Property associatation, accountable to community
They set up a Communal Property Association (CPA) accountable to community members, which manages their land asset and the partnerships with SANParks and private tourism concessionaires.Good governance: The CPA has 15 years of trying to maximise the benefit to the community through tourism leases and conservation related activities. They are an example of good governance and accountability to the vision, community and partnership agreements.
Shared vision:: The Makuleke and their private sector partners as well as SANParks share the same mission for the land: “contribute to sustainable long term socio-economic benefit for the Makuleke community…”.
NGO and Donor support for the community is critical. The community is not able to negotiate and manage private sector concessionaires and their relation with SANParks without getting help from NGO’s or government. Over the last 17 years there have been many conflicts and difficult decisions that the CPA needed professional input on. They were lucky that they had lots of support from international donors and local NGOs.