SA to host parks workshop

www.herald.co.zw Herald Reporter THE southern African region will today start a four-day workshop in South Africa to prepare for the Fifth World Parks Congress to be held in the same country later in the year.

Organisers of the workshop, Africa Resources Trust (ART), said yesterday the workshop would synthesise the experience of the region on community based conservation of natural resources.

"The workshop will look at pre-colonial conservation practices in southern Africa region," said ART.

"Emphasis will be on community-based conservation, conservation systems and practices developed under the colonial regime and the legacies of the pre-colonial and colonial systems."

The workshop would be held under the theme: Communities and Protected Areas in Southern Africa: Key Issues and Challe-nges Towards a More Equitable and Sustainable Future.

Organisations involved in the hosting of the workshop include the Programme on Land and Agrarian Studies, the School of Government University of the Western Cape and the Theme on Indigenous and Local Communi-ties.

"The purpose of the workshop is to review lessons learned in the relationship between southern African communities and protected areas such as national parks," said ART.

"The workshop will explore what can be done, feasibly and concretely, to promote more equitable and effective ways of managing natural resources and protected areas in southern Africa."

The Fifth World Parks Congress to be held in September, where the region would present the outcomes of the workshop, would examine challenges and opportunities that protected areas face in the coming decade.

The congress is held after every 10 years, with the first having been held in Seattle, USA in 1962.

The subsequent three congresses took place in Yellowstone, USA, in 1972, in Indonesia in 1982 and in Venezuela in 1992.

Rural communities settled next to protected areas such as national parks would view the Fifth World Parks Congress as a means to bring benefits that have been alluding them for a long time.

Research has shown that as one moves closer to resource-rich protected areas such as national parks, the degree of poverty gets sharper.

This shows that communities settled around these natural resource-rich areas are being denied benefits from resources that are only a stone’s throw away.

The congress comes at an appropriate time in southern Africa, with the launching of the vast Great Limpopo Transfron-tier Park last year by Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.