The Usuthu Gorge Community Conservation Area (CCA) is a 4000 hectare reserve situated in northern Maputaland at the foothills of the Lubombo Mountains. It has become a working model for community conservation and how people can benefit while still ensuring excellent, sustainable management of a conservation area.
Since 2001, massive investment by donors and government has seen the Mathenjwa community, comprising 33 000 households within the area west of Ndumo Game reserve, become involved in the establishment of the Usuthu Gorge Community Conservation Area. Working with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife through the Biodiversity Stewardship Model since October 2008, negotiations were finalised with the Mathenjwa Tribal Authority in February this year for proclamation as a nature reserve, which is the highest status in the Biodiversity Stewardship model. With this set to happen before the end of 2010, the next planned step is for the dropping of fences with the adjacent Ndumo Game Reserve. The CCA has as its northern boundary the Usuthu River, which also forms the national boundaries with Swaziland and Mozambique, making the area a crucial link in the planned transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) between the three countries.
A small start in 2001 with a grant from the Ford Foundation, allowed rangers to be trained and some water points were established. In 2004, with R6.5 million funding from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT,now DEA, Department of Water and Environment) through their Expanded Public Works programme, Wildlands Conservation Trust and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife began working with the Mathenjwa Community through the Tribal Authority, and an area of 500 hectares was fenced off, with community members employed to erect the fencing and as field rangers. Training was given to the rangers and a camp-site was built, and the area stocked with game. After that beginning, a second phase began in June 2006 with a further R8 million from DEAT. Water points were set up and vegetable gardens established as part of the programme, and through a Global Environment Small Grant, administered by the United Nations Development Programme, a permaculture course was provided and the registration of a co-operative meant that a group of women growing vegetables were able to supply their crops to the local Spar.
Much of these initiatives to supply infrastructure, training and support to communities, were done in conjunction with the introduction of the community conservation area ideas, in order for communities to derive tangible benefits from involving their communal land in conservation and tourism. Between June 2006 and January 2009, over 250 people a year were employed through the projects and the CCA, with R3.5 million having been paid in wages. R 250 000 has been spent on training, and there is now a 40km 4×4 track in the reserve. The larger area has now been fenced and the CCA will be proclaimed a nature reserve.
There has been less success with communities in this respect to the east of Ndumo Game Reserve. In 2008, the Bhekabantu and Mbangweni communities living on the eastern border of the Reserve pulled down the 11km fence separating them from the game reserve in order to access the more arable land there, and have cleared areas within the reserve and planted crops. Claims of a lack of service delivery, unmet promises by government and land claims issues, all surround this complex dispute. Illegal trade across the border with Mozambique is also a factor, and there is little incentive amongst this community to become involved in conservation efforts. Ndumo Game Reserve is a Ramsar site containing a wetland of international importance, and the continued lack of a fence on the eastern boundary (it is yet to be re-erected) has led to further encroachment for crop planting, a huge increase in poaching, and hostility towards the reserve staff by the two communities.
This scenario highlights the need for community to be engaged with in order to prevent land invasions on protected areas, and if tangible benefits can be felt such as employment, profit sharing and infrastructure delivery as a spin-off to conservation and tourism activities, community support for protected areas can be realised, and be constructive in preserving the protected areas we have as well as add further to the space for conservation.
The proclamation of Usuthu Gorge Community Conservation Area as a Nature Reserve and the future dropping of fences with Ndumo Game Reserve have far reaching implications for the future of the Usuthu-Tembe-Conservation Area initiative which forms part of the long-term vision for southern African cross-border conservation, linking areas of biodiversity and tourism. Underpinning these initiatives is the need for community involvement and socio-economic development, to ensure the continued support of the people living in and around protected areas. This is the only way conservation areas can survive and expand in southern Africa.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)