South African Case Study

Richtersveld National Park: a contractual park within the rangelands of a traditional

pastoralist community

Location of communal areas in Namaqualand, Northern Cape, South Africa

History:•Missionary settlements to secure access for indigenous people in colonial times•Coloured reserves during apartheid period under control of Government•Post 1994: process of transfer to municipal or common property associations

Location of National Parks and provincial reserves in Namaqualand

Richtersveld National Park

• Established 1991: Schedule 4 Contractual National Park• Managed by Joint Management committee:

5 from Richtersveld community including one livestock owner

4 from SANParks4 meetings/year

• History of dissent over who represents community• Latest: Common Property Association recognised as

legal representative of community! Park contract illegal! Park Management Plan illegal

• Africa: the focus on pristine

• Europe: transformed landscapes part of conservation

Conservation in the peopled environment

Trends in South African conservation options

• Game reserves

• Single species conservation

• Biodiversity conservation

• Biodiversity and cultural conservation

• Conservation in the peopled environment

• People and their animals have been around for a long time

• People’s interactions with environment have increased heterogeneity

• People are dependent on conservation of ecosystem processes

Conservation of the peopled environment

People in conservation

• Hampered by perceptions that the interests and agendas of conservation and people are partially or completely in conflict

• People seen as an obstacle to efficient and rational organisation of resource use

Natural Resource Use

Rangeland policies developed from a three layered conceptual model:

Land degradation

Tragedy of the commonsnarratives

Modernisation model

Assumption: Due diligence in application of policies based on these assumptions will lead to:

•Increased prosperity

•Improved rangeland condition

•Destocking•Modern range management•Improved breeding •Controlled access to land•Improved marketing•Commercialisation

Why does this development model fail time and again?

Animal numbers must be reduced and modern range management practices adopted

LAND DEGRADATION

African pastoral ecosystems are equilibrial

Potentially stable systems are frequently destabilised by improper use

Adherence to recommended stocking rate will return systems to a more productive state

Tragedy of the Commons

Access to communal areas is without regulation – free for all

Livestock keepers actions are motivated by selfish interests

Livestock keepers have economic objectives

Livestock keepers lack necessary skills

Modernisation Model

Shift from:

Subsistence to commercial agriculture

Communal tenure to private ownership

Traditional institutions to modern ones(endogenous to external)

-o-

Expert knowledge based

• “….it is vital that conservation practitioners understand not only the human impact on environment but also how that environment is constructed, represented, claimed and contested”

• “a critical perspective alert to matters of culture, power and history can lead to conservation practices that are both more effective and more just”

Brosius 2006

Thank you