ECOTOURISM: A TOOL FOR RURAL RECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH AFRICA?: Summary of a position paper prepared for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (Unrisd) and the Group for Environmental Monitoring (Gem) by Eddie Koch December 1993. (Note: A copy of the full paper is available from Gem. Footnotes are not included in t summarised version) Some entrepreneurs and conservationists argue that nature-based tourism is the solution to poverty and underdevelopment, especially in the rural backwaters of the country. Ecotourism, say, is an indus) out smokestacks. It can turn grave robbers into tour guides, guerrillas inte game ranger: Is this all wishful thinking, a romance dreamed up by those desperate to convince the politicians that the conservation of biological diversity, and the money that can be made from it, is @ panacea for the country's economic problems? Gem has produced 2 new discussion paper that examines the political economy of ecotourism in South Africa. It includes a critical evaluation of various scenarios put forward by proponents of ecotourism and concludes that the industry can be used as an effective tool to reconstruct some local areas of the country's rural economy - but only if serious efforts are made to address obstacles that inhibit genuine community participation in these ventures. Ecotourism is defined as: "Purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the culture and natural history of the environment; taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem; producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people." The paper argues the industry should not be seen as a panacea to rural poverty in South Africa and, if it is to live up to its potential in specific localities, its practitioners have to take into account factors that can inhibit ecotourism's ability to redistribute revenue and resources to the poorest strata of society. Strategies to maximise this benefit are suggested. St Lucia is a microcosm of the many conflicts and problems associated with efforts to implement programmes that combine conservation with rural development in South Africa. Its 12-kilometre stretch of beach dunes encapsulate, in stark relief, the key issues that will shape the ecotourism industry in this country. A, THE POTENTIAL: THE ECONOMICS OF ECOTOURISM 1. THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT Tourism is the world's largest and fastest growing industry. World travel grew by 260 percent between 1970 and 1990. In at least 17 countries it accounts for more than half of all foreign exchange earned and it is estimated that today one out of every 14 workers is employed in the travel industry. This excludes 3those employed in industries that are created by "multiplier effects" of tourism projects. A 1969 study of Caribbean tourism estimated that every job in the tourism industry generated another 2.3 work opportunities in supporting industries. Multiplier figures for Kenya and Tunisia have been estimated as high as between five and six - although all of these are probably exaggerated. Travel and tourism generated 5.9 percent of the world's GNP in 1990, the equivalent of ussl. l-trillion. Of this US$62.5-billion went to developing countries. Apart from its sheer size, tourism offers other advantages to developing countries. It is the only industry in the world that allows a net "north-south" flow of wealth from industrial countries to developing countries. It is a more stable source of foreign exchange and other minerals, hich are subject to widely fluctuating prices on the international markets, and, unlike the export of cash crops or manufactured goods, the world's consumers of tourism pay their own travel costs. The industry is also not subject to protectionist barriers frequently erected by developed countries. Ecotourism is fast becoming an important sector of the world travel industry. Research conducted by the World Travel Organisation shows that @5 percent of all German tourists want a holiday that is EC - environmentally correct. Not far behind in this desire are Dutch, French and English travellers. A Lou-Harris poll conducted in the United States reported that four out of every 10 American travellers were interested in life-enhancing" travel as opposed to tourists who were just “seeking the sun". The lesson is self-evident: rich tourists from the northern hemisphere can provide a potent economic incentive for governments, entrepreneurs and local communities to conserve their wildlife and natural resources instead of exploiting them for short-term gain. 2. SOUTH AFRICA South Africa currently attracts about 0.2 percent of the world's tourism industry and this relatively small slice of the pie generates significant economic development. In 1992 2.7 million foreign visitors came to South Africa. Of these 2.1 million came from the African continent, mainly to conduct business, shopping or work-related activity, while 559 913 came from overseas. In 1993 the figures increased to three million with 2.4 million coming from Africa and 618 508 coming from abroad. It has been estimated that in 1992 foreign tourism earned some SAR2.5-billion (about US$800-million) in foreign exchange and provided 300 000 people with jobs, about one out of every 14 actively employed people in South Africa. The tourists who arrive from outside Africa are made up