A meeting at Boesmansriviermond Town Hall to explore interest in starting a Sanparks Honorary Ranger programme in the nearby Woody Cape section of Addo Elephant National Park drew an enthusiastic crowd. At the same meeting, a delegation from the Khoi-san Traditional House in Ndlambe used the opportunity to highlight their need for access to heritage sites, some of which are in protected areas.
SANParks Honorary Rangers is the official volunteer organisation of SANParks. On their website (sanparksvolunteers.org) they note that over the past 10 years, they have provided SANParks with more than R248.6 million in public and business donations and volunteer support.
Kenton-on-Sea residents Doug and Stella Swanson are long-standing members and told the gathering on October 17 about the organisation’s history.
The movement dates back to 1902 when volunteers in the Kruger National Park helped full-time rangers with some of their tasks. The organisation was officially established in 1964 and in 1987 the Association of Honorary Rangers was formed with 301 founding members.
Rules, uniforms, insignia, and financial structures were adopted and as of 1988, Honorary Rangers were required to attend orientation courses to be accorded official appointments.
Today, there are over 2,000 SANParks Honorary Rangers – all volunteers – based in 31 regions around the country and working in 19 of South Africa’s national parks.
The kind of work the Sanparks Honorary Rangers do is very varied, from fundraising to public awareness campaigns and practical support in the form of personpower and equipment to supplement various conservation, tourism and environmental education needs within SANParks.
Members can participate in a wide range of projects to suit their preferences and skills such as organising catered bush camps, joining work parties to remove alien invasive plants in national parks, or doing duties in rest camps or at park gates in support of SANParks staff.
When they’re in training, new volunteers must have a qualified Honorary Ranger with them, Doug explained. Being a Sanparks Honorary Ranger involved weekend work, and during full moon, night-time work. To remain in the programme, volunteers must complete at least 50 hours of service a year.
Accommodation
There were some great benefits, such as dedicated accommodation at one of Addo’s rest camps when you’re on duty.
Because the meeting was to explore interest, there were no details of what kind of work volunteers would do at Woody Cape. However, Doug surmised that it might involve some alien vegetation clearing, or checking fishing permits.
A delegation from the Khoi-san Traditional House in Ndlambe used the opportunity to voice their need for access to heritage sites, some of which are in protected areas. Senior Headwoman Kaikhoes Dauakxoas Zelda Masimla said, “People living in Wentzel Park have been unfairly treated by rangers. We have been denied access to our own heritage sites.”
Masimla said the community had applied for permits to conduct rituals in protected areas that were also traditional heritage sites.
Doug Swanson thanked the delegation for their presence and for raising their concerns which he acknowledged as valid. He said, those kinds of negotiations weren’t within the mandate of the volunteer organisation and needed to be raised with Sanparks itself.
Speaking to Talk of the Town after the meeting, Kenton-on-Sea resident Dominique Santos, who is an anthropologist, said, “I think this moment – when there’s consideration of introducing an Honorary Ranger programme at Woody Cape – is an opportunity to not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Explaining what she meant, Santos, whose has acted as an advisor for heritage and youth organisation Return to Origin, said, “There’s not conscientisation around ongoing living heritage relationships with natural places – with water, with land.
“It’s not [necessarily] that the amaXhosa or the Khoi-San are historical parts of the landscape; they are in an ongoing, living relationship with it for the purposes of well-being, for sacred and ancestral purposes. There’s a real living, present community here of Khoi-san-descended people, Xhosa people, who have an interest in accessing and continuing to be in a relationship with the land and water of the Woody Cape.
“There’s an opportunity here, in any training programme that’s developed, for honorary rangers, to sensitise trainees to those cultural relationships, this living heritage. But there’s also an opportunity to include the community as honorary rangers.”
Santos suggested that instead of paying to become hnorary rangers, some community members could be sponsored to join the programme.
“In this way, young people within living heritage communities still engaging with the sites can also become honorary rangers and a community of honorary rangers could be built that is diverse.”
What happens next
Doug Swanson explained at the end of the meeting that the organisation and Addo Elephant National Park would be informed that there was indeed interest in the programme from the local community; would-be volunteers who had filled in the form at the meeting would be contacted and invited to apply to join the programme. Those accepted would undergo training and their volunteer work would begin.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, November 7, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
