Collaboration between EfD southern Africa and SANParks

1
Collaboration between EfD (southern Africa) and
SANParks

• An unusually lucky break?
• Presented by Harry Biggs

2
Can appropriate quantitative skills be brought to
bear on the economics of wildlife?
3
What are (some) biophysical scientists looking
for?
4
Some of our early efforts resulted in holistic
diagrams like these (this
one represents livelihoods and ecosystem
functions and services in Bushbuckridge)
5
Do we know what we wanti.e. can we articulate a
clear intellectual demand?
YES, one good way is through management plan
objectives, e.g. for Addo
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National biodiversity priority areas
AND THROUGH EXPLICIT SPATIAL PLANS e.g. .
Suggested names 1. North Eastern Escarpment 2.
Central Bushveld 3. Wet Grasslands 4. Dry
Grasslands 5. South Eastern Escarpment 6.
Maputaland Pondoland 7. Albany Thicket Wild
Coast 8. Cape Floristic Region 9. Succulent Karoo
DRAFT
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So where did that bring Edwins and our group?

• First made contact April 2006 at a science
  network meeting where Edwin was scanning for
  collaborations
• I went to Cape Town for a planning meeting
• We agreed there to set up a working group (from
  SANParks Kevin, Kelly, Ayanda and I)
• Met regularly (every 2 mths) to decide what to do
  together and develop that in more detail

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• CLUSTERS FOR CONSIDERATION
• Macro-conservation funding/economics/governances
  issue including expanded public works programme
• Bio-regionalism Biosphere NBSAP- Multiple
  land-use resource values of different options
• sustainable resource use Cuts across and
  covered in bio-regionalism and multiple land use
  issue
• Ecosystem services livelihoods, poor people
  around parks, AHEAD
• Economic values internal to SANPARKS PPP,
  Internal concessionaires, Cross-subsidisation
• etc (there were 15 in all)
• Next meting was scheduled for the 25th of June at
  CEEPA in Pretoria.

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• Criteria used for deciding priorities
• 1.Priorities for SANPARKS and
• 2. Areas that the research team have expertise
  in.
• Thus the following were identified as priority
  areas for SANPARKS 2, 10 14 and 1, 4 while the
  team prioritised 1, 2, 4, 5 (cross subsidisation
  issue) and 14 but with the recognition that 4 and
  10 are difficult topics to tackle from economic
  theory perspective.
• It was agreed that each person would go back and
  reflect on these priorities for two weeks and
  reconvene and select 2-3 themes/areas that will
  then go into a project memorandum document. The
  selected themes will be fleshed out and provide a
  research agenda.
• So here we are bioregionalism based one will
  be discussed in detail today

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So what are the prospects?

• Have fortuitously encountered and partly
  managed a synchronicity (sensu Senge)
• Young promising group, implications
• Social Capital high key factor
• Plan for wider involvement but core group has an
  identity (may expand slightly)
• Upbeat attitude

watch this space . And THANK YOU!