This thesis investigates the design of a model, methods and guidelines that may assist
government agencies in South Africa to find a balance between the objective of biodiversity
conservation and increased local economic development in cases of land restitution in
protected areas. The data collection that was needed for this study took place from 2007 to
2009 and was limited to seven priority protected areas in Mpumalanga Province. The general
model design was established via an extensive literature review and analysis of the legal
background and formed the theoretical concept of this thesis. The general model design was
used to devise the guidelines for co-management to be used by government agencies in South
Africa for the possible implementation of the biodiversity conservation and local economic
development mandates in cases of land restitution in protected areas, within their financial
and institutional limitations. From the results, it is clear that a consolidated government
position, agreed upon by all relevant government stakeholders, assists in keeping the land
restitution process in protected areas within the legal framework. Through the analysis of the
model design in the seven priority protected areas it was identified that additional
information is needed to reach the preferred land claim settlement option per protected area
such as the actual tourism record, a socio-economic assessment of the environment in which
each protected area is embedded, and financial figures to make projections on current and
future net profit calculations. Government should support all the land claim settlement
options, as elaborated in the model design, which is not the case at the moment, and most
alternative options, other than co-management, are currently still unclear and/or not feasible.
This might have serious negative implications for the conservation agency, with the risk of
compromising its mandate to manage areas of high biodiversity effectively. The methods that
were developed to workshop the generic agreement frameworks with the land claimant
representatives proved to assist in the land claimants making an informed choice within the
legal framework and to tailor the land claim settlement option and agreements to their
specific situation. / Development Studies / Ph. D. (Development Studies)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/4042 |
| Date | 10 1900 |
| Creators | De Koning, Maria Adriana Imelda |
| Contributors | De Beer, F. C. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xv, 249 leaves) |
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