The picturesque 175,000 hectares Garden Route National Park (GRNP) consists of the previously proclaimed Tsitsikamma and Wilderness National Parks; the Knysna Lakes Area; as well as the Indigenous Forest and fynbos areas previously managed by the Department of Forestry.
The GRNP started stakeholder meetings last week to develop a ‘desired state’ as part of its management plan review.
The ‘desired state’ sets out the strategic direction for the park and consists of a mission and high level objectives to help achieve the mission. A National Park management plan encourages a shared vision of managing for both current and future generations. The objective of a management plan is to ensure the protection, conservation and management of the protected area concerned in a manner consistent with the objectives of the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act (NEM: PAA).
Workshops were held in Tsitsikamma, Knysna and Wilderness respectively. There is a possibility of another workshop to discuss the ‘desired state’ to allow those stakeholders who could not make it to the first three meetings. After that more focus group meetings will be conducted from July onwards.
All members of the public, organizations, stakeholders and interested parties are encouraged to register on the SANParks website: https://www.sanparks.org/conservation/park_man/forms/reg_form.php
This will assist the project team to keep in touch with all the registered stakeholders regarding future meetings, announcements and feedback.
For more information, the public is urged to send an email to GardenRoute.NationalPark@sanparks.org