in the following way: 28 percent from the United Kingdom, 42 percent from the European mainland, 11 percent from North America, eight percent from Asia and 10 percent from Australia, the Middle East and South America. The tourist flow peaks in the summer months, between October and March, with a Sharp dip between the winter months of May and June. In 1990, tourism was the fifth highest foreign exchange earner in South Africa. Manufactured exports earned SAR30-billion, Gold earned 4SAR18-billion, Mining and quarries SAR6.3-billion, Agriculture SAR2.7- billion and Tourism SAR2.5-billion. The value of foreign tourism in 1992 increased by about 26 percent to SAR3.4-billion. Despite the political violence that has swept the country in the past few years, 1993 saw a 10 percent increase in the number of visitors from abroad (excluding Africa) over 1992. A government White Paper on Tourism, released in 1992, "More than 90 percent of foreign tourists (excluding those from Africa) come to South Africa in the first instance to enjoy the country's scenery, flora and fauna. It adds: "In endeavours to mulate and develop the South African economy, the government cepts that the tourism industry can make 2 vital contribution long-term sustained economic growth. It also believes that tourism can be a major catalyst to ‘kick start’ the economy thus providing the much needed economic upswing & variety of land-use studies conducted locally show conservation projects aimed at attracting local and international tourists are capable of generating revenues far greater than would be earned if the specific land area under examination were to be used for farming. A study of the new Madikwe game reserve in Bophuthatswana, one of South Africa's nominally independent, homelands, estimates that only 80 jobs would be generated by| cattle farming. This compares with 1200 jobs in six luxury lodges being planned for the reserve. Per capita income for labourers involved in cattle ranching would average SAR3000 (about US$860) annually compared to SAR7200 (about US$2057) from the ecotourism project. Commercial projects that involve some degree of wildlife conservation currently constitute one of the few growth areas in, the South African economy. There are now 800 game reserves in the country, excluding those owned by the government's National Parks Board, ranging from luxury privately-owned resorts like Mala Mala and Londolozi in the eastern Transvaal to small areas" in the homelands. Yet these parks are not able to cater for the growing demand, from local and overseas tourists for a holiday in the wilderness. ‘The Kruger National Park estimates it turns away four out of every five people who want to visit the park. Exclusive resorts have been able to increase their revenue by 1000 percent over the last four years by picking up the backlog. The Bakubung Game Lodge, built on the boundary of the Pilanesberg National Park in Bophuthatswana, was built in under a year and immediately sold more than 80 percent of its timeshare units. It has an almost total occupancy rate all year round. “Commercial” wildlife management and the attendant tourism development provide a land use option that is not only profitable and sustainable but also has the capacity to heal the scars of the earlier degradation," says a recent report by ecologists David Grossman and Tony Ferrar. "With the imminent redress of former political problems, the region is preparing for a growth in ecotourism. The existing state-run parks are stretched to capacity and private sector conservation-based developments are emerging to cater for the game-viewing market." Dave Varty from the Conservation Corporation, a company that runs some of the premier private lodges in the country, notes that if the number of tourists visiting the country was to double every states: “tribal-resource 5ten years, then the industry would generate more than gold mining, currently the mainstay of the South African economy. “In the long-term, there is no doubt that the revenues generated from tourism could far exceed the potential of the mining industry, on which South Africa's apartheid economy has traditionally been based," says 2 recent Conservation Corporation report. "In terms of the current debate over the planned mining of St Lucia's eastern shores, Richards Bay Minerals would create less permanent jobs through mining, compared to more than 300 jobs that have already been created at the nearby Phinda Resource Reserve (17000 hectares), through one tourist lodge alone - and a relatively small investment of R80-million (about US$26-million) .” - This is not entirely wishful thinking. Statistics from the South Bfrican Tourism Board (Satour) show the number of overseas visitors to South A c@ has increased two-fold between 1972 and 1991. The government, as part of its recognition that ecotourism can be used to "kick start" the rural economy, has made SAR600-million (US$171-million) available through the Industrial Development Corporation at preferential interest rates for conservation ventures that will help meet the demand for various forms of wildlife tourism in South Africa. The proliferation of wildlife ventures on white-owned farming land has been mirrored, on a smaller scale, in some of the communally-owned areas in black homelands. A number of integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) have been established