Developing partnerships in a paradigm shift to achieve conservation reality in South Africa

Abstract

In South Africa, communal rural community development has, for the most part, been viewed as an add-on, rather than as an integral value in the broad spectrum of conservation activities being practised in the country. This paper, therefore, argues for the reality-based adoption of an extension of existing conservation paradigms to incorporate the development of communal rural communities as an integral part of the overall wildlife conservation and management policy in South Africa. The answer to the seeming contradiction in the focus of wildlife conservation and rural development lies in the development of wildlife management programmes based on multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional interaction, by also harnessing scientific knowledge and skills found in the social sciences. In this manner, the present largely lip service related to so-called community participation in wildlife management can be changed into programmes which really achieve conservation-based community development enhancing survival for both the communities and their inherent natural resources.