Hi again
Herewith, some snippets from various sources.
I appeal to you to send me items to distribute to our members for the Cleft Stick, the Game Ranger magazine and to be posted on the web site. These are your magazine and website, so ensure it gets the news that you would like to see in it.
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Thanks to all of you who have made the effort. Please will any of you who know of members who do not get this “electric” Cleft~Stick, & have access to e-mail, pass their address along to me.
Don Yunnie
7 Chalet Drive, Hilton, 3245, South Africa Local Tel & Fax (033) 343 1534 Int. Tel & Fax (+2733) 343 1534 cell 082 377 7562 E-mail dyunnie@xsinet.co.za.
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GRAA AGM
Please note that we (the AGM committee) have agreed that the full title of the next AGM is “The Natal Drakensberg, the Ukhahlamba – Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site and the Maluti Drakensberg Transfrontier Park. We hope this may assist some of you to convince your bosses to let you come to the AGM and symposium officially.
Please also note that bookings are coming in fast, so to ensure your place book now. We will have to hand back any un-booked beds by the end of November, so if you haven’t booked by then – bad luck!
Remember booking requests must be sent to Muriel at Fax 033 343 1534 or dyunnie@xsinet.co.za
Sustainable Utilisation
The Intangible Value of National Parks
By Kevin Moore (Manager Social Science Research, SANParks)
The intangible values of national parks are often overlooked because Protected Area Agencies focus mainly on evaluating those aspects of operations that can be easily quantified
The South African National Parks’ Annual report for the financial year 2006/7 was recently released from the head quarters (Groenkloof) of SANParks in Pretoria. The report highlights the successes of the organisation in terms of its mandate to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in conserving biodiversity. The tangible deliverables are impressive: 24 000 hectares of land were purchased for inclusion into the national parks’ estate, a new national park (Mokala) was proclaimed near Kimberley, 100 000 learners took part in environmental education activities in parks and the Minister allocated R575 million over the next four years for infrastructure upgrading and development in parks.
The commercialisation plan is running smoothly and tourism numbers increased by 9.5% with Table Mountain (1.6 million visitors) and Kruger (1.3 million visitors) at the top. The financial value of parks is equally impressive with a 22% increase in revenue to R594 million for the year. The direct value to local economies is currently under review but should be substantial considering the knock-on effects of tourism related activities and that SANParks now employs over 7000 employees (4000 of these are employed through the Governments Expanded Public Works Programme) excluding Staff employed by concessionaires. Concessionaires are tourism service providers who manage tourism lodges and related products in National Parks for a period of time according to agreed upon outcomes.
Whist the figures above paint a very positive image of SANParks in terms of tangible and measurable values, it is the intangible values of parks which are often forgotten. This could perhaps be because they are less obvious and more difficult to measure in terms of popular scientific or financial methodologies.
SANParks subscribes to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ (IUCN) definition of a protected area: “An area of land and/ or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means.” (IUCN 1994) This requires the organisation to manage the natural assets, that it is responsible for, based on biodiversity conservation principles.
Whilst the conservation of biodiversity is one of the most important challenges of our time, most South Africans are unfamiliar with this framework of thinking or do not ascribe to biodiversity values. Many South Africans do not see National Parks as repositories of genetic wealth but rather as landscapes in which they can experience deeply the touch of spiritual, cultural, aesthetic and relational dimensions of human existence. These are the fundamental aspects of the human spirit that inspire and move, that trigger responses of awe, appreciation, and, for the keen observer, the understanding that all is related. As Allen Putney so clearly articulates in the book “The Full Value of Parks”, “The interrelatedness of all things is a basic concept that is central to many fields of study, such as economics, ecology, physics and spirituality. Yet, it is the profound, personal, gut-level knowing of oneness that causes individuals and communities to act to seek harmony with the environment and the rest of humanity. As a consequence, perhaps one of the most important values of protected areas in the long run will be their potential to reconnect increasingly urbanised societies to nature and to encourage a reencounter with the knowing of oneness.”
Intangible values of protected areas are defined by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) as “that which enriches the intellectual, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural and/ or creative aspects of human existence and well being.” However, current (international) intellectual discourse on protected area management pays little attention to the intangible value of parks. This appears to be in keeping with the Western constructs of “hard science” based on scientific, technical and economic criteria whilst paying lip service to humanistic, cultural and spiritual ways of thinking and understanding. To address this means that protected area managers need to acknowledge and take cognisance of the intangible values which people ascribe to national parks when managing protected areas or creating new parks. It is indeed likely that an increase in the full recognition of human values will generate increased public support for protected area management.
