The monitors use EarthRanger technology with real-time data to pinpoint the exact location so that HiP officers can respond quickly before damage is done, such as livestock being preyed upon and crops being damaged. 

‘The monitors are from these communities, so the community knows them, and hiring them has certainly already made a difference,’ adds Nkwanyana, explaining an elephant had come through a breach in HiP’s game fence the night before but had fortunately walked back into the park. The HiP response team quickly mended the fence. 

Nkwanyana oversees 2 teams of community conservation monitors operating in several villages surrounding HiP. These teams are part of a 3-year WWF Nedbank Green Trust project launched in June 2024, called the Human-wildlife Coexistence, Cooperation, and Economic Integration Project in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. 

‘It is all about strengthening collaborations between HiP – with its incredible legacy as the oldest proclaimed wildlife reserve in Africa – and its neighbouring communities to the benefit of both,’ says Poovi Pillay, Executive Head of Corporate Social Impact at Nedbank.

The project is being led by PJ Roberts from the conservation non-governmental organisation (NGO), Wildlife ACT, which led a group from WWF South Africa and The WWF Nedbank Green Trust into and around the park. Roberts explains that besides the human-wildlife conflict which the monitors are helping to address, there is increasing pressure from the growing population, unemployment, and mining activities around the park. 

‘An integrated approach to conservation and community livelihoods is required, and this project therefore includes 2 NGOs: Wildlife ACT, who protects priority species and promotes human–wildlife coexistence in and around HiP; and People Nature Connect, who implements small-business development programmes to strengthen livelihoods and support income generation.’

For the past 17 years, Wildlife ACT has been working alongside Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which manages the HiP. Priority species they help monitor and manage include rhino, vulture, lion, African wild dog, leopard, cheetah, and hyena.

When a predator from the park kills livestock, government policy guides claims and the compensation process. However, the policy does not currently include compensation for animals living in the environment outside HiP, including hyenas, crocodiles, and leopards. This is currently under review.

The HiP Community Conservation Officer, Jetros Mthiyane, says: ‘Collaboration with NGO projects like these greatly assists the park with early detection, reporting, and rapid response when there are wildlife escapes, and it helps to reduce protests and complaints from our neighbouring communities. In some instances where there have been livestock deaths, we discovered that the livestock was killed by feral dogs – not wildlife.’

To help improve livelihoods within the communities surrounding HiP, the project identified 40 business owners for the WWF Nedbank Green Trust’s small-business development initiative. 35 of them are women, and the age group of all participants ranges from 20–69,’ says Bronwyn James of People Nature Connect, which works at the intersection of poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. ‘Part of our focus is empowering women, which is one of the best ways to improve economic circumstances in rural areas where migrant labour and social grants are the main income.’

James adds that the average household income of programme participants is about R5 590 per month, and the average grant income is R4 000. The average household size is 11–12 people.

We met Mrs Nomali Thwala in one of the park’s neighbouring villages who raises and sells chickens. Around 30% of the participating business owners involved in the project do the same because the low start-up costs for raising chickens – and local demand for poultry – makes it a more accessible option for rural entrepreneurs.

Other businesses in this area, as in most of our rural areas, include farming crops and selling cows, goats and sheep; managing spaza shops, informal eateries, and alcohol outlets; sewing; doing beadwork; having craft businesses; and supplying food to school feeding schemes. 

James explains that 87% of the participants in the small-business development programmes are women – and 35% of them are youth. She explains that one of the big issues is that many of the young people get qualifications in IT or from TVET colleges, but end up coming back to their villages because they couldn’t find work or other economic opportunities. 

Heading back towards the park, we passed Somkhele Anthracite Mine, a massive operation that leads all the way down to the White Umfolozi River, which is a key freshwater source in the region. The impact from mining on freshwater is a risk that needs to be prevented and closely monitored.

‘The health of ecosystems like freshwater is fundamental to everyone’s lives and livelihoods. A major goal of this project is to create connections so that communities become the custodians of their ecosystems and landscapes,’ explains WWF’s Samir Randera-Rees, who manages the WWF Nedbank Green Trust. ‘The communities around HiP benefit from the park’s management of freshwater resources that flow from the catchments through the park. But the mines are beyond HiP’s control.’

WWF-SA’s senior manager for area-based conservation, Angus Burns, adds that while the country obviously needs mining – the mining operations must be carefully managed. ‘HiP is encircled by mining and prospecting, which are increasing all the time. Left unregulated, the mining activities are a threat to vital water resources and the natural environment,’ Burns explains.

‘To help address this, an NGO sector group and WWF came together a year ago to approach mining more sustainably,’ he explains. ‘This involves making sure that communities and watchdog groups have the right procedures and administrative checks in place when it comes to mining and prospecting. The goal is to build partnerships and community support, share useful information and support responses, skills development and holding companies accountable.’

Rangers at the Hilltop Camp explain that they spend most of their time on managing rhino anti-poaching. Thanks to the funding from WWF and attempts to reduce poaching, HiP’s black and white rhino populations were dehorned and their DNA gathered. 

Ursina Rusch, the population manager for the WWF South Africa Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (BRREP), explains that dehorning the rhino requires a huge field team and helicopters, and must be repeated annually.

BRREP is a longstanding, very successful project with a comprehensive black rhino DNA data bank. Over the past 2 decades, it has established 18 black rhino populations in South Africa and 1 in Malawi. They are now looking at expanding to Botswana and Zambia. ‘We have translocated 400 rhinos across the expansion sites and secured 380 000 ha of rhino habitat,’ Rusch explains. ‘It requires intensive population management, based on genetics, age structure and sex ratios. Space is the biggest challenge as black rhinos are very territorial.’

Experiencing the magnificence of HiP and the many people working so hard to find solutions for the immense pressures on its wildlife and neighbours, we applaud all the NGOs who work tirelessly to achieve a collaborative future for conservation and communities.