‘Uplifting communities’ a priority of isimangaliso park
THE chief executive officer of isimangaliso Wetland Park, Sibusiso Bukhosini, said the partnership with the World Bank was “one for the books” as it has invested R46 million in the park.
Bukhosini was speaking at a media briefing held at the Kosi Bay Hippo Lodge on Wednesday.
Bukhosini spoke of the developments in the park, communities around the park and its employees.
He said the park was listed as a World Heritage Site under three criteria, which are ecological and biological processes, superlative natural phenomena and biological diversity.
Moreover, he said the partnership with the world bank had increased the area of land and increased investment through public–private partnership and capacity building for community governance structures.
He said although there were challenges, their aim was to preserve the World Heritage values for future generations while uplifting communities living in and adjacent to the park.
“We have employed 200 graduates as our interns, 130 environmental
monitors and 200 tourism safety monitors, and this is done annually,” he added.
Bukhosini took the media on a tour to show them what the isimangaliso Wetland Park has done.
“The community which lives within the park now has safe roads to travel on, however, the electricity and water challenges remain,” Bukhosini said.
Speaking of the tourism infrastructure, he said currently, most tourism operations are undertaken by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in the park.
Bukhosini added that due to the budgetary constraints with Ezemvelo, most infrastructure is in dire condition, some “completely dilapidated”.
“The targeted sites are Maphelane, Cape Vidal, Bhangazi, Sodwana Bay and Kosi Bay,” he said.
World Bank environmental specialist Sarah Moyer said it was important for them to invest at a heritage site in South Africa.
“We saw that it was important to invest at the isimangaliso Wetland Park because it is one of the places that embraces heritage sites – as we understand that South Africa alone cannot be able to assist all the heritage sites to be in their desired standard,” said Moyer.