Conservation in KwaZulu-Natal is often a challenging and slow process. Land claims have threatened large tracts of wild lands that conservationists recognise as vital to conservation in the province. Organisations like the Wildlands Conservation Trust and WWF, however, have seen an opportunity to work with communities to protect the land and its people. A workshop held recently at Somkhanda Game Reserve in Northern Zululand, highlighted the importance of dialogue and partnerships in this process. The workshop brought together representatives from a number of communities around KZN, together with conservation authority Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and organisers, the Wildlands Conservation Trust.
The land claims process is a complicated and time-consuming one and a previous workshop (held in Pietermaritzburg towards the end of 2008) addressed some of the issues and frustrations this causes claimant communities. The recent ‘Conservation through Partnerships’ workshop followed on from this to address the process communities need to go through after a successful land claim, and how to make conservation, and eco-tourism work for the community.
‘I want to know how you ensure that the rest of the community will also benefit while still taking the conservation route once you have claimed the land,’ asked one community representative, Jeremiah Myeni. ‘What role does the government play in the land that has been returned to my people? They say they have given us the land, but because it has been proclaimed as a protected area, we cannot do anything else but to keep it that way even though we don’t know how to move forward in conservation,’ asked another. The workshop provided a forum for discussing these issues.
Sbusiso Bukhosini of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife who facilitated the workshop noted that the kinds of questions raised showed that there is a definite need for this kind of platform. Another challenge that emerged is the situation where claimants and non-claimants have historically shared land: ‘Non-claimants who share communities with claimants believe that once claimants have been given land, they (non-claimants) should share in the benefits since they housed the claimants during the time when they didn’t have land.’ said Bukhosini. ‘When the restituted land is a conserved area, however, it means that the claimants can not necessarily move back onto the land but are merely beneficiaries of the income that it generates, and they often find themselves in hostile communities once they have taken ownership of the new land.’
But it was not all doom and gloom and participants left positive and more determined to make things work. Another workshop will be scheduled by Wildlands in the coming months and thereafter community representatives have pledged to start a land claims forum to ensure continued discussion. ‘There is no easy solution to the challenges we’re facing’, said Conservation SPACE Manager for the Wildlands Conservation Trust, Dr Roelie Kloppers, ‘but with this kind of dialogue and shared learning we’re breaking new ground and laying the foundations for successful community conservation throughout South Africa.’
Top left: (From left) Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife representative Bheki Mabika, Somkhanda board member Vusi Gumbi, Thabi Shange, Workshop Facilitator Sbusiso Bukhosini, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Wildlands Conservation Trust representative Amos Tembe and Somkhanda board member Nathi Gumbi.
Centre: Black Rhino – one of the species that’s healthy numbers depend on the success of community conservation.
Photo Credit: David Gilroy
