Abstract
The Tembe Elephant Park was proclaimed in 1983 after negotiations between the then KwaZulu Bureau of Natural Resources and the Tembe Tribal Authority in consultation with the local communities of northern Maputaland, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The park boundaries were subsequently fenced and animal numbers started to increase. The fence has kept the utilisation of renewable natural resources by the local communities at bay for the past 19 years. In this period, the vegetation of the park has been utilised only by the indigenous fauna, but it has been affected by management decisions and possibly also regional environmental changes.
Highlights
The Tembe Elephant Park was proclaimed in 1983 after negotiations between the KwaZulu Bureau of Natural Resources and the Tembe Tribal Authority in consultation with the local communities of northern Maputaland, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
The questions are to what extent has human pressure affected the vegetation in comparison with wildlife use; can the vegetation of Tembe Elephant Park be regarded as representative of similar areas in Maputaland and how well did the Sand Forest fare outside a formal conservation area? In this paper we aim to provide ecological and floristic data for the Tshanini Game Reserve by identifying, characterising, interpreting and mapping the major vegetation units that occur there
Three major plant communities and eight sub-communities were identified for the Tshanini Game Reserve (Tables 1 & 2, Fig. 2)
Summary
The Tembe Elephant Park was proclaimed in 1983 after negotiations between the KwaZulu Bureau of Natural Resources and the Tembe Tribal Authority in consultation with the local communities of northern Maputaland, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The fence has kept the utilisation of renewable natural resources by the local communities at bay for the past 19 years. In this period, the vegetation of the park has been utilised only by the indigenous fauna, but it has been affected by management decisions and possibly regional environmental changes. The Tshanini Game Reserve was established in 2000 on some land of the community of Manqakulane, but it has not yet been registered. For the past 20 years, the land where the Tshanini Game Reserve has been established was utilised by the local people for wood harvesting, livestock grazing, hunting, fruit and honey gathering, and subsistence cultivation where this was viable. It is presumed that large ungulate numbers have always been low in Tshanini
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