in KaNgwane, KwaZulu and Bophuthatswana on land owned by local communities. The objective of these projects, described in more detail in the paper, is to make conservation more relevant to the lives of ordinary rural people. The idea that "farming with wild animals" - making a livelihood by providing safari concessions and wildlife tours to outside visitors - appears to be gaining a foothold in some areas. In Bophuthatswana, for example, at least one community, encouraged by the economic success of that homeland's Pilanesberg Game Reserve, have already set in motion plans to create their own natural resource area. Community initiated ecotourism projects have also been started in Maputaland (Banganek), KaNgwane (Mawewe) and Gazankulu (Makuleke). Generation of income from conservation projects relies almost exclusively on what Jeremy Anderson, head of the KaNgwane Parks Corporation, calls homo sapiens superbus. Thus, with very few exceptions, conservation programmes rely primarily on tourism — including “non consumptive" trips for game viewing as well as "consumptive" safaris for hunters - in order to make a profit. "Uplifting our people is the biggest challenge facing the tourism industry of this country. If tourism fails to contribute to meaningful socio-economic improvement, we have lost the challenge," says 2 new Satour document. "By employing the principles of community participation, ecotourism can provide tangible benefits, to the disadvantaged, particularly in rural areas where it is most needed. The ultimate goal of ecotourism development is for it to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of our people, particularly those living in and around areas of particular ecological and cultural value, both through direct gain and economic spin-off. 6far, government funding made available at preferential inancing rates for-ecotourism development has been provided on he basis of the economic viability of the project rather than ider social objectives. Satour‘s financial director Mike abricius says Satour will lobby the parastatal Industrial evelopment Corporation, as well as other finance institutions, © ensure all applications for wildlife programmes adhere to the rinciple of community-participation, in addition raditional criteria of financial viability, be: is approved. This marks a dramatic policy shift for Satour, a state body that has traditionally formed part of a white establishment that has reflected little concern about the need for rural development. The organisation runs the most sophisticated tourism marketing on in southern Africa. It will be open to changes that redirecting foreign visitors - especially the growing of ecotourists - to projects that are either run by communities or those where local people _h: fective Partnership in the scheme. (Othér innovative policies could be suggested in regard to marketing and investment: a code could be Grafted that encourages investment in and visits to projects that contribute most effectively to rural reconstruction. The European Community's Blue Flag system - which grants an internationally recognised award and logo to beaches that meet strict environmental criteria - could be adapted for this purpose. Satour's hotel grading system should be re-examined in this ight) . Ecotourism is potentially a benign form of development. It relies on cooperation, negotiated agreements, solutions to local sources of friction, an atmosphere of peace. If the other factors that inhibit this kind of industry can be addressed, then ecotourism will be given a chance to play a part in reducing the social and economic factors that fuel much of the violence in South Africa today - especially at local and regional levels. B. THE PROBLEMS. There are, however, serious problems associated with this kind of tourism. These frequently result in projects failing to deliver the promised panacea. 1. LEAKAGES The most common factor that prevents ecotourism from redistributing wealth in rural backwaters is the leakage of profits out of the host country to developed countries as well as from the countryside to the cities. The World Bank estimates that 55 percent of tourist spending in developing countries eventually leaks back to developed countries. Some studies suggest that leakages of up to 90 percent of revenue generated by tourism may apply in countries that lack substantial local ownership of services such as airlines, hotels and transportation companies. A study conducted in Fiji, one of the most developed tourist resorts in the Pacific, found less than 25 percent of revenue from tourism actually stayed on the island. The rest went to 7multinational corporations who owned and controlled the industry. A magazine report estimates that some 70 percent of money spent by foreign tourists on a beach holiday in Kenya returns to developed countries. Another study claims only ten percent of tourism spending remains in Zimbabwe and more than two thirds of expenditure by tourists to the country's protected areas leaves the country to remit profits to foreign investors - although this figure has been disputed by a World Bank consultant, who estimates the level of leakages from Zimbabwe to be closer to one n every three dollars. "Leakages result from the continued need for imported skills, modities to serve the tourism sector, including foreign equipment (eg hotel equipment and supplies) and {increased oil imports for tourists’ transportation,” says Katrina "Additional earnings are leaked through the repatriation its from hotels, restaurants, ¢ Atel agenc: owned by foreign companies; expatriates invoived in mi tourism activities; and imports of consumer goods (rafts, kerosene, film, medicines, food, beverages) and advertising and marketing efforts abroad". : The situation is made worse in rural areas where local entrepreneurs and property owners lack the capital, skill and produce to provide supporting goods and services for local tourism ventures. Leakages out of the remote Annapurna region of Nepal, for example, to the country's urban regions is estimated at between 90 and 94 percent. “Often, it is easier to import expertise and products from urban areas and foreign countries to the remote ecotourism site than to develop expertise or products locally... Rural areas may have both higher economic leakages and Tower “multipliers' than urban areas. In most rural situations, the lack of rural enterprises translates into reduced ways for currency to stimulate local economies.". The problem of leakages has not been properly researched in South Ririca. The amount of revenue that flows out of the country to multinational operators and agents is probably not as great in South Africa as it is in other developing countries. This is due, primarily, to the fact that South Africa operates a competitive national airline and the hotel industry is owned predominantly by local companies - with the Southern Sun, Karos and Protea Hotel groups tending to dominate the sector. Ecot enterprises are run_either by state-backed conservation ai or by locally-owned companies, such @s the Conservation Corporation. Most of these agencies are committed, at least in theory, to the idea of ploughing a significant share of profits back into the local economy. ~ 2. LACK OF REGIONAL PLANNING A related impediment in the way of successful rural development through tourism is the failure to integrate ecotourism schemes into larger development plans. Examples abound of ecotourism projects that receive state subsidies only to be underutilised because they are inadequately marketed or because there are no roads or other forms of transport into the region. Local communities are often not given the appropriate legal and constitutional powers to participataeffectively in tourism and / \ i)elated economic activities. This lack of planning makes it easier for profits to be exported out of rural areas by urban and foreign operators. The St Lucia reviéw panel notes, .for example, that the Natal Parks Board's plans for ecotourism fail to say how the project will fit into an overall development plan for the region. Ecotourism, by its very nature, has limited linkages with other sectors of the rural economy and does not generate many additional local economic activities. Despite the optimistic claims of some commentators, it is possible for ecotourism projects to operate in relative isolation from the surrounding local economy. Capital, consumer goods and services can easily be imported from the outside. There is no economic imperative to link up with local industries, and this is a mejor reason for tourism's failure to stimulate further growth in some countries. B large decree of fragmen 5 nues ct efforts at creating 2 coordinated approacn to conservation and ecotourism in South Africa. The government's own White Paper complains of this, noting that responsibilities for the industry are currently dispersed between at least 10 government agencies: the Industrial » Development Corporation, the Ministry for Administration and Tourism, ‘the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Environmerftal Affairs, The South African Tourism Board, The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, and each of the country's four provincial authorities. In addition, there are at least 15 conservatioh agencies in South Africa. These are the National Parks Board; the Natal Parks joard; conservation authorities for the 10 "independent" or national" states set up under apartheid - Bophuthetswana, Ciskei, Transkei, Gazankulu, KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, Qwa Qwa and Venda; and conservation departments for the white" provinces of the Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Cape. Conservation and ecotourism has not escaped the process of balkanisation that has afflicted so many other aspects of South Afri¢a jlife - and this is likely to be a major factor behind the inabildty of the industry to prevent revenue from leaking out of rural areas. "While countries may be quick to promote ecotourism as a source of regional economic growth, promotion is often emphasised at the expense of planning. In many cases, a lack of integration at local level plans with national level policy has led to greatly reduced potential for ecotourism.” 3. VIOLENCE Satour predicts that plans to double the number of ecotourists visiting South Africa will be frustrated as long as the violence ~ continues. Ernie Heath, the organisation's chief director, says the country can expect a modest five percent increase in the next few months. The scope of the paper does not extend to the many complex causes of political violence in South Africa. However it is axiomatic that political reform and economic growth in South Africa are intrinsically connected: the one cannot proceed without the other. 