News

At a ceremony held on Friday, 9 December 2016 at Phillip Saunders Resort just outside of Bloemfontein, 15 young people received their certificates for completing the first ever People and Parks Training programme.

These young people come from communities surrounding protected areas such as Golden Gate Highlands National Park, Rusfontein Dam and Nature Reserve and Maria Moroka Nature Resort and they were trained in Housekeeping Assistant NQF Level 2 and Field / Tour Guiding NQF Level 2 and successfully completed in September 2016.

This is a program which is overseen by the Free State People and Parks Provincial Steering Committee under the joint leadership of South African National Parks (Golden Gate Highlands National Park) and Free State Department of Economic Affairs, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA).

The program came about as a result of the World Parks Congress held in Durban in 2003 which addressed people who had been removed or directly threatened with removals from protected areas to make way for wildlife and conservation. The congress highlighted the important role protected areas play in sustainable development, conservation and fighting poverty. It further highlighted the importance of involving local people as equal partners in protected areas, which should include decision making, management and sharing of benefits.

“Since then our programme has gained momentum in identifying specific activities and processes that address issues at the interface between conservation and the communities. We all work to promote and protect our country”s resources, but also to highlight and implement the rights of communities affected by conservation processes. These graduates have thus come as a result of that” said Mr Lombard Shirindzi, General Manager of the Northern Region Parks which include Golden Gate.

“Today we have a robust People and Parks Programme with strong community involvement, solid policies, structures and frameworks in place to ensure further success of the programme towards the future.” concludes Shirindzi.

Thabang Selemela, Director: Biodiversity Management at DESTEA, who gave a keynote address, thanked the learners for successfully completing the program and emphasised that this was a great achievement for People and Parks program in the Free State, “you must now go and implement what you have learned on the skills development program and make us proud” Selemela said.

Issued By

South African National Parks (SANParks) Northern Region Communications

Enquiries

Divhani Maremba
Northern Region Communications Manager
Tel: 012 426 5304, Cell: 074 588 5789
E-mail: [email protected]