9th People and Parks Conference closes with declaration to realise tangible socio-economic benefits for communities
The 9th People and Parks Conference closed with the adoption of a declaration to work towards the implementation of more tangible socio-economic benefits for communities.
The conference was opened by Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister, Ms Barbara Creecy and the Minister of Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ms Thoko Didiza.
More than 500 delegates met from 31 March to 2 April 2022 to reflect on the work undertaken since 2003 to achieve the key pillars of the People and Parks Programme. These are co-governance, economic development, capacity building and awareness, community stewardship and the restoration of land rights to the rightful owners.
The conference was hosted under the theme “Banking on conservation areas for rural development and economic recovery”.
The focus of the three-day conference was on the role of communities in protecting South African wildlife, as well as in growing the wildlife economy as one of the three pillars of the Biodiversity Economy. In addition, delegates engaged in informed dialogue on policy options to enhance community benefits, as well as on participation, governance, and on strengthening land access to women and the youth.
“Through the Biodiversity
Economy programme, the
Department is supporting the expansion of the wildlife and bioprospecting economies in line with the government’s sustainable development and use of natural resources policies,” Minister Creecy said. “Plans are afoot to implement pilot projects on bioprospecting in 19 Traditional Authorities in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo that will result in 2 455 community members getting temporary relief opportunities through the Presidential Economic Stimulus.”
Minister Creecy told delegates that since the inception of the Co-Management Framework, 46 co-management agreements have been signed and implemented with benefits being accrued to local communities.
This involves 52 community legal entities, such as Communal Property Associations, Trusts and Traditional Councils.
The National Co-Management Framework, aligned to the National Environmental Management:
Protected Areas Act, provides a coherent national guideline for the co-management of protected areas
restored in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act.
Minister Creecy revealed that over R1 billion in infrastructure investment had already been made in protected areas, with different projects at various stages of planning. “There are over 50 projects within protected areas across our nine provinces and this investment is projected to create at least 23 000 work opportunities for communities once the contractors get on the ground over the next two years.”
Since its inception, the People
and Parks Programme has developed progressive policies and strategies in protected areas, expanded the conservation estate in South Africa, established governance/coordination structures, improved access to natural resources, and set up a national co-management framework.
Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza, who had in 2002 initiated a process to explicitly address the settlement of restitution claims in protected areas and state forests, handed over 8 title deeds to successful claimants of land in conservation areas. A total of 66 land claims are earmarked for finalization.
Minister Creecy said the land reform programme had enabled those who were dispossessed of land for political reasons to reclaim their land in terms of the laws governing land restitution.
This had included numerous claims on land within provincial and national protected areas, such as the Kruger National Park, World Heritage Sites including the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and a number of state forests.
“In this regard, I have tasked the incoming Board of SANParks to review these cases with the aim of giving new impetus to resolving long outstanding claims. We hope these initiatives will soon bear fruit and we look forward to making announcements in this regard,” said Minister Creecy.
During the closing session, delegates bound themselves to the People and Parks founding statement articulated in the 2003 Cape Vidal Memorandum. At the World Parks Congress in Durban a decision was taken that people living in and around protected areas should participate in protected areas management. The Memorandum, signed at Cape Vidal, was led by 12 communities from across South Africa who had met to discuss the lack of clarity around land ownership and rights that continue to fuel the conflict between communities and conservation agencies.
During the closing session, delegates declared that the Programme of
Action or implementation plan for the resolutions of the 9th People and Parks conference will be concluded within three months.
Also declared is that a social compact will be developed to strengthen the partnership for a new deal for people and nature; that conditions will be created for the involvement of the private sector through investment in communities’ conservation business; and that opportunities will be created for the expansion of the Programme by supporting corporative governance initiatives.
Delegates also undertook to implement focused transformational programmes that support businesses owned and operated by women, youth and previously disadvantaged individuals throughout the biodiversity economy value chain.
Efforts are to be doubled to ensure that all outstanding land claims within protected areas are pursued and settled, the conference declared.
There are over 50 projects within protected areas across our nine provinces
– BARBARA CREECY