HLUHLUWE GAME RESERVE - EDUCATION

 
Biodiversity Education is an integral aspect of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park Community Conservation Programme. The Community Conservation Programme for Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park is undertaken within the Park and with the 10 neighbouring amaKhosi (chief) wards adjacent to the Park.  

 It can be defined as "a process of community engagement, defining the opportunities, values and beneficiaries of nature conservation as a public good". The current Biodiversity Education Programme of KZN Wildlife in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park has grown out of, and been shaped by, 50 years of ‘conservation' practice and people interaction/ tensions in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Early Biodiversity Education interactions around Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park were dominated by law enforcement and the priority of the preservationists of that time, which was to "take such steps as will ensure the security and preservation of the animal and vegetable life in the reserve in a natural state". During the 1960's, Biodiversity Education in Imfolozi Game Reserve was seen as experiential learning excursions which, together with ‘show and tell' teaching methods, were to provide visitors with real-life wildlife encounters. Later on these programmes expanded to include the African Conservation Education Project,the African Chiefs Training Programme and the Trails Programme at Imfolozi Game Reserve, which provided the public with opportunities for trails into the designated Wilderness Area. With the development of the NPB Neighbour Relations Policy in 1992 and the focus on developing good relationships with neighbouring communities and on community development, the educational focus shifted to adult education which included more specifically institutional capacity building and literacy training.

In the past few years Biodiversity Education in HIP has come to be viewed as a participatory process of social change through diverse methods that enable us to address wide-ranging socio-ecological concerns with a diverse range of methods for school and community contexts. Some of the most pressing socio-ecological concerns include; poverty, gender inequality, lack of participation in natural resource management, deforestation and dwindling water supplies.

In response to these concerns, a number of key programmes have been developed. They include: The Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park neighbour partnership programme which includes the HUP Local Board;  The Hluhluwe nursery and schools greening programme; The Community-based tourism programme, the Community-based natural resource management programme and the Schools biodiversity education programme.

In taking a socially critical orientation to Biodiversity Education, KZN Wildlife in Zululand strives to contribute further towards the conservation of biodiversity, to promoting sustainable living practises and to social justice.