Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
From the land claims process to an integrated development plan
When TRANSFORM started working in the Richtersveld the community was
already organizing itself into a Community Property Association (CPA) in the
anticipation of their land claim against Alexcor (a diamond mining company)
being successful.The CPA has proven itself to be a functional representative insti-
tution of the inhabitants of four different villages that are scattered throughout the
area at about one hour's distance from one another. The CPA worked well with
the Municipality and TRANSFORM spent time working out the different roles
and responsibilities of each structure.
Ownership of the communal areas of the Richtersveld needs to be understood
as a legacy of South Africa's fractured past. The inhabitants were classified as
'coloured' under apartheid and as a result their communal land fell under the
control of the tri-cameral parliament's House of Representatives. The communal
land was one of the several coloured reserves that post-1994 has been held in
Trust by the national Department of Land Affairs. The ANC government, in an
effort to devolve ownership of these communal areas, launched the
Transformation Process (Everingham and Jannecke, 2006). This involved allow-
ing residents to chose how their land should be owned and managed. In popular
referendums the communities could chose between giving title to the local munic-
ipality, individuals or to a legal community entity such as a CPA or Trust. In 2004
the Richtersveld residents overwhelmingly chose the CPA as their communal land
owner. This includes the National Park land; however, up to mid 2007 the land
had not formally been transferred from Land Affairs to the CPA.
This process was running separately to the Land Claim on Alexcor which
ultimately was successfully lodged and was finalized in October 2007.
The Richtersveld has proven a good example of how to integrate CBNRM
projects into broader rural development plans, specifically the municipal
Integrated Development Plan (IDP). In this particular case good collaboration
between the CPA, local municipality and TRANSFORM resulted in perhaps the
best example of how CBNRM and conservation projects fit into the municipal-
ity's IDPs.TRANSFORM gave financial and technical support for the drafting of
the first IDP to integrate tourism and conservation into rural development and
local economic development (LED). The aim of this support was to ensure that
the Richtersveld became a sustainable tourism destination with infrastructure and
tourism facilities by means of involving local government. The overall objective
was to assist in changing the nature of the economy of the area from one depend-
ent on minerals to a more diverse, multifunctional economy integrating tourism
and conservation as major elements.
Implementing CBNRM in the Richtersveld
In 2001, 10 years after having signed the agreement, no management plan for the
National Park had yet been drafted due to continued strife between the commu-
nity and SANParks. TRANSFORM pushed the involved actors to set up such a
management plan and paid for the drafting of the integrated management plan
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