Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Environmental management is becoming an increasingly popular phrase as businesses, organisations and communities are becoming more environmentally conscious.Conservation areas are under a significant amount of pressure from stakeholders to deliver effective collaboration and co-management strategies.What was previously understood as fragmented and underdeveloped, environmental conservation areas are now moving towards becoming decentralised, self-regulated and holistic in nature.Previously discouraged public involvement has now come to the forefront of government's focus as public entities can aid in providing promised service delivery to conservation areas.As environmental conservation areas consist of a variety of ecosystems distributed throughout South Africa, this research focuses on three different conservation areas.The aim is to compare different managerial systems across the boundaries of conservation management in the context of international case studies, the South African government, as well as policy mandates already in place in the conservation areas.The purpose of the study is to compare different collaborative approaches by assessing the managerial methods within each of the chosen conservation areas.The overall purpose is to assess the various levels of stakeholder involvement by evaluating the levels of participation between the comanagement areas and stakeholders involved.A biosphere reserve, a water management system, and a land management system were studied.For the biosphere reserve case study, the Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve was investigated.The Breede-Overberg Catchment Management Agency was studied for the water management system case study, and the Nuwejaars Wetlands Special Management Area was explored for the land management system case study.The methods used within this research comprised of conducting a literature study, as well as conducting interviews with various participants from each of the conservation areas involved.It was discovered that the Cape West Coast biosphere reserve functions as a non-governmental organisation with numerous exchangeable stakeholders.The Breede-Overberg catchment management agency is government orientated with the South African government as the main stakeholder.The Nuwejaars Wetlands special management area was established as being a private organisation with a Land-Owners Association.Research designs used include the evaluation research design and conceptual analysis design.The results of the study showed that conservation areas within Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za possible without the assistance, support, collaboration and contributions of the following people and/or institutes: Prof JJ Müller for supervision. The Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve
Author: Raelene Renee Page
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2154197824