Page 34 - SDG Report

BIODIVERSITY STEWARDSHIP PROGRAMME
Biodiversity Stewardship Programme represents a shift from ‘conservation for landowners’ to ‘conservation in partnership with landowners’. It is a voluntary approach of entering into agreements with private and communal landowners to protect and manage land in biodiversity priority areas. It aims to promote conservation and sustainable management of natural resources within areas which fall outside of state-owned important ecological sensitive areas.
In line with the aspirations of the programme, the programme team has been working with the following traditional communities:
• KwaCele Community (Ward 72 and Ward 100)
• Thoyana Community (Ward 105)
THE TWO MAIN AREAS OF FOCUS
The first area of focus was the development of supportive institutional framework for Biodiversity Stewardship partnerships between the targeted traditional communities and eThekwini Municipality
• Amaphephethe Community (Ward 2)
• Zwelibomvu (Ward 100)
• Ekwazini_KwaLoshe (Ward 3 and Ward 59)
• KwaXimba Community (Ward 1 and Ward 4)
Although the programme’s long-term objective is to formalise Biodiversity Stewardship partnership between the communities and the eThekwini Municipality in relation to the traditional communities’ biodiversity assets, the programme has two main primary areas of focus that will sustain that Biodiversity Stewardship partnership.
The second area of focus was to improve Human Capital with regards to responsible management
• Collaboration with different departments in conducting more than 40 community engagement workshops that covered topics such as legal hunting, invasive alien plants identification, responsible fire management and sustainable natural resource use.
• Collaboration with the eThekwini Municipality’s Natural Resources Division in training more than 60 traditional healers on responsible muthi harvesting and plant propagation
•
• •
The Biodiversity Stewardship concept has been presented to the Traditional Leadership within eThekwini Municipal Area using various platforms such as the AmaKhosi Forums’ meetings and Traditional Councils’ meetings,
Secured letters of commitment to Biodiversity Stewardship from five traditional communities,
Established partnerships with the eThekwini Municipality’s Rural Area Based Management (Rural ABM), Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, Working on Fire (WoF) and other stakeholders
32
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS GOOD PRACTICE