Nature Reserves and Communities: Table Mountain National Park

Nature reserves were created so as to ensure sustainable utilization of natural resources. There is always a tendency to focus more on the natural resource, in such way that local communities are forgotten as custodians and... [ view full abstract ]

Nature reserves were created so as to ensure sustainable utilization of natural resources. There is always a tendency to focus more on the natural resource, in such way that local communities are forgotten as custodians and beneficiaries of the resource. This paper looks at the progress that has been made by the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) to benefit local communities since 1994 when South Africa became an independent country. Local communities living adjacent to nature reserves had been making a living from the resource, and their entire lives had been depending on the resource for a living. They therefore have to benefit in every way possible from the resource. In South Africa, local communities that live adjacent to the nature reserves were denied such benefits, and in most cases, indigenous people were forcefully removed from their areas so as to make way for the nature reserves. In South Africa, the South African National Parks (SANparks) was established so as to ensure community beneficiation from nature parks. A qualitative approach was adopted whereby an interview was conducted with the management of the TMNP. Progress was tracked by comparing existing data with the qualitative data. Leximancer was used to analyse data. Preliminary results indicate that there is progress in community beneficiation, but the pace is slow. The findings have been sent to SANparks, the body that was assigned a duty to ensure local community beneficiation, so that they can speed up the process.