West Coast National Park

People and Conservation

The goal of People & Conservation (P&C) is to build constituencies among people in support of the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage efforts of SANParks. P&C ensures that a broad base of South Africans participate and get involved in biodiversity initiatives and further that all its operations have a synergistic existence with neighbouring or surrounding communities for their socio-economic benefit. We do this through:

Community Relations - to establish an effective community relations environment with stakeholders in the proximity of the parks.
Cultural Resource Management & Indigenous Knowledge - to manage our protected areas, in a manner that will uphold the rights of all people, as well as protecting and restoring places of cultural and spiritual significance.
Environmental Education awareness, Interpretation & Training - to implement comprehensive environmental interpretation, awareness and education programmes particularly targeting children and previously excluded sectors.
Youth Outreach - to coordinate and integrate portfolios of youth conservation awareness projects and tasks.