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Making Wildlife Preservation Pay in KwaZulu-Natal DURBAN, South Africa, February 18, 2002 (ENS) - Preserving South Africa's elephants, rhinos, and hippos, birds and antelopes in all their rich diversity is a delicate balance between keeping them free of human influence and attracting enough paying visitors to support conservation programs. Poachers and habitat encroachment can wipe out the increasingly rare wild animals if the adjacent communities do not benefit from their continued existence.
The nongovernmental Wildlands Trust is working to help communities in the South African state of KwaZulu-Natal benefit financially from nearby wildlife reserves. The trust has raised a loan of R1-million for a rural conservation tourism project in Zululand. The loan, worth $US87,400, is being granted, interest free, to the six rural communities that are owners of the Royal Zulu Biosphere Reserve. Wildlands Trust CEO Dr. Andrew Venter said the long term survival of the reserves that shelter much South Africa's remaining wildlife depends on translating their protection into wealth creation for nearby communities. "Most of the communities we work with live around protected areas and we need to consolidate their linkages with these reserves," Dr. Venter said. "Unless we can start showing tangible benefits from conservation to these communities, we cannot ensure the long term survival of these reserves." Linking wildlife corridors into super-parks that will attract paying visitors from around the world is the strategy that will save South Africa's wildlife, government, private and NGO stakeholders agree. The 30,000 hectare Royal Zulu Biosphere Reserve borders the southern edge of the Hluhluwe/Umfolozi Park in Zululand, the first game reserve to be established in Africa, known as the place where the white rhinoceros was rescued from extinction. The Royal Zulu Biosphere is unique in that it is a completely cooperative venture between the tribal authorities, who own the land, and private enterprise, one of the first ventures of its kind in South Africa. The ecotourism facilities will be built by labor recruited from the six rural communities who are involved in the partnership and owned by them through the Royal Zulu charitable trust. Loan repayments will be made through profits generated by the operation of the facilities.
The Royal Zulu Biosphere is intended to become a community super-park, eventually joining up with Hluhluwe/Umfolozi in the north and private game park Thula Thula in the south. The area has historically been regarded as the the royal hunting ground of the Zulu king Shaka who was king of all the territories in Natal and Southeast Africa in 1820. The Wildlands Trust has moved into a new phase of operation with the appointment of project manager Sue McClintock this week to work in the field and to liaise closely with the trust's client communities. McClintock was previously with the CSIR, the largest scientific and technological research, development and implementation organization in Africa, where she had years of experience in project management, conservation planning and eco-development. The New York based Ford Foundation will fund McClintock's appointment and activities. The Foundation has agreed to bankroll this appointment as a pilot program for their involvement in funding South African projects. Based near Lake St. Lucia, the focus area for many of the trust's activities, McClintock will drive several projects aimed at fast tracking community conservation development. Her first is a project called SPACE - Species, People and the Conservation of the Environment. To allow communities to access funding for conservation development, McClintock will assist them in formulating business plans and preparing funding projections for conservation based community development. These communities will be networked to form conservation development corridors where communities will coordinate their development plans to create large, and therefore viable, areas of community conservation. An annual conference for community role players is in the planning stages. It is envisaged that three wildlife corridors will eventually become super-parks of linked conservation areas.
One of McClintock's projects is a development driven by the trust at Ndumo/Tembe on the far northern Zululand border. The Tembe Elephant Reserve is an official conservation area under the jurisdiction of the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service. The 30,000 hectare (74,100 acre) reserve is inhabited by African elephants and rhino and a rich array of plant and birdlife. The KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Authority has proposed that a 40 bed lodge be built on the border of the Tembe reserve by an as yet unnamed investor which would take advantage of the combined tourism drive of the South African, Mozambican and Swaziland governments. The Tembe Elephant Reserve may be included in a planned transfrontier conservation zone including the Ndumu Game Reserve and the Futi Corridor and Maputo Elephant Reserve in the north. The Tembe development is in close proximity with other planned ecotourist projects at Ponta do Ouro in Mozambique and Kosi Bay in the far northeastern corner of KwaZulu-Natal. Kosi Bay, a tapestry of barrier lakes, is an 18 kilometer (11 mile) stretch of navigable estuary protected by a sliver of dune from the Indian Ocean. It has been inhabited by the Tonga people for more than 700 years. Home to the rare palm nut vulture and the breeding place of loggerhead and leatherback turtles, this area is only one of two where raffia palms are to be found in South Africa. Visitors can go snorkelling in the channel at the mouth of the estuary, with its kaleidoscope of tropical fish. The third wildlife area that will be linked with Tembe and Kosi Bay is the Mkhuze/Pongola corridor. The Mkhuze Game Reserve was proclaimed in 1912 and covers some 40,000 hectares (98,840 acres). The reserve rates as one of South Africa's favorite birding destinations and is one of Zululand's top three birding spots, with over 400 species seen. White and black rhino, hippos and crocodiles live within the reserve.
The private Pongola Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu Natal is the result of a "light footprint" development philosophy. It, too, is a birder's delight due partly to the damming of the Pongola River in the 1960s. Over 300 species have so far been recorded here. Dr. Venter said, "The trust is in a growth phase and we are working towards improving our ability to support and help our partner communities realize their vision. There has been a need for us to improve our delivery. The communities that we regard as our clients need to start seeing tangible benefits from conservation. It is becoming urgent to translate development into wealth creation." Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
Zulu man (Photo courtesy 
Rhino in KwaZulu-Natal's
Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Reserve (Photo courtesy 
Elephant in the Tembe Reserve
(Photo courtesy 
Dinner is served at the Pongola Game
Reserve (Photo courtesy 