Insights from fieldwork in the Kruger area, South Africa

During late May 2016 members of P1t Lab South Africa (based at University of Johannesburg) and P1t Lab North Carolina spent time doing research in the Bushbuckridge area close to the Orpen Gate of the Kruger National Park (aka Kruger area).  Kruger is one of South Africa’s main tourist attractions that offers visitors the opportunity to view the iconic Big Five (Rhino, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo and Elephant). 

However, Kruger is a highly contested space.  After the change from the apartheid regime to a democratic government in 1994, the park has faced a number of challenges from moving from fortress style conservation style management to more democratic and inclusive management practices.  Of late, draconian fortress management is systematically returning.  This has been largely due to the dramatic rise of poaching of Rhino for use of its horn for its supposed health benefits in Southeast Asia.  In response, individuals, private and public institutions are waging war against the poaching of rhino’s by militarizing the Kruger area.

[Note:  Phone number in billboard was changed from original]

All levels of society both in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa are involved in poaching of wildlife and especially Rhino’s.  One of the reasons for the poaching is the desperate poverty that surrounds Kruger.  The 2 million people that live on the South African side of Kruger were in some cases forcefully removed from their indigenous lands during the establishment of the park; and since then, they have never gained significant tangible benefits from the park.  Kruger has been developed as a high-end enclave destination in which visitors rarely interact with local communities bordering the park.

Cognizant of the challenges involved in wildlife conservation, international tourism retail chains, and local politics, we propose that local involvement in tourism microentrepreneurship would help stem the current vicious cycle of profiteering from wildlife degradation and human suffering. Therefore, we are collaborating with key local partners like Wits Univeristy’s Knowledge Hub for Rural Development, Pfunanani Enterprise Development Project, Buffelshoek Trust, and Ploughback to the Community to develop networks of local tourism microentrepreneurs.  As is central to P1t’s Participatory Action Research methodology, we recruit and accompany these microentrepreneurs, providing them with training and marketing support, while also collecting from them so we can develop related scholarship and innovation. 

Our research in the area indicates that when local people are involved in wildlife tourism microentrepreneurship, they develop intrinsic motivations to protect wildlife.  If this involvement grows to scale, local residents would not assist poachers.  Several P1t microentrepreneurs expressed a desire to protect wildlife because they feel that living in symbiotic relationship with wildlife is part of their heritage and identity.  They also showed frustration that outsiders do entrust them with protecting “the bush” even if they are trained and experienced.  Many acknowledge that they have earned some of their livelihoods from wildlife tourism, but they report frustration for their inability to be independent actors in the local tourism industry!  

There is a good number of experiences offered on the P1t marketplace by a growing network of microentrepreneurs.  Our fieldwork in May indicates that there is a groundswell on microentrepreneurial activity in the Kruger area, which will lead to an organic growth of local offerings of lodging, transportation and experiences.  Stay tuned to our research updates and to P1t’s Kruger offerings as this area is quickly transforming from primarily an enclave wildlife tourism destination to a destination also offering genuine encounters to the rich local indigenous cultures.

 

 

Gijsbert Hoogendoorn, University of Johannesburg

Duarte B. Morais, North Carolina State University

John Bass, North Carolina State University