iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, together with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), hosted the Global Wildlife Program (GWP) Learning Exchange Workshop from the 2nd to the 05th of June 2025 at Mkuze, under the theme “Building Blocks for a Thriving Nature-Based Tourism Sector”. This workshop brought together government representatives working on nature-based tourism development from approximately 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
The aim of the workshop was to support countries in developing commercially viable nature-based tourism sectors that will create jobs and positively impact the economic development of local communities, through empowering people, building capacity, and enhancing biodiversity conservation. This learning exchange workshop was one of the tools used to bring together representatives from countries developing their nature-based tourism sectors to share lessons and experiences Amongst many international dignitaries, this event was attended by the Deputy Director General (DDG) of the DFFE Ms Flora Mokgohloa, the CEO of iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority Mr Sibusiso Bukhosini, and the World Bank Manager Ms Lisa Arroway.
This initiative is part of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Project implemented in South Africa by the DFFE and its Entities (SANBI, SANParks and iSimangaliso) under the theme “Catalyzing Financing and Capacity for the Biodiversity Economy around Protected Areas”, supported by the World Bank. The DDG Ms Mokgohloa in her opening remarks, expressed how delighted South Africa is to host such a workshop to deliberate on global matters relating to nature-based tourism. “We have about 20 countries that are attending this Global Wildlife Program from various continents, such as Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa and more. We are all gathered here so we can look into how far we have come in the implementation of various initiatives, especially in relation to nature-based ecotourism in South Africa and also learn what other countries are doing to ensure nature-based tourism contributes to job creation, growing the economy and in improving the livelihood of the people across the globe”, said Ms Mokgohloa.
The CEO of iSimangaliso, Mr Sibusiso Bukhosini said that such workshops will enhance relations between countries. “We believe that looking at conservation and its unpleasant history in our country, we have a lot to do in terms of transformation, which I call the paradigm shift in conservation. If we are going to implement and conduct conservation successfully in this era, we cannot continue to use traditional and militaristic approaches, but rather a holistic approach. This paradigm shift is about making sure that there are benefits that are reaped by communities by creating co-existence between the Park and communities living adjacent to the Park. This means that beyond creating employment opportunities, benefit sharing through the creation of business opportunities should be implemented that allows community members to manage benefits, that will ensure this co-existence,” said Mr Bukhosini.
During the GWP workshop, through an insightful Park tour, iSimangaliso showcased some of its attractive ten jewels and projects that are being implemented through the GEF funding. These projects include boats, boat replacement engines, safety equipment and snorkelling equipment that were bought for three concessionaires from Madlangula community. They have also been empowered with business related training, marketing and business incubation which includes exposing potential tourists to their activities through the iSimangaliso website as well as compliance documents to operate at Kosi Bay Lake. The GWP dignitaries were also taken for a site visit where they witnessed some of the great work that has been done by iSimangaliso through the GEF funding. The iSimangaliso team led by Mr Bukhosini, took the GWP attendees to the Mkhuze section of iSimangaliso Wetland Park with an aim of giving international guests a feel of the Park. They were then taken to Madlangula to see the boats that were bought through the GEF funding and also visited KwaDapha Homestays that iSimangaliso is currently rehabilitating. iSimangaliso has already started working with other countries such as Mozambique and Swaziland through Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA).
The World Bank Manager Ms Lisa Arroway, said that the objective of this workshop was to bring countries together that have a high level of expertise and experience on nature-based tourism practices so they can share their experiences and insights with each other to improve the flow of funds for conservation and communities. “We identified countries that have good practices to share on different parts of developing nature-based tourism and equally identified countries that may be having challenges so they could learn from those with good practices. Therefore, part of what we do under the Global Wildlife Program, is to get countries to exchange their experiences with each other and benefit from each other through learning how to improve the development of nature-based tourism within their respective countries,” said Ms Arroway.
One of the attendees from Kenya, Mr Victor Matsanza said that he is honoured to be part of the GWP workshop. He continued saying, “This had been a wonderful workshop. It has been very good in ensuring that as leaders we understand what we can give to communities through projects within the tourism industry by coming up with a proper way of implementing projects for the benefit of our communities. A lot of us have good plans, but communities need to have something that they can take back home to support their livelihoods therefore this setup of nature-based tourism is a great intervention. There are many lessons that I have learnt, one of them being how we can integrate technology, so that we can add value given the dynamic nature of technology”.
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-End- Statement issued by iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority Media enquires: MLO: Mr. Bheki Manzini Call/WhatsApp: 060 533 2082 Email: bhekimanzini@isimangaliso.com
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