100
4
From the mid-1990s, WWF began, together with SANParks, to plan the establishment of a national park in the area. At the same time, Leslie Hill (1908–2003),
another successful South African businessman, established the Leslie Hill Succulent
Karoo Trust Fund, which was to finance the purchase of land. This fund is managed
by WWF and has been a main source of funding for the expansion of the national
park. Both Rupert and Hill have received the WWF recognition known as ‘A Gift to
the Earth’ for their environmental efforts.
Due to the many private wildlife reserves in South Africa, there is an active market for ‘wildlife’ in the country. In Namaqualand, the park management has purchased various types of antelopes on this market and had for some time also plans
to purchase rhinoceros. The original rhinoceros of Namaqualand disappeared
around 1880. A high and sturdy fence was built around the park to make it ‘rhinoproof’. This fence had two functions: to close in the purchased auction animals and
to shut out the resource use of local people. Paradoxically, the landscape in the park,
which has a centuries-long history of intensive grazing, is currently classified as ‘wilderness’ in the IUCN classification system. But still, in 2020, no rhinos have been
added to the park.
Even though Namaqua National Park has clearly been established as a fortress
conservation practice, the park draws on rhetoric from the win-win discourse. One
of the main objectives of the park has been to ‘realize opportunities for, and equitable distribution of, benefits to surrounding communities in line with the SANParks
resource use policy’ (SANParks 2006). The park also has had an ‘empowerment’
project, the most important component of which was the building of the rhinoproof fence around the park with the involvement of local labour. Thus, people are
paid to raise the fence to shut themselves out, and this was curiously labelled
‘empowerment’. When we previously critiqued this, SANParks responded:
» The park’s contribution to the empowerment of local people and institutions
has been enormous … the People and Conservation Unit of the park continues
to actively interact with 16 rural communities, 19 primary schools, three communal farmers associations, two commercial farmers unions, two municipalities
and 5 high schools, as well as, a wide range of stakeholder and constituency
groups. To date well over 30 000 local people have benefited from environmental
education over the past few years. As a result, there is increasing support for the
park among local communities as evidenced by demonstrable improvements in
the attitudes of local communities towards conservation as a justifiable form of
land use. … The Namaqua National Park has a well-established and representative stakeholder Park Forum through which all matters pertaining to park development are discussed. (SANParks in email attachment, October 2005).
Soebatsfontein is one of the local communities near the park. This is a small settlement established in 1954 on land owned by a church, which originally established the
settlement to house retired land workers. After retirement, it has been common practice that land workers are not allowed to continue living on the farms where they
have worked. In 2005, there were 250-300 residents in Soebatsfontein—both young
and old. In the early 2000s, De Beers had begun to close down the diamond mines in
Chapter 4 · Conservation Discourses Versus Practices
4
From the mid-1990s, WWF began, together with SANParks, to plan the establishment of a national park in the area. At the same time, Leslie Hill (1908–2003),
another successful South African businessman, established the Leslie Hill Succulent
Karoo Trust Fund, which was to finance the purchase of land. This fund is managed
by WWF and has been a main source of funding for the expansion of the national
park. Both Rupert and Hill have received the WWF recognition known as ‘A Gift to
the Earth’ for their environmental efforts.
Due to the many private wildlife reserves in South Africa, there is an active market for ‘wildlife’ in the country. In Namaqualand, the park management has purchased various types of antelopes on this market and had for some time also plans
to purchase rhinoceros. The original rhinoceros of Namaqualand disappeared
around 1880. A high and sturdy fence was built around the park to make it ‘rhinoproof’. This fence had two functions: to close in the purchased auction animals and
to shut out the resource use of local people. Paradoxically, the landscape in the park,
which has a centuries-long history of intensive grazing, is currently classified as ‘wilderness’ in the IUCN classification system. But still, in 2020, no rhinos have been
added to the park.
Even though Namaqua National Park has clearly been established as a fortress
conservation practice, the park draws on rhetoric from the win-win discourse. One
of the main objectives of the park has been to ‘realize opportunities for, and equitable distribution of, benefits to surrounding communities in line with the SANParks
resource use policy’ (SANParks 2006). The park also has had an ‘empowerment’
project, the most important component of which was the building of the rhinoproof fence around the park with the involvement of local labour. Thus, people are
paid to raise the fence to shut themselves out, and this was curiously labelled
‘empowerment’. When we previously critiqued this, SANParks responded:
» The park’s contribution to the empowerment of local people and institutions
has been enormous … the People and Conservation Unit of the park continues
to actively interact with 16 rural communities, 19 primary schools, three communal farmers associations, two commercial farmers unions, two municipalities
and 5 high schools, as well as, a wide range of stakeholder and constituency
groups. To date well over 30 000 local people have benefited from environmental
education over the past few years. As a result, there is increasing support for the
park among local communities as evidenced by demonstrable improvements in
the attitudes of local communities towards conservation as a justifiable form of
land use. … The Namaqua National Park has a well-established and representative stakeholder Park Forum through which all matters pertaining to park development are discussed. (SANParks in email attachment, October 2005).
Soebatsfontein is one of the local communities near the park. This is a small settlement established in 1954 on land owned by a church, which originally established the
settlement to house retired land workers. After retirement, it has been common practice that land workers are not allowed to continue living on the farms where they
have worked. In 2005, there were 250-300 residents in Soebatsfontein—both young
and old. In the early 2000s, De Beers had begun to close down the diamond mines in
Chapter 4 · Conservation Discourses Versus Practices