An inventory of natural resources harvested from national parks in South Africa

Koedoe - African Protected Area Conservation and Science

 
 
Field Value
 
Title An inventory of natural resources harvested from national parks in South Africa
 
Creator van Wilgen, Nicola J. Dopolo, Mbulelo Symonds, Alexis Vermeulen, Wessel Bester, Elzette Smith, Kyle McGeoch, Melodie A.
 
Subject Conservation biodiversity; conservation and development; monitoring; protected area management; resource use; sustainable harvest
Description Resource harvesting is permissible within South African protected areas under certain conditions as part of benefit sharing that seeks to strengthen relationships with communities living adjacent to parks. However, not all resource use is authorised and little is currently known about what is harvested, or the extent and impacts of harvesting in parks. This limits capacity to monitor and set the boundaries for such use. This paper provides a checklist of resources harvested within each of 19 national parks managed by South African National Parks. Data were gathered by means of a question-based survey of park staff. A database detailing the parks from which each resource was harvested and its purpose(s) was compiled, representing the most comprehensive list of resources harvested from parks to date. A total of 382 harvested biological and abiotic resources (284 terrestrial and 98 aquatic), used for a wide range of purposes, were identified across parks. Many of the resources, especially animals (96%), were harvested destructively. The strongest motivation for harvest was subsistence, although most resources were also used for financial gain through informal business. Although current data are not sufficient to determine harvest sustainability for most resources, better data and increased awareness of resource use activities will enable future research to this end.Conservation implications: The checklist of harvested resources provides critical baseline data for parks, which will facilitate assessment of park-specific priorities for research, monitoring and management action.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor SANParks, Andrew W. Mellon foundation
Date 2013-05-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Survey
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/koedoe.v55i1.1096
 
Source Koedoe; Vol 55, No 1 (2013); 5 pages 2071-0771 0075-6458
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/1096/1493 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/1096/1494 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/1096/1495 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/1096/1446 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/1096/1492
 
Coverage South African national parks 2009-2011 Presence
Rights Copyright (c) 2013 Nicola J. van Wilgen, Mbulelo Dopolo, Alexis Symonds, Wessel Vermeulen, Elzette Bester, Kyle Smith, Melodie A. McGeoch https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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