4. EXAGGERATED ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE 9here are wide disparities in the economic performance of ecotourism schemes. Some, especially those run by the Conservation Corporation and some by the Bophuthatswana National Parks Board, are successful economically. Most other ecotourism schemes are not self-sustaining and rely on state subsidies to keep their facilities running. International tourism is highly competitive and susceptible to fluctuations in demand. This demands heavy investments in marketing ai “which, along with initial capital investments required to provide infrastructure —tgame—fences;—toayes, vehicles etc) for non-consumptive safaris, can involve costs not_always reflected in the statistics quoted by ecotourism practitioners. The Conservation Corporation says ecotourism isan industry which creates small business opportunities in the areas of laundry services, vegetable production, transportation, mechanics, medical and educational services, handicrafts, carpentry, construction and the supply of building materials. "The service industry is labour intensive with a wide range of skills required thus presenting opportunities for training and multi-skilling of the people from the local economies.” The paper examines some of the strategies devised by the corporation to promote these Kinds of spin-orf-eftects in rural areas that surround two of its most successful ecotourism projects. But there are initial indications that community benefits are overstated by tour operators, probably to attract political and financial support for ecotourism, while efforts on the ground to promote effective improvements in the local economy || )\ are neglected. tatistics compiled by the Conservation Corporation appear to inflate the potential performance of ecotourism-driven development. The corporation's recent report estimates that if 1 750 000 visitors come to South Africa from by the year 2000 - “and given the support of a new government, this is a conservative figure" - this will mean the creation of an additional 40 000 to 80 000 direct jobs. It adds that, with a multiplier effect of 10, this would indirectly support an additional 400 000 to 800 000 people, mainly in rural areas. But multiplier effects, especially those in underdeveloped rural areas, are frequently exaggerated. They are difficult to calculate with any accuracy and recent research shows that, unless there are well-developed strategies to create Linkages | & with other sectors of the rural economy, real job multipliers relating to ecotourism are likely to remain negligible. 5. LACK OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: POPULAR RESISTANCE ~ There are indications that not enough is being done to ensure effective participation and partnerships in these schemes. Unlike cattle farming or agriculture, ecotourism can involve a long turn-around time between initial investment and the production of tangible benefits. In situations where rural communities depend on maize and other types of farming for their day-to-day survival people simply cannot afford to wait a couple of years before they start reaping benefits from ecotourism. This is the case in many parts of South Africa where land scarcity along with the recent drought, which continues in some areas, forces people 10seek new lands for farming and grazing. All too often erators make a decision to initiate ecotourism projects on the jasis of their own feasibility studies without initially consulting with—all sectors of the affected community and discussing the range of land use options available to them. Recent history is replete with examples of popular resistance to tourism because conservationists and tour entrepreneurs are insensitive to this issue. Efforts to pull local communities into some form of participation in the project are often strategies in damage control, incidental rather than integral attempts at 6: '¢ genuine rural developmenr. SCS Consequently, the following @ common perception in rural areas: "Tourist development fails to materially benefit those most affected by conservation policy, the people most directly affected by land aco ions... Lack of community control over cf economic developmen: results imals and r w_trer ©f state conservation bodies, along pri slopers, instead of involving resident Communities és a third and equal Pp lienating these owners of land from Some control ove the development of their resources sustained bénefits from ecotourism." (Notes from a community-based workshop on ecotourism in Maputaland) . In the Transkei homeland, which lies between Natal and the Cape Province to the south, people from a community at the Holy Cross fission next to the Mkambati Game Reserve expressed their complaints about the management of the local tourist lodge in a novel way. It started with a wage dispute by the reserve's 150-strong workforce, who promptly locked the management of the reserve into one of its rustic chalets. Impromptu barricades were set up at the reserve's gates and fires were started inside the park as residents from the nearby community were bussed in to Support the workers. They added demands that land and homes they had lost because of the reserve's expansion should be returned to them. Similar sentiments can be found scattered across the South African landscape. When it comes to