The WCPA created a definition of intangible values which SANParks have included into their values structure of thresholds of potential concern. They include the following values:
The intangible values listed above show how many South Africans relate to, or should relate to, the importance of protected areas which has little, if anything, to do with financial value. National Parks are more than just an asset in the bank, they (Parks) are part of the very fabric, which makes us South Africans. They provide an opportunity for us to reflect on the past and to come to terms with this and grow through the inspiration learnt from the interconnectedness of nature and humanity. National Parks create the opportunity to recognize our “attachment to place” that is a strong motivating force in human society and which gives homage to the landscapes that express our fundamental connectedness to, and dependence on, the natural world.
It would be unrealistic to assume that SANParks would include intangible values in future annual reports. However, it would be in the best interest of all South Africans to make use of these benefits which are offered by the parks for their own spiritual development, physical and psychological well-being and to contribute towards looking after their own national parks.
Everybody needs beauty, as well as bread,
Places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength
to body and soul alike
- John Muir
Kruger threatened by land claim
Yolandi Groenewald and Fiona Macleod 19 October 2007 11:59
Communities claiming a large slice of the northern Kruger National Park (KNP) want full title to their land without any developmental restrictions. The land would remain part of the world-renowned wildlife reserve, says the Limpopo Land Claims Commission.
Negotiations over this proposed settlement of the second-largest land claim in the Kruger could set a precedent for claims by communities dispossessed during apartheid. Up to 50% of the park is reportedly under claim and the commission is under pressure to resolve the issue before the March 2008 deadline for the settlement of all outstanding land claims.
Commission spokesperson Nana Radebe said this week that it was in talks with South African National Parks (SANParks) over the settlement deal for the Makahane-Marithenga claim in the north of the park. The claim covers 89 773ha in the Punda Maria region.
“The settlement packages negotiated include that the area on the periphery of the Kruger can be rezoned or demarcated. Claimed land falling within the demarcated area can be owned in full title without any developmental restrictions, but remains part of Kruger National Park,” Radebe said.
Wilson Makahane, spokesperson for the Makahane community, told the Mail & Guardian the community wanted a partnership with the Kruger management and a share of the park’s profits.
“We want the title deeds to the land,” he said. Last week members of the Communal Property Association went on an “educational tour” to the Makuleke region of the KNP, the only area where a land restitution claim has been settled.
However, SANParks is loath to enter into another public-private profit-sharing arrangement as it did with the Makuleke community, which owns 25 000ha adjoining the Makahane-Marithenga claim.
Because the Kruger is one of two profitable national parks there are fears such arrangements might eventually bankrupt SANParks.
Wanda Mkutshulwa, SANParks spokesperson, said the organisation had rejected the Makahane-Marithenga land claim settlement proposal, which was not in line with a 2004 Cabinet directive on how to deal with land claims in protected areas.
“SANParks felt the proposal did not take into account the realities of the financial viability of Punda Maria and ecological concerns. Punda Maria on its own is not profitable and is subsidised by camps in the south of the park,” Mkutshulwa said. “Private developers were misleading the community, telling them they could realise profits from Punda.”
SANParks was not prepared to support the proposed deproclamation of Punda Maria. “New options are being pursued by both the Land Claims Commission and us,” she said.
Conservationists expressed concern about the damage the land claims could do to the crown jewel of the country’s tourism industry. One of their biggest concerns was that unscrupulous developers with an eye on creating luxury ecotourism or private estates could raise unrealistic hopes among poor communities.
Another concern was the potential negative effect of increased infrastructure for tourism on the ecology of the park.
A better option, they said, would be to keep the legal status of Kruger as a national park and for the government to compensate land claimants. Estimates of what compensation would cost range between less than R100-million and R40-billion, depending on whether it is pegged on similar compensation paid for agricultural land south of the park or prices charged for private tourism developments on the western borders of the Kruger.
Communities are claiming large swathes of the park, including its headquarters at Skukuza and prime tourist attractions such as Letaba and Pretoriuskop. When the M&G broke the story in February 2005 about a quarter of Kruger was under claim -- this has since risen to a reported 50% of the park’s two-million hectares.
The biggest claim is the 179 069ha Ba-Phalaborwa claim, launched by four communities living around the town of Phalaborwa in 1998. They also have claims outside the park. They plan to develop tourism on restored land outside Kruger, while hammering out a profit-sharing deal with the park’s authorities for the use of their land inside the park.
