Maravi

(GETAWAY SA) Ndumo signals red alert for conservation

Ndumo signals red alert for conservation
Author: Alison Westwood
Date: 01 October 08

Ndumo's fence is still down, presenting a nightmare for anti-poaching teams trying to protect its hippos, rhinos and antelope. Many South Africans have never even heard of Ndumo Game Reserve. Yet it is now the focus of a dispute that could make or break the future of conservation in South Africa.

Ndumo is a small game reserve of around 10 000 hectares on the Mozambican border in Maputaland. Proclaimed in 1924 for the protection of hippos, it is now recognised as a site of international importance by the Ramsar treaty for conservation of wetlands. It's famous for having the highest bird count of any park in South Africa and protects the last intact strip of the Pongola River. The park is pivotal to the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area straddling South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.

But Ndumo also has some of the only fertile agricultural land in the area - the Pongola floodplains. A land claim lodged for 1 200 hectares of the reserve was settled in 2000. Like most land claims in protected areas, it restored ownership without occupation. In June 2008, members of the Mbangweni and Bhekabantu clans, who live in the corridor between Ndumo and Thembe Elephant Park, tore down the entire eastern fence and entered Ndumo. They wanted the land for farming.

Although KwaZulu-Natal MEC for agriculture and environmental affairs Mtholephi Mthimkhulu condemned the land invasion, he said something had to be done for the people. 'They can't use the land which they are living on now for agricultural purposes - and the arable land is in the reserve.'

Mthimkhulu also said the communities' situation was 'a manifestation of many years of colonialism'. His decision: to rezone 20 hectares of the park for 'controlled agricultural activity'. Environmentalists believe this is a short-term solution that may spell doom for Ndumo and perhaps for other parks in South Africa. 'If you start giving away protected areas, it could start a landslide,' says Di Dold, environmental coordinator for the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa in KZN.

Paul Dutton, an environmental consultant who was officer in charge of Ndumo from 1965 to 1972, agrees. 'Those 20 hectares could be the thin end of the wedge. They can't support that many people in the long term and the government will be held to ransom. You can compare it to Dukuduku,' he said. The rare indigenous forest near St Lucia was damaged beyond recovery over the course of 20 years when it was occupied by subsistence farmers. 'Giving this small area of flood plain to this community will not solve their food supply problem,' says Garnet Jackson, who was officer in charge at Ndumo from 1980 to 1988. 'It will lead to people killing and being killed by hippos and crocodiles. It will make Ndumo impossible to manage as a reserve and encourage other communities around Ndumo and other reserves to act in the same way.' It'll also threaten the new Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area, and the benefits it could bring the communities. The claimants have rejected the offer of 20 hectares, hoping for a better solution to their poverty; some still want the whole reserve for their crops.

Tim Condon, who launched an international Zululand Wildlife e-Forum, wants to raise awareness of the threat being posed by land claims to Ndumo and other Zululand parks. 'The huge problem is getting people to understand conservation and why there should be game reserves.'

According to Dr Japhet Ngubane, who worked in Maputaland and studied co-management of parks, this is because of the way land reform has been applied in conservation areas. 'The model we are currently using does not get the full benefit and full ownership of the land to the people,' he says. 'Ndumo will be a hotspot until we hand it over to the people and make sure they have the capacity to manage it.'

Ken Tinley, who worked as a ranger at Ndumo with conservation veteran Dr Ian Player, believes a working model already exists at Phinda Private Game Reserve 150 kilometres south of Ndumo, where community equity, income generation, education and health care are primary concerns.

However, it seems doubtful an appropriate model will be adopted at Ndumo. 'I don't think there's the political will,' says Ngubane.

Whether the communities living in the Mbangweni corridor can claim ownership of Ndumo is another question. Paul Dutton says he has photographic evidence that the Mbangweni corridor was unoccupied until it became an elephant-free zone in the late 1970s and Mozambican refugees were allowed to occupy it. 'They certainly do not represent the communities that were moved out of Ndumo Game Reserve,' says Dutton. In fact, if the mega-reserve planned for the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area goes ahead, the communities may have to move out of the corridor so the parks can amalgamate.

For a small park, Ndumo is highlighting a lot of big issues in conservation. 'We don't have enough conservation areas in South Africa and the pressure on wildlife is only going to increase with the population,' says Janet Cuthbertson, a coordinator of the Zululand Wildlife e-Forum. Ndumo shows that unless we help people achieve food security and change the way we involve them in conservation, they will forever see game reserves as empty land they could use.

Labels: APARTHEID, BHEKABANTU, LAND RIGHTS, MBANGWENI, NDUMO GAME RESERVE, WILDLIFE

posted by MrK @ 11:50 PM