Public–Private Partnerships in South African National Parks: The Rationale, Benefits and Lessons Learned - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 58

There are various attempts at all levels to address the issues regarding the
increased participation of BEE and specific consideration needs to be given to
mitigating such problems as those identified below:

• the capacity of BBBEE participants during the bidding and negotiation

stages;

• BBBEE procurement capacity during operations;

• BBBEE interest in participating in tourism PPPs; and

• BBBEE finance.

Conclusion

The Commercialization Strategy has contributed to the implementation of
SANParks organizational policy and objectives. An integral component of the
Commercialization Strategy is the organizational capacity and ability not only to
conclude the procurement of private entities acquiring the use of state property,
but also to manage and monitor the agreements and accordingly to recognize
market failure and have the ability to mitigate that failure to achieve its organiza-
tional objectives.
The Commercialization Strategy in South African National Parks has thus
allowed SANParks to:

• increase and capture more of the net economic benefits attributable to parks;

• contribute more to BBBEE and local economic development;

• mitigate environmental impacts; and

• help finance biodiversity conservation, recognizing that only a small fraction

of ecologically-important areas have the potential to attract significant
tourism.

PPPs are a useful tool in various conservation agencies, as in the United States
where such contracts were entered into. In many cases, after contracts were
entered into, the contract management was not as effective and PPPs have not
yielded its full benefits. The SANParks model is a success case where the organi-
zation's procurement process and contract management were equally effective.
While commercialization through PPPs is a useful funding model for nature
conservation, probably the most significant beneficial result is its ability to reduce
poverty in remote areas through the creation of sustainable employment in areas
where it is most needed.

References

Elkington, J. (1997) Cannibals with Fork s :The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business ,
Capstone Publishing Ltd., Oxford