SANParks gives back to the community

GEORGE NEWS - Gardening equipment, seed, training certificates and fishing equipment were handed over to community members in Wilderness last Friday, 8 April, as part of SANParks' Food Security and Angler Support programmes.

SANParks Acting CEO Dumisani Dlamini said the initiative is part of SANParks' Community Social Legacy Programme aimed at addressing a broad spectrum of social needs in the community.

"We are proud to be handing over this much-needed equipment as part of our Food Security and Angler Support programmes, both of which will make a difference in the lives of the people living near to the Wilderness Section of the Garden Route National Park," he said.

According to Dlamini, SANParks has adopted these programmes to safeguard against poverty by encouraging food gardens at home and to provide skills for sustainable fishing while recognising indigenous knowledge of food security and sustainable angling.

Dlamini said 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 applied for future generations.

Some of the people who gathered at the meeting in Wilderness.

"The ideology behind the project is to ensure that there is an inter-generational skills transfer with youth 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 R6-million to R7-million per annum.

To date SANParks has provided schools with an administration buildings, science and computer laboratories, mobile libraries, playgrounds, kitchen facilities, ablutions and school desks.

During the 2020/2021 year as part of the SANParks Covid relief programme, the Social Legacy Fund invested its proceeds to provide food hampers to 8 500 needy families, 80 water tanks, hand sanitiser and surgical masks to communities neighbouring the national parks, Dlamini said.

One of the speakers, Knysna Mayor Levael Davis, said it is a very inspirational project, calling it the type of project the constitution speaks about, the type of project that is there to empower people. He applauded SANParks and the various government departments for embarking on the initiative.

Community members with their official fishing permits.