Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
would be interested in getting involved in the area, but the Richtersveld commu-
nity was not convinced of such a partnership. On the other hand some people can
believe that perhaps, at the end of the day, the lack of tourists will mean less
pressure on the biodiversity and if the promised community development takes
place perhaps the community will put less goats into the fields and the area will be
maintained and conserved nonetheless.
Unclear tenure and land rights
The lagging behind of legal tenure rights in the Richtersveld has complicated and
hampered the implementation of sustainable tourism initiatives. It would have
been difficult to find private sector partners willing to get involved in setting up
lodges in the area without clear tenure arrangements.
Grazing rights
The Richtersveld community has throughout history practised nomadic pastoral-
ism allowing their livestock to follow the availability of fresh pastures. People hold
large numbers of animals and can be considered fairly wealthy in terms of
livestock. The management agreements within the National Park have stipulated
that the community is allowed to continue grazing in the Park. However, as the
park is not completely felt as their land to use for their own purposes, overgrazing
is taking place. In the community conservancy, similar grazing rights are upheld.
As that area is directly managed by the community, there is much more control
and care taken in that area than in the National Park. In retrospect one can
assume that it is dangerous to establish stable grazing rights in nomadic systems,
particularly when the governance and ownership of some areas is relatively
unclear and based on joint management. These situations are often prone to
falling into open access common property regimes and stereotypically falling into
situations of uncontrolled overgrazing.
Poverty relief funds
Poverty relief funds have typically emphasized building and improving infrastruc-
ture as well as short-term employment creation. Nonetheless local capacity
building and entrepreneurial training should become a part of the package in
order to allow for local communities to take effective and lucrative ownership over
their acquired assets. Hence government should try to take on a more equilibrated
strategy towards development of rural areas. Both infrastructure and effective
communal governance are needed, and capacity building together with skills
development and adequate governance structures are crucial in the process of
enabling such an environment.
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