ecotourism in South Africa there is, in short, a gap of varying widths between rhetoric and practice. Unless it is bridged the industry's ability to act as a balsam, to heal the wounds of the past, will be neutralised. C. POLICY SUGGESTIONS 1. THE MACRO LEVEL Unless an effective mechanism for dealing with the legacies of forced removals and dispossession is found, the historical hostility of rural people towards conservation and other ecotourism projects has little chance of being reversed. South Africans are currently negotiating a new constitution and this provides an ,opportunity to include various rights, both individual and collective, that could improve the performance of conservation and ecotourism projects. Environmental organisations have pointed out that, under South Africa's system of Roman Dutch law, individuals do not normally have the locus standi that enables them to bring legal proceedings against agencies that qlact on their environment and natural resources in a negative “way. A powerful lobby is developing that argues this should change so that, in future, individuals will be able to use the law as a way of influencing how their natural resources are utilised. This kind of legal reform will also strengthen local communities when it comes to negotiations with conservation agencies about the establishment of ecotourism projects and the way in which they will be run. This could enhance the prospect for binding contracts to be created that will regulate relationships between various groupings affected by, and involved in, ecotourism schemes. Many organisations, including the ruling National Party and the ANC, accept a new constitution should make provision for an environmental ombudsman. Such an institution could be used to restrain conservation authorities and tourism entrepreneurs from unilateral initiatives - and encourage local communities to participate in the process of planning and managing such projects. This along with changes in the mechanisms to finance ecotourism schemes, suggested by Satour, would help mobilise popular support for these forms of rural development. The Zimbabwe experience has shown that broad legislative and constitutional reforms of this nature are necessary to create a supportive national context in which community-based ecotourism schemes, based on the conservation of wildlife, can operate. The essence of that country's Campfire programme is an attempt to harness the economic value of wildlife, which derives primarily from recreation and tourism, for the benefit of rural people. Legal changes allow locally elected councils to manage their own wildlife resources. This allows the local councils to lease hunting concessions to commercial safari companies as well as to manage and distribute revenue generated in this way. "It involves a genuine transfer of responsibility for wildlife to district councils, and - in theory, at least - to the wards and villages they are elected to represent. This has cleared the way for rural communities to begin to exercise some control over the management and use of their wildlife, and the distribution of the benefits it generated. In South Africa strong arguments in favour of communal arrangements - “indigenous or folk tenure systems that are usually held and farmed by individual households with community oversight of access and transfer" - are emerging. Communal tenure generally ensures greater support from the community and gives & greater sense of control to rural people. Indigenous tenure systems evolve and develop in response to local conditions and are, therefore, able to respond to local needs more effectively than imported systems of ownership. "Communal arrangements allow other involved right-holders - such as women and young people - to retain their stake in land use and transfer where private tenure gives a male owner absolute control." Such regulations are often administered, by local grassroots organisations and networks that operate below the level of formal organisations. Ecotourism projects that aim to promote community support and participation clearly need to identify these networks and work with them from the start if "top-down" and patronising approaches to development are to be avoided. Mandatory social impact assessments can be 12used as effective instruments to achieve this. Clearly it is also vital that there be rationalisation in the number of agencies charged with responsibilities for ecotourism and conservation, This will help to reunify fragmented ecological zones and prevent potential benefits from being reduced and dispersed. The conservation agencies have begun discussing the need for a more coordinated approach to their work and the possibility of institutional reform to overcome the artificial divisions created by apartheid. However, some of the most interesting efforts at community involvement in tourism have taken place in the independent or semi-independent homelands. New institutional arrangements should not stifle the creativity that stems from local innovation. (David Grossman and Louis Liebenberg have prepared 2 discussion paper for the Land and Agricultural Policy Centre which proposes a model for this). Land redistribution, constitutional and legal changes, adaptation of financing mechanisms, reorientation of marketing mechanisms and tenure reform are all macro changes at the level of national policy. Their combined effect would be to promote effective negotiation between local communities and ecotourism entrepreneurs who come into the area from the outside. These negotiations could then produce legally enforceable contracts to govern the relationships between the various stakeholders involved in tourism-based development schemes. This would help to create multiple~party resource management arrangements in which organisations representative of community groups are able to play a major role. Established mechanisms and procedures for resolving disputes would be established. Instead of burning barricades in the bush, and locking game reserve officials into their luxury chalets, people would be more willing to sit around a table, or a campfire, so that they can discuss solutions to their differences. 