Community leaders left Durban at the end of the World Parks Congress on Wednesday satisfied that most of their demands had been recognised.
But hundreds of community conservationists this week called for “a truth and reconciliation commission [TRC]” to deal with injustices and mistakes made in the name of conservation.
Close to 300 community members attended the 10-day congress, which set the agenda for the future of protected areas. It was the first time community rights and interests in protected areas, as well as their contributions to conservation, were personally represented in a global conservation forum.
In the closing days of the congress the community representatives urged national and international bodies to create a TRC “regarding protected areas and indigenous peoples and local communities to shed light on controversies, redress inequities and promote reconciliation and collaboration”.
“Protected areas in the past damaged the lives of many people. That past needs to be understood for what it was so that we can move forward,” said Saliem Fakir, South African director of the IUCN-World Conservation Union, which organised the congress.
Though the idea was new to most congress delegates, the Mail & Guardian suggested in November 1997 that it was time for a TRC for conservationists. A lengthy article by academic Farieda Khan suggested that the collaboration by conservation officials and NGOs in apartheid structures needed exposure.
Six years later the emphasis has moved from exposing culprits to acknowledging the past and dealing with its legacy, in order to remove distrust and encourage wider participation in conservation.
Ashish Kothari, facilitator of community participation at the congress, pointed out that there is a precedent for the suggested conservation TRC in the World Dams Commission, which was chaired by Kader Asmal.
“A high-level panel needs to investigate what has happened in and around protected areas over the past 100 years, including the good things, so we can build up a global picture and create a new beginning,” Kothari told the M&G.
While several large international conservation NGOs bought into the idea towards the end of the congress, politicians said they had not had sufficient time to consider it. The suggestion was forwarded to Nelson Mandela, joint patron of the congress, and was included as one of the recommendations in the Durban Action Plan — which, together with the Durban Accord, contains the main outcomes of the congress.
Both documents include lengthy sections dedicated to the rights and representation of indigenous people and local communities in the management of protected areas. They acknowledge the importance of community conservation areas outside the world’s 100 000 formally declared protected areas, as well as the role thousands of years of indigenous knowledge can play in the future of conservation.
South Africa’s community conservationists were upbeat about the outcomes of the congress. Representatives of 12 local communities who own land and rights in protected areas drew up a memorandum of demands prior to the event, which they presented during a plenary session at the congress.
Though the congress outcomes are not legally binding, they set targets and timetables that are taken seriously by policymakers.
“The communities have spoken, and the world has listened,” said Livingstone Maluleke, publicity officer for the Makuleke Communal Property Association, which owns land in the northern Kruger National Park.
“The World Parks Congress has addressed the issues of community participation and management in protected areas. If these issues are implemented, in five years’ time we will see real benefits — the realisation of the ‘Benefits beyond Boundaries’ that were the theme of this congress.”