Abstract
South African National Parks (SANParks) plays a major role in the tourism industry and has three primary functions, namely to conserve biodiversity, to create tourism and recreational opportunities and to build strong community relations. These parks, therefore, have a definite socio-economic impact on adjacent communities, although little is known about this impact. The main aim of this study was to determine the socio-economic impact of Africa’s oldest marine park, namely Tsitsikamma National Park, which forms part of the newly created Garden Route National Park. This was done by conducting three surveys during April 2008: a visitor’s survey (156 respondents), a community survey (132 respondents) and a business survey (11 respondents). We found that the park has a positive economic impact on the surrounding area and that the community exhibits a favourable attitude towards Tsitsikamma National Park. The results also differed when compared to similar studies conducted at other national parks in South Arica and one of the main reasons for this was that the park is located in a touristic area. For a greater impact however, the park should expand its marine activities, while communication with the local community could also be improved.Conservation implications: Good community relations and ecotourism activities are important components of good conservation practices. This research indicates that tourism activities not only generated funds for conservation, but also benefited the local communities of Tsitsikamma National Park. The positive attitude of local communities makes conservation of biodiversity more sustainable.
Highlights
Situated on the Garden Route in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, Tsitsikamma National Park (TNP) is Africa’s oldest marine park (Figure 1)
TNP was proclaimed in December 1964 as the first national marine park in Africa by the National Parks Board (Government Gazette 1964)
The aim of this research was to estimate the socio-economic contribution of TNP to the surrounding communities which involved estimating the economic impact of TNP on the local economy, estimating the impact of tourism business development in the region along with how these businesses and communities benefit from the park and determining the employment generated as a result of the tourism activity generated by the park
Summary
Situated on the Garden Route in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, Tsitsikamma National Park (TNP) is Africa’s oldest marine park (Figure 1). TNP was proclaimed in December 1964 as the first national marine park in Africa by the National Parks Board (Government Gazette 1964). The original coastal park extended approximately 59 km between Groot River (east) (24°12’ E, west of Oubosstrand) and Groot River (west) (23°34’ E, at Nature’s Valley) and included the areas within the region of 800 m landward and 800 m seaward of the low water mark (the horizontal distance was used and contours were ignored). In September 1983, the seaward boundary of the park between the Groot River (east) and the Bloukrans River (23°39’ E) was extended to three nautical miles. The remainder from Bloukrans to Groot River (west), was changed to half a nautical mile offshore (Government Gazette 1983). In December 1987, the De Vasselot Reserve (2561 ha) was added to the park (Government Gazette 1987)
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