SANParks will soon hand over gardening and angling equipment to communities in the vicinity of the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park in the Western Cape.

SANParks Acting CEO, Dumisani Dlamini, said the initiative was part of SANParks’ Community Social Legacy Programme, which aims to address a broad spectrum of community social needs. The projects are funded from the 1% tourism levy on all accommodation bookings, which, over the last four years, is estimated to be between R6m and R7m (€376 200- €439 100) per annum.

Dlamini said SANParks had adopted the programmes to safeguard against poverty by encouraging food gardens at home and also providing skills for sustainable fishing while recognising indigenous knowledge in the areas of food security and sustainable angling. 

In collaboration with the Garden Route Biosphere reserve, 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 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,” said Dlamini.

“To date, SANParks has provided schools with an administration building, science and computer laboratories, mobile libraries, playgrounds, kitchen facilities, ablutions and school desks, to mention a few. 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.