outcomes for natural resources and social capital
I discuss in this paper the possibility that a crucial link between spirituality and
environmentality is being muted. Models of environmental protection and development
are based on prevalent eurocentric ontologies and differing presumptions
about the factuality of cosmological convictions. Paradigms of secularity and
modernity support self-censorship on epistemological aspects of environmental
relations in public debate. As long as this self-censorship continues a mutual
understanding between the different stakeholders and successful sustainable
resource management will be restricted.