The shocking findings of the EMS Foundation’s national field assessment of Provincial Nature Reserves have laid bare the decay and neglect of Eastern Cape conservation assets under the failing Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA).
These reserves are not only rich ecological assets but strategic economic infrastructure that, if properly managed, could generate significant provincial revenue, support rural livelihoods, and unlock sustainable tourism development.
Instead, gross mismanagement and years of neglect have turned much of the Eastern Cape’s protected land into abandoned wastelands where infrastructure has collapsed, poaching is threatening endangered species, and local communities are robbed of any potential benefits.
The victims of this failure are not only our wildlife and natural heritage but the thousands of Eastern Cape residents who have been denied jobs, local economic development, and tourism growth because the government refuses to acknowledge the true environmental and economic value of our natural assets.
The EMS Foundation report reveals that only a handful of reserves in the province remain functional, with most rated poor, very poor, or effectively abandoned. Disputes and delays cripple facilities at Dwesa-Cwebe.
[download report here]
Silaka and Great Fish suffer infrastructure collapse and alien vegetation overgrowth. Mpofu and Thomas Baines barely function on minimal support. Poaching, invasive species, poor access roads, and operational breakdowns are widespread.
But the research also proves that private and community partnerships work. The Mkambati Nature Reserve along the Wild Coast demonstrates a successful model where a community trust partnered with a private operator to deliver jobs, conservation outcomes, renewable energy systems, and eco-tourism revenue that flows directly into local development. This is precisely the kind of model the Eastern Cape should be scaling across the province.
The Democratic Alliance believes these reserves should be working economic engines that fund their own upkeep through tourism, eco-conservation revenue, and responsible partnerships. The DA will write to the MEC of DEDEAT, Nongqubela Pieters for immediate intervention to rescue our Provincial Nature Reserves. A comprehensive turnaround plan for failing provincial nature reserves must be tabled within 30 days. This plan must include a clear revenue model to ensure reserves generate sustainable income, a structured public-private partnership framework based on the successful Mkambati model, and a programme to upgrade tourism access roads to unlock rural economic potential.
Secondly, the DA will also be writing to the Chairperson of DEDEAT, Mawethu Rune, to ensure that the committee conducts oversight at all provincial reserves and that a special meeting of DEDEAT is convened to develop findings and recommendations in this regard.
The Eastern Cape cannot afford political neglect that keeps people trapped in poverty while economic opportunities remain untapped and under-developed. Conservation and economic growth are not opposing ideas. When managed honestly and efficiently, they strengthen one another.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve leadership that delivers a growing economy, not a shrinking wilderness of wasted potential and missed opportunities.