In the interest of supporting sustainable livelihoods in communities adjacent to national parks, South African National Parks (SANParks) will handover food gardening and angling equipment to the Wilderness Heights, Klienkrantz , Smutsville and Rheenendal community in the vicinity of the Wilderness Section of the Garden Route National Park in the Western Cape.
This according to SANParks Acting CEO, Dumisani Dlamini who said this initiative is part of SANParks Community Social Legacy Programme aimed at addressing a broad spectrum of community social needs.
“We are proud to be handing-over this much needed equipment as part of our Food Security and Angler Support Programmes, both which will make a difference in the lives of the people living near to the Wilderness Section of the Garden Route National Park.”
Dlamini says that SANParks has adopted these programmes to safeguard against poverty by encouraging food gardens at home and also provide skills for sustainable fishing while recognising indigenous knowledge in the area of food security and sustainable angling.
He further said that in collaboration with the Garden Route Biosphere reserve a total of 30 pensioners’ from the Smutsville community will benefit from the angling project where their indigenous knowledge will be utilised for future generations.
“The ideology behind the project is to ensure that there is an intergenerational skills transfer with youth also learning from the pensioners, while also addressing the issue of illegal fishing. The Programme also aims to assist pensioners with fishing permits as they depend on marine resources as food.”
“The Community Social Legacy Projects are funded from the 1% tourism income on all accommodation bookings. Over the last four years this is estimated to be between R6 million to R7 million per annum.To date SANParks has provided schools with an administrations building, science and computer laboratories, mobile libraries, playgrounds, kitchen facilities, ablutions and school desks to mention a few,”said Dlamini.
During the 2020-2021 year as part of the SANParks COVID Relief Programme, the Social Legacy Fund invested its proceeds to provide much needed support in the form of food hampers to 8 500 needy families, 80 water tanks, hand sanitisers and surgical masks to communities neighbouring our national parks,” concluded Dlamini.
