News

Dear Stakeholder,

In terms of the Protected Areas Act (Act 57 of 2003) South African National Parks (SANParks) has initiated a co-ordinated process to revise the core planning documents of the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP). These are the Park Management Plan and Conservation Development Framework (CDF). In addition, a complementary process is being launched to prepare an Environmental Management Framework for the Tokai and Cecilia Plantations.

Please find the TMNP I&AP registration form in the “what’s hot” box on the website’s right naivation bar.

You are hereby invited to register as an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) by completion of the attached registration form.

Revision of the Park Management Plan
The National Environment Management: Protected Areas Act No. 57 of 2003 requires that SANParks produces management plans for all national parks in consultations with relevant stakeholders. The overall aim of the Park Management Plan as per the Protected Areas Act is to:
“¢ ensure the Park is managed according to the reason it was declared;
“¢ be a tool to guide management of a protected area at all levels, from the ground level to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism;
“¢ be a tool which enables the evaluation of progress against set objectives;
“¢ be a document which can be used to set up key performance indicators for Park staff;
“¢ set the intent of the Park, and provides explicit evidence for the financial support required for the Park, and
“¢ provide for the scoping process required as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for development in the Park

In addition to the Protected Areas Act, a Park Management Plan must comply with other related National legislation such as the National Environmental Management : Biodiversity Act (NEM: BA), national SANParks policy and international conventions that have been signed and ratified by the South African Government. The current Park Management Plan, prepared through an extensive public process in 2000/01 is now due for revision.

Revision of the Conservation Development Framework
In 2000 the then Cape Peninsula National Park undertook to integrate conservation and development activities in the Park by producing an overarching spatial planning framework – the Conservation Development Framework. The CDF was prepared as a Strategic Environmental Assessment through a participative, holistic planning process involving stakeholders. The CDF designated recreational use zones, identified Visitor Sites and addressed the management of the Park – City interface. The CDF is a spatial framework which guides and co-ordinates conservation and development initiatives in and around the Park over a 5 year period. The current CDF is now due for revision.

In practical terms this framework informs where visitor facilities should be located, the location of priority conservation areas, what recreation activities can take place where, etc through an agreed recreational use zonation. The CDF is essential to safeguard in perpetuity the unique and internationally significant natural and cultural assets of the Table Mountain National Park.

Tokai-Cecilia Environmental Management Framework

On 1 April 2005, DWAF assigned to SANParks, in terms of the National Forests Act, the management of more than 1000 hectares of publicly owned land within the Cape Peninsula Protected Natural Environment (CPPNE) area. TMNP has taken over the management of the Tokai and Cecilia plantations and the “˜exit lease’ whereby the forestry company, MTO Forestry (PTY) Ltd., has the right to harvest about 600 hectares of pine plantations over a 20 year period.

In terms of the assignment, SANParks is mandated to effect the long term management and rehabilitation of the Tokai and Cecilia plantations. In order to carry out this mandate, TMNP is committed to develop an overarching Environmental Management Framework (EMF) which will provide opportunity for public, specialist and management input.