A community which successfully claimed the 23000ha Double Drift Nature Reserve is starting to enjoy the financial benefits of the claim.
Last month, the community received a cheque on R275000 from the East Cape Parks and Tourism Agency as their share from ECPTA’s auction of 450 wild animals from the reserve held at the Fish River Sun.
Mxolisi Ngesi, the chairman of the Likhayalethu Communal Property Association, said they had been forcefully removed from their land by the apartheid regime and they lodged a claim in 1998.
“It was a long journey and our claim was finally settled in July 2012. We were given various options. We could take money, another piece of land and a further option was keeping the land. We chose to keep the land,” he said.
Ngesi said their communities were removed many years ago and had settled there, away from their original land. He said they decided that splitting the money would be difficult and it would probably not last for long.
“We said we wanted to get involved in what was happening on our land. We are now going to sign a co-management agreement with Eastern Cape Park and Tourism Agency ,” he said.
“Now we are going to benefit from the proceeds of our land. This is a good thing for our community. It means continuous and sustainable income for our community, forever.”
The reserve is 30km outside Alice.
Ngesi said residents saw the reserve as an inheritance for their children and future generations.
“The land will last forever. We are even making it our mission to ensure that we protect the reserve from poachers. It belongs to all of us and we all take responsibility for it,” he said.
Double Drift is not the only reserve where a claim has been successful. The reserves of Dwesa-Cwebe on the southern Wild Coast, Silaka near Port St Johns and Mkhambathi on the north-eastern Pondoland section of the Wild Coast were also returned.
Nopasika Mxunyelwa, chief marketing officer of ECPTA, said the aim of the collaborative management agreements was to ensure that landowner communities were active participants in decision-making around the reserves.
She said: “The aim is that they benefit through different mechanisms, such as financial benefits or capacity building programmes about conservation and tourism in order for them to become effective co-partners that maintain and sustain the biodiversity of their offerings.”
She said ECPTA’s provincial people and parks unit linked the agency to communities of the protected areas.
The agency’s programmes focus on:
lCapacity-building to apply environmental legislation;
lCommunity-based natural resource-use plans;
lPreferential employment for deserving local community members in available positions in the co-managed reserves; and
lCareer exhibitions and environmental and tourism awareness programmes for the youth of the communities.
“The co-management agreements also play a vital role in game industry transformation,” Mxunyelwa added.
Double Drift land victory starts to pay off
Last month, the community received a cheque on R275000 from the East Cape Parks and Tourism Agency as their share from ECPTA’s auction of 450 wild animals from the reserve held at the Fish River Sun.
Mxolisi Ngesi, the chairman of the Likhayalethu Communal Property Association, said they had been forcefully removed from their land by the apartheid regime and they lodged a claim in 1998.
“It was a long journey and our claim was finally settled in July 2012. We were given various options. We could take money, another piece of land and a further option was keeping the land. We chose to keep the land,” he said.
Ngesi said their communities were removed many years ago and had settled there, away from their original land. He said they decided that splitting the money would be difficult and it would probably not last for long.
“We said we wanted to get involved in what was happening on our land. We are now going to sign a co-management agreement with Eastern Cape Park and Tourism Agency ,” he said.
“Now we are going to benefit from the proceeds of our land. This is a good thing for our community. It means continuous and sustainable income for our community, forever.”
The reserve is 30km outside Alice.
Ngesi said residents saw the reserve as an inheritance for their children and future generations.
“The land will last forever. We are even making it our mission to ensure that we protect the reserve from poachers. It belongs to all of us and we all take responsibility for it,” he said.
Double Drift is not the only reserve where a claim has been successful. The reserves of Dwesa-Cwebe on the southern Wild Coast, Silaka near Port St Johns and Mkhambathi on the north-eastern Pondoland section of the Wild Coast were also returned.
Nopasika Mxunyelwa, chief marketing officer of ECPTA, said the aim of the collaborative management agreements was to ensure that landowner communities were active participants in decision-making around the reserves.
She said: “The aim is that they benefit through different mechanisms, such as financial benefits or capacity building programmes about conservation and tourism in order for them to become effective co-partners that maintain and sustain the biodiversity of their offerings.”
She said ECPTA’s provincial people and parks unit linked the agency to communities of the protected areas.
The agency’s programmes focus on:
lCapacity-building to apply environmental legislation;
lCommunity-based natural resource-use plans;
lPreferential employment for deserving local community members in available positions in the co-managed reserves; and
lCareer exhibitions and environmental and tourism awareness programmes for the youth of the communities.
“The co-management agreements also play a vital role in game industry transformation,” Mxunyelwa added.
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