4.2 Introduction
4.2.5 Tembe Elephant Park Management Plan
The Tembe Elephant Park management plan was adopted by the then Member of Executive Council of the provincial Department for Economic Development and Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2017. Although initial discussions relating to the upgrade of the border wall date back many years, the plan did not explicitly address this particular issue. Therefore particular aspects of the plan that supported the transfrontier conservation efforts and provincial protected area expansion targets may have been compromised in the longer term. Furthermore, some of the Park values that include those attributes that need to be protected have been left vulnerable in the process. The most critical of these values that may have been affected by the above would be the Tembe Elephant Park being the core of the transfrontier conservation area, which would strive to open up the movement of game and tourists in its latter phases between South Africa and Mozambique.
The most relevant of these values as per the protected area management plan include:
▪ Border identities and character of the Thonga, Swazi and Zulu cultures
▪ Frontier Lifestyle of the local people with kin on both sides of the border and trade across borders, border markets etc.
▪ TEP is a core protected area within the Maputaland Centre of Plant Endemism, the Combined Lubombo Conservancy-Goba and Usuthu-Tembe-Futi TFCA and the greater Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany system (Steenkamp et al. 2004).
These values also support the purpose of the Park, which is the aspect of the Park that needs to be protected in line with the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act No 57 of 2003 in section 17.
▪ play an anchor role in local; regional; national, and international economic and other relevant development and conservation initiatives;
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▪ make available surplus game meat and controlled access to the Tembe people to specific natural resources within the area; and
▪ play an anchor role in local, regional, national and international economic and other relevant development and conservation initiatives (Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife 2017).
Interestingly these purposes may be the very aspects that could be impacted and compromised through the approval of the border infrastructure process, especially in the light of those focus areas of the development application highlighted in section 4.2.4. Furthermore, NEMPA may be creating contradictory purposes highlighting the role of a protected area as an anchoring role in local, regional, national and international economic and other relevant development and conservation initiatives (Republic of South Africa 2003). For a protected area to play an anchoring role in an economic development initiative on an international scale may be opposing the purpose stated in terms of conservation initiatives.
Furthermore, the management plan explicitly states as a high-level priority the ‘forging of Transfrontier linkages between the TEP and the authorities and communities of the bordering Mozambique and Swaziland1’ in line with the Combined Lubombo Conservancy- Goba and Usuthu -Tembe-Futhi TFCA biodiversity conservation and social development strategies (Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife 2017). Further to this, there may also be provincial and national protected area expansion targets affected by this project.
The management plan identifies several opportunities for expansion of the protected area:
▪ transfrontier linkages incorporating: the Ndumo Game Reserve, Tembe Elephant Park (in collaboration with the Mbangweni and Bhekabantu Communities), the Usuthu Gorge Community Conservation Area (CCA), and bordering areas in Mozambique.
1 This country has recently been renamed as ‘eSwatini’.
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▪ a community conservation area in the Muzi area adjoining the Park on its northeastern corner (uKhamba) and Mozambique. This would also assist with the effective establishment of a Transfrontier link with Mozambique; and
▪ Tshanini Bhekula Community Conservation Area to the south of TEP (Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife 2017).
The implication for these communities for beneficiation from these protected area expansion opportunities is unclear, as these could be affected by both the current development and the second phase, where impacts are not yet determined.
The current situation in terms of security is that immigrants often cross the international border illegally. Having said that these individuals seldom traverse the Tembe Elephant Park because of law enforcement efforts and vigilance maintained within the Park, based on the management plan requirement for the development and active participation in cross border security strategies (Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife 2017). The status quo may very well change with the implementation of the development project, and these impacts have to be considered.
Furthermore, issues that have been identified in the management planning process to be addressed included cross border access and eco-cultural tourism as part of the transfrontier efforts. These are some of the critical issues that need consideration within the development application process.
As a result of their inherent complexities and crosscutting nature, transfrontier conservation areas face several challenges. This chapter sought to explore these complexities by way of a literature review and the case study of a development application in the area bordering the Tembe Elephant Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a state-owned previously provincial protected area, restituted under South African legislation to the original owners and now owned by the Tembe community, co-managed with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. The aim was to determine how a long-term public interest decision may serve to challenge the integrity
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of a protected area and South Africa’s commitments to transfrontier conservation initiatives with neighbouring countries. The focus of this investigation was three-fold, 1) the impacts on transboundary conservation efforts when a protected area and the neighbouring community are isolated from its transfrontier context, 2) the legislative weight of the management plan in responding to emerging threats and opportunities, and 3) whether the management plan contributes to mitigating conflict relating to a development application in an area bordering the Park.