Shongweni Resources Reserve : community participation, preferences and perceptions
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Date
2003
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Abstract
The study was conducted in the light of the background that there is a rising concern from the government that the companies should give socio-economical benefits to the local communities. In the aspect of recreation and tourism the Department of Sports and Recreation (DSR) is expecting the reserve to give the socio-economical benefits to the local communities in a very participatory way. The reason above led to the initiatives to explore at the local reserve, which is Shongweni Resources Reserve whether it co-operates with what have been said in the white paper. For example the White Paper (1994:35) said Recreation development should be demand driven and community based. It also said communities must be empowered to participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of recreation programmes. The people responsible for looking at that realised that there was poor relationship between the Shongweni Resources Reserve and local communities. It was from that perspective that there was a need for someone to conduct a study that would look at their relationship and the reasons and motives behind that relationship. The study had specific objectives to be explored, which are:
• To determine the relationship between the local communities and
the reserve.
• To establish whether the communities are being involved or
participate in the reserve activities.
• Investigate whether there is any development initiative the reserve
is offering to the local community.
• Find out whether the local people are aware of the kind of socio-
economic development they can get from the reserve.
All these four objectives have been met because the whole study was formulated around these objectives. The study looked at the relation between local communities and the reserve and found that it is not healthy. It also looked at the communities whether they are involved or not, and found that they are very participating. The development initiatives the reserve is offering to local communities have been also explored and the findings showed that there are development initiatives the reserve is offering to the communities. The issue of whether the local people are aware of the kind of socio-economic development they can get from the reserve was also looked at, and found that the local people are not aware of the type of socio-economic development.
There are also expectations that have been formulated as guidelines for the study. There were four expectations that had been formulated, and out of those four expectations half of them have been proven correctly and half of them have been proven wrong. The expectations that have been formulated are:
• That there is poor relationship between the local communities and
the reserve.
• That the local communities are less involved in the activities of the
reserve.
• That there are inadequate recreation and tourism development
initiatives offered to the local communities.
• That the local people are not aware of the socio-economic
development benefits for them in the reserve.
There were different findings that were found. Most of the people considered development as medium and the community members are prepared to take the responsibilities of the development of the Shongweni Resources Reserve. They
are fairly involved in the management and maintenance of the reserve. The involvement of communities in participating for the recreation activities is happening. This has happened by considering the period and the frequency of their participation, which have positive responses. The communities are also allowed to use recreation activities found in the reserve. When considering the socio-economical aspects, the reserve is giving very less economical aspects to the local communities. They are not allowed to sell their crafts and to cut wood for carving, and there are very few local employees.
There are various factors that were found to be the cause of bad relationship. One of them was the communities were not clear about community benefits they should get from the reserve.
The recommendations that have been surfaced are that the reserve should be transparent, socio-economical improvement, and to conduct the future study that would involve the Shongweni Resources Reserve staff to include their
perspectives.
Description
A dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course-work Postgraduate Diploma in Recreation and Tourism in the Centre for Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, 2003.
Keywords
Social change--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal., Economic development--Sociological aspects., Shongweni Resources Reserve (South Africa)