Abstract
M.Sc.
The establishment of conservancies and collaborative nature reserves is often promoted
without understanding the impact that such initiatives have on the environment, the wildlife
and landowners. This tack of knowledge has resulted in the landowners' non-awareness of
the advantages and disadvantages of establishing such entities and often leads to
disillusionment.
A conservancy is established by informal agreement between various landowners to
enhance the conservation status of a specific area without affecting the owners' individual
rights. A collaborative nature reserve is established as a result of a format agreement
between landowners to manage and administer their collective land as a single unit. The
agreement typically addresses issues such as the management systems, the methods to be
utilised for income generation, the distribution of surpluses amongst landowners and the
rights and privileges applicable to the landowners. The scope of this study has been limited
to the establishment of conservancies and collaborative nature reserves between game
ranchers and existing game ranches.
A literature study was undertaken to determine the advantages and disadvantages of
establishing collaborative nature reserves, including a comparative analysis of large versus
small conservation areas. Practical research was done to determine the implications,
advantages, disadvantages and landowners' perceptions pertaining to the establishment of
collaborative nature reserves. The practical research was done by personal observation
methods as well as the use of questionnaires.
An existing and successful collaborative nature reserve was studied intensively to meet
these objectives. This reserve includes the land of twelve individual landowners and also
forms part of a greater conservancy.
The establishment of collaborative nature reserves can solve the problems created by
separate game ranches, especially that of the compartmentalisation of grazing areas for
game. Careful pre-planning can surmount the negative aspects of establishing collaborative
!lature reserves and the advantages can be maximally utilised.