Conservation a complex affair

There is a public perception that implementing and managing an effective conservation strategy is a reasonably straightforward business.

Those tasked with the responsibility of protecting our fauna and flora demarcate areas, erect fences to keep animals in and poachers out, do patrols and apprehend bad people skulking about our reserves with evil intent.

It is far more complex than that and negotiating one’s way through the intricacies of human-nature interaction requires the wisdom of Solomon.

The first point of departure is that the definition of poaching is not necessarily a one dimensional concept.

There is poaching for profit and poaching for survival.

Dealing with the profit chasers killing our rhinos and elephants for fickle Eastern markets is, in a sense, less complicated and emotive. As ruthless destroyers of our natural heritage, we simply catch and/or shoot them and feel elated when we do.

But the same principles cannot apply to survivalist communities.

Only the most cynical, who have never experienced a day of excruciating hunger pains, can summarily condemn ‘poachers’ who illegally cross a fence or throw a net into a river in a desperate attempt to bring relief to their starving families.

So it is with a sense of cautious understanding that one views this week’s protest march in Mtubatuba by fisherman from the Nkundusi and Kwanibela communities in uMkhanyakude.

In their memorandum to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) CEO Dr Bandile Mkhize, the communities want, among other things, permits to fish and sell their catches, government adoption of the small scale fisheries policy and for EKZNW officers to stop confiscating and destroying their gill nets and rudimentary boats.

Mkhize, a fierce advocate of cooperation between conservation and communities as the only sensible strategy to ensure effective long-term success, understands that poverty and unemployment is at at the heart of the issue.

He summed up the dilemma perfectly by saying that ‘people don’t understand protecting wildlife for tomorrow when they are hungry today. An empty stomach knows no boundaries.’

Mkhize is, however, also wise enough to know that simply throwing open the gates of ‘sustainability’ to struggling communities is not the answer.

Where communities are allowed to sell their catches, the profit motive kicks in and commercial opportunists will be waiting in the wings to exploit the resources – as it is, the communities’ boats are already being used to ferry rhino poachers across the lakes.

If the communities hope for relief, they have to do a better job demonstrating their ability to manage sustainable practices within their ranks.