2. THE LOCAL LEVEL Campfire relies on stewardship or proprietary control over natural resources being devolved onto local community councils or organisations. "The need is to evolve institutions at the lowest possible level - that of the ward or the village - that create 2 moral, if not legal ‘ownership' and so encourage socially just management of the resource and distribution of the benefits...," says another report. "If individuals or communities simply become passive bystanders in_a process that eventually disgorges benefits_ta them, Campfire would merely substitute one form of dependency for another. Campfire projects rely on the ability of rural communities to articulate their own needs, and to take full responsibility for all aspects of wildlife management. This is why the agencies involved in Campfire projects emphasise the importance of building institutions that can directly involve rural people in decision-making, management techniques and the transfer of information at the lowest possible levels.” A recent assessment of Campfire notes, however, that a number of projects have failed to promote effective community participation in wildlife management because local village and ward committees 13 “ahave tended to be utilised as convenient mobilisation and implementation units of centrally conceived programmes and plans, rather than as participatory institutions for local development planning and implementation." The study argues that decision-making institutions created by Campfire frequently underestimate divisions within local communities and conflict between various strata over the use of wildlife resources. "In such situations, it becomes important-for institutions to develop that have the capacity to regulate the interests of the various streta". The author stresses the need to include a range of indigenous and traditional nisational networks in the nal "committee" type institutions. A number of projects have been initiated in different parts of the country which attempt to apply Campfire principles to local South African conditions. These programmes are fast becoming the dominant form of ecotou: reign and local visitors to the country's wildlife areas. Some of the key projects are summarised and evaluated in the paper. However, it is important to note that most practitioners have become acutely aware that South Africa conditions are very different to those in the rural areas of Zimbabwe. Settlements in, or around, conservation areas are frequently heavily populated and do not lend themselves to the relatively simple participatory mechanisms devised by Campfire programmes. Some settlements that border on game reserves are, in fact, located in peri-urban rather than rural areas where it is far more difficult to establish "proprietorship" or "ownership" by a relatively cohesive community over a given set of natural resources. In this context of congestion and scarcity, it becomes far more difficult to use resources from a game reserve to generate enough revenue to come anywhere near alleviating poverty and generating effective development. While the principles of Campfire are being emulated in South Africa, many conservationists have warned that simple importation and popularisation of these programmes could create unrealistic expectations among people affected by conservation programmes, thereby compounding the historical hostility that is directed at game reserves in this country. There is also a growing awareness in South Africa that efforts to promote community participation in development projects can enhance conflict and fragmentation. Instead of assuming an inbuilt inertia towards consensus, planners should assume their programmes will impact in different ways on stratified factions within poor "communities" and that varied and conflicting responses will be elicited from these groups. Before any development programme is even conceptualised, a detailed survey of the different stakeholder groups in each community should be conducted and the way their interests are likely to be affected by the development process should be outlined. Jacky Cock says social scientists can help ameliorate these problems by partigipating in social impact assessments (SIAs) . These studies are designed to identify potential conflicts and other effects of development plans on affected social groups. She points out SIAs are able to function as policy analysis, planning tools as well as investigations into the impact of development plans on communities. 