Radebe said the Ba-Phalaborwa claims had been gazetted. “We are conducting further research on the validity of the claims. There are conflicting claims within the park, where the Makhuva community is challenging the validity of Ba-Phalaborwa claim,” she said.
The Limpopo commission was dealing with 10 land claims in Kruger. Several contested claims have been referred to the Land Claims Court and are waiting for a court date.
“Different settlement packages are being preferred. Some claimants prefer restoration on part of the claimed land and others prefer total compensation,” Radebe said.
Claims by Mpumalanga communities are centred mostly on Skukuza, although there are also claims that affect land next to Pretoriuskop and the Sabie Sands. Mpumalanga Land Claims Commission spokesperson Trevor Silubane had not responded to questions at the time of going to press.
Fishermen invade protected area
Seventy armed fishermen forced their way into the Tsitsikamma National Park on Saturday and spent the day fishing illegally in the country‘s oldest marine protected area, SA National Parks has confirmed. The incursion – news of which has only now emerged – follows the environment department‘s proposal in April that the Tsitsikamma protected area be partly de-proclaimed to allow line fishing. An outcry followed from the marine science community, in part related to a 2006 study by the World Wide Fund for Nature SA which found that increased rather than reduced protection for marine protected areas would increase economic opportunities for indigent local communities. A group of four scientists from the Rhodes department of ichthyology and the SA Institute for Aquatic Biology in Grahamstown argued further that the widely accepted crisis facing the country‘s line fish stocks was another reason the plan should be rejected. Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has been considering the proposal.
SANParks spokesman Wanda Mkutshulwa said the park management had been contacted last Friday by the Tsitsikamma Fishing Forum, who said they would be “staging a protest, in the park, because of the slowness of the access application process”. The forum was told the action would be illegal, she said, but their members arrived the next day carrying rods and “knives and some firearms”. “For the safety of our staff and tourists, and the children in (the protestors‘) group we thought it was best to avoid a violent confrontation.” The group was allowed to fish under the supervision of rangers. Asked why management had not sought police help to keep the group from getting into the park, Mkutshulwa said an “executive decision” had been taken, “in the spirit of co-operation”, against this. She said the decision to not try to prevent the group from fishing had been approved by SANParks‘ executive.The environment department had not been consulted as there had been no time, she said. Mkutshulwa said it had been made clear to the fishermen that their entry on Saturday should not be viewed as a precedent for further entries. If this happened, they would be “dealt with the same as any other poachers”. Asked about concerns that a decision at a meeting earlier this year between environment department head Pam Yako, the park management and the fishing forum had led to the fishermen‘s action, she said it was not related. “The decision there was that the consideration by the minister should be allowed to reach its conclusion.” She also denied that the recent change in management at the park was related to the fishing access issue.
Environment department spokesman Mava Scott said yesterday that the department had been told by SANParks about the incursion. The department had accepted that the parastatal had “put in place measures to deal with the situation”. But the department would be monitoring the situation, he said. Shaheen Moolla, co-director of fisheries analysis group Feike, said the illegal incursion was the result of poor management by the department. “The initial indication from the government was that de-proclamation was going to happen, then there was the outcry, and then we heard the minister was considering it. Now there‘s a long lull.” Wildlife and Environment Society spokesman Morgan Griffiths said they were concerned that police had not acted although aware of the action.
Henrico Bruiners of the Tsitsikamma Fishing Forum said the group wanted access to the area because their grandparents had fished freely there and the community had not been consulted when it was closed in 1964. Asked if further illegal incursions were planned, he would not comment.
Message from Jim Feely
Following is of interest. Am glad to hear that plantations of aliens will not henceforth be called forests, only naturally occurring indigenous forests will.
Best
Jim
Subject: FW: Certification symposium presentation
Hi All
For your interest - the link to the FSC Symposium proceedings below.
Of note, a point was raised at the symposium that plantations (ie. Commercial compartments with exotic species) should not be called 'forests'. This came up a number of times and it was agreed that the word 'forest' in the Forestry context is to be used to describe indigenous forests, and the word 'plantation' would be used to describe the commercially planted areas.
Thanks
Helen
PG Bison NECP
Tailpiece-
A Thought
Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate?
A Message by George Carlin:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
Matter of Fact
This is an electronic newsletter of the Game Rangers' Association of Africa. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Association, nor of the Editor. This is intended to be an exchange of news snips, ideas and communication between members. Newsletter content may be copied and re-distributed without authorisation. Correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at dyunnie@xsinet.co.za