South Africa’s premier community conservation project, the Makuleke Communal Property Association, has rejected commercial hunting in favour of ecotourism to raise revenues.
The Makuleke community, which owns 24 000ha of the northern Kruger National Park, caused a furore when they announced in 2000 that they needed to start hunting elephants and buffaloes in the world-renowned wildlife reserve to raise capital.
The Communal Property Association (CPA) signed a R45-million deal earlier this month with Wilderness Safaris, an international company that caters for the top end of the tourist market. The deal will see the Makulekes put an end to hunting next year.
”We indicated from the outset that we would only hunt because there was nothing else in place. Now that we have deals with private ecotourism partners, we can phase out the hunting,” says Dennis Skhalela, the CPA’s implementing officer.
Officials at the Kruger this week praised the decision to stop hunting in the Makuleke region of the park. Though legislation bans hunting in national reserves, the CPA was able to introduce hunting because it owns the land in the Pafuri area.
”We welcome this decision because, much as hunting is allowed in a contractual park, it is not allowed in a national park. The whole process of hunting can cause a strain on animals to the extent that it impacts negatively on ecotourism,” says William Mabasa, the Kruger’s manager of public relations.
The CPA’s deal with Wilderness Safaris will see three lodges built at prime ecotourism sites. They will offer photographic safaris and other non-consumptive tourist activities.
Wilderness Safaris is investing R45-million in the construction of the lodges. The CPA will earn 8% of turn-over from the business, and about 80 jobs, along with a range of small business opportunities, will be created.
The deal is structured to last for 45 years, after which all fixed assets will be transferred to the community.
Peter Anderson, managing director of Wilderness Safaris South Africa, says the CPA estimates it could earn up to R2,8-million a year through selling hunts. ”We will overtake that amount by a long shot in three to four years,” he promises. ”A good conservation model like ours is more sustainable than hunting. Elephants avoid areas where there is hunting and it has an impact on the general game as well.”
The CPA signed a separate ecotourism development deal in 2001 with the owners of Johannesburg’s Ten Bompas Hotel. They have built a lodge called The Outpost, on the banks of the Levuvhu river, that recently opened its door to tourists.
”Photographic tourism is starting to show returns,” says Skhalela. ”We are giving ecotourism a chance and will see what it brings in.”
But the CPA has not given up on hunting just yet. It will stick to this year’s pre-arranged hunting quota — involving six elephants and up to 10 buffaloes.
The Makulekes have been at the cutting edge of community conservation since they agreed in the mid-1990s not to move back on to the land they own in the Kruger, but to manage it in a joint deal with South African National Parks. The arrangement set a precedent for other contractual parks, but it took a knock when the CPA introduced commercial hunting.
The CPA fund now contains about R5-million, which is being used to provide classrooms, electricity and water in Ntlhaveni, the village where the Makuleke community lives.
In terms of the deal signed this month, the Makulekes will take over sole management responsibility for their land over the next five years. The CPA has been working with advisers to train community members to work as rangers and guides.
Anderson points out that a trained anti-poaching unit from the community has taken over security in the area, which borders on Zimbabwe. ”This means the area will become more secure for tourists and for the animals,” he says.
Saliem Fakir, director of the local chapter of IUCN-The World Conservation Union, says the Makulekes’s solutions have been consistently pragmatic. ”It is clear that they don’t want to mix ecotourism and hunting.
”Hunting was a controversial option, but it was necessary because no other capital base was on offer. Now they have found the right partners they have come up with a positive solution by reinvesting in a different capital base.”
IUCN is co-hosting the World Parks Congress in Durban in two weeks’ time. At the congress, the Makuleke CPA will give a talk to thousands of protected-areas specialists from around the world about their model of community conservation.
Kicking off the preliminaries to the congress this week Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa said South Africa was chosen as the venue because its conservation successes are seen as a viable and inspirational model.