14Ecotourism planners have suggested that environmental impact studies should be mandatory before any scheme is given official approval and financial backing, and that these studies should include an assessment of the project's social impacts. Project proposals based and the results of such studies should be made available to the public for review and conscious strategies should be devised to ensure that proper dissemination and open-ended discussion with a wide range of community groupings. D. CONCLUSIONS The sand dunes of St Lucia have become a symbol of victory for South Africa's environmental movement. Justice RN Leon, head of a panel set up to review the mineral company's environment impact sty d this when he concluded that mining be banned and the area declared a national heritage park because of its "rich history, ecological and apis jiversity”. But the dunes are more than jus! een emblem. Justice Leon's report marks the end of an era/in which industrialists have had a free hand to do as they wili\wieh the environment in the name of economic progress. And it emphasises that development has to take place in tandem with social justice. The review panel's opinion that nature-based tourism will be a more effective vehicle than mining for improving the livelihoods of people who live in the St Lucia area will reverberate in other areas of the country where conservationists compete with mining companies over how the country's landscape should be treated. However it should not be allowed to exaggerate the potential of ecotourism to solve the problems of this country's rural poor. Nor should it detract from the serious obstacles that need to be addressed if ecotourism can improve the livelihoods of people in selected rural areas. The paper suggests a numberp,policies that may help to ensure this. Presented to promote debate rather than offer prescriptive solutions, they include: 1. Land reform, the restoration of title wherever feasible to indigenous owners, so that rural people can participate effectively in decisions about whether their land is to be used for ecotourism schemes. 2. Legal and constitutional reforms designed to reinforce a feeling amongst local people that they are the proprietors, the guardians if not the owners, of the natural resources that exist on their land. 3. Practical displays, primarily through the creation of more carefully planned experiments in community-based conservation projects, that show in a practical way how people can improve their livelihoods by managing their resources in, to use the lexicon of the age, "a wise and sustainable way". 4. Support for forms of land tenure, including communal arrangements, that lend themselves more to sustainable use and can be less environmentally damaging than individual ownership. 5. The creation of new democratic institutions, which can operate alongside traditional tribal authorities, that will maximise peoples participation in local development projects. 6. Acceptance by so-called "mass democratic organisations" that 15ey need to demonstrate real support and an effective mandate from the groups they represent if they are to help make ecotourism projects achieve their full potential. 7. Skills training and support for community organisations to enhance the ability of their members to participate in ecotourism and natural resource management schemes - or, preferably, to run such projects themselves. 8. Acceptance that there can be no development without community involvement and that there has to be a concentrated strategy to ensure support and input from all sections of the community. should be based on an understanding that "communities" are, in reality, agglomerations of diverse an ious groupings and thet-each- of these suber tence development in diferent = and often contradictory = ways. i assessments for 211 ecotourism schemes. roject's environmental and economic implications, these studies should include in-depzh sociai impact assessments. They must facilitate a governmental and public review process as well as a method of denying development requests and mandating mitigation of impacts. 10. “Stipulations by finance institutions that social impact assessments designed to foster community partnership are a prerequisite for project support, as suggested by Satour. An m code could be devised to channel foreign visitors to community-based projects. Marketing mechanisms could be adapted to ensure effective redistribution of tourist spending. 11. A review of all legislation, including the Minerals Act, which gives the government and individual ministers the right to make unilateral decisions about how land and its resources are to be used. 12. A standardised approach to the implementation of ecotourism projects and rationalisation of the many different state, and parastatal, bodies currently involved in the administration of these. This reorganisation should be undertaken with the objective of limiting the leakage of revenue derived from ecotourism and associated activities out of the area and maximising the amounts available to stimulate local development. The rural poor of South Africa need real reconstruction a] rhetoric. There is a need to guard against romantic notions that| ecotourism is a magical panacea for poverty. For it to be used! as an effective tool in community development, requires a massive effort on the part of all those involved in the industry. Hopefully the paper is @ small contribution to that process. ends 16