Celebrating Our National Parks

A recent analysis of 157 game parks in Africa found that 14 of the continent’s Top 50 parks are based in South Africa. PSM speaks to South African National Parks (SANParks) to discover more about its efforts to conserve our country’s wilderness areas and maintain the parks’ reputations as world-class tourism destinations.

- Dale Hes

In June, tour company Safari-Bookings.com analysed more than 2 300 visitor and industry expert reviews to determine the Top 50 parks in Africa. Of the 14 South African parks identified in the list, six were national parks – the Kruger National Park, Hluhluwe-MfoloziPark, Addo Elephant National Park, Augrabies Falls National Park, Mountain Zebra National Park and Karoo National Park.

SANParks is responsible for managing South Africa’s national parks, ensuring that both the environment and surrounding communities benefit.

“It’s always welcomed when the industry recognises SANParks, and in this instance being compared with the Top 50 in Africa is indeed a great achievement, especially given that six of the Top 50 are within the SANParks stable,” says SANParks chief communications officer Janine Raftopoulos.

The increasing importance of national parks

National parks have, in the past, been seen mainly as spaces for conservation. But since the turn of democracy, these parks are increasingly being viewed as opportunities to create jobs and stimulate economic growth in rural areas.

“We have seen a shift in the role national parks are playing. They are becoming areas that are important conduits for government to deliver its mandate and ensure that conservation is a viable contributor to social and economic development, of rural areas in particular,” Raftopoulos explains.

SANParks’ business operations are therefore based on three core pillars, namely conservation responsible tourism and socioeconomic transformation.

Apart from providing full-time jobs to people working in conservation, tourism, hospitality, media and administration, national parks are also contributing strongly towards Expanded Public Works Programmes (EPWP).