The fifth World Parks Congress (WPC) in Durban will spend a day next week focusing on Africa and the protection of its natural heritage including the release of a special 10-point action plan for the continent’s protected areas.
The penultimate day of the congress, Tuesday, will also see the launch of various African projects, including the African Protected Areas Initiative, the Africa Protected Areas Trust Fund and the West Africa Marine Protected Areas Action Plan.
Many of the 2 500 delegates attending the WPC were on Saturday preparing to leave on field trips to various areas in KwaZulu-Natal, including the Drakensberg; Hluhluwe and Imfolozi parks; the Siyaya Coastal Park, near Richard’s Bay; and the greater St Lucia Wetlands Park.
They will return to the port city’s International Convention Centre late on Monday for the final two days of the conference.
After a morning of plenaries on Tuesday, delegates will be called to assembly by a special African song and dance display, before a series of keynote presentations by, among others, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, who will speak on a ”Vision for Africa”.
The presentations will be followed by an interactive panel session, involving Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa, along with several of his African counterparts.
Among those giving a ”civil society perspective” during the discussion will be South African traditional leader Phathekile Holomisa.
Briefing the media on Saturday, Environmental Affairs Director-General Chippy Olver said the 10-point African ”agenda for action” would include, among others:
- building public support for protected areas, seen as the continent’s ”most critical challenge;
- making protected areas a central part of poverty reduction strategies;
- improving regional and national conservation policies;
- increasing the importance of protected areas in national and regional development planning;
- strengthening technical capacity and financial support for management of protected areas at the national level;
- improving the management of existing protected areas;
- targeting threatened species and their habitats; and
- fostering international recognition for African protected areas.
The action plan comes at a time when, according to experts, many of Africa’s protected areas have collapsed or are perilously close to doing so.
Speaking at the congress earlier this week, Southern Africa Transfrontier Conservation Areas director John Hanks said human and livestock encroachment into areas designated ”national parks” in some African countries had transformed vast natural areas.
Species were teetering on the brink of extinction in the very places designed to provide them safe refuge.
”The situation in Africa is perilous. Hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to restore and maintain many of the continent’s parks, an amount far greater than was previously thought necessary.
”We are fortunate in South Africa, but go north from here and the situation is very different.”
Hanks said many African reserves were in fact ”paper parks”; they had no money, no infrastructure and no staff. – Sapa