Purpose of Old School Birding Club

Old School Birding Club is a tourism development initiative, put in place by PROJECT WORK, within the  Umkhanyakude district Municipality  ( Elephant Coast ) in North East Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa

This project came about as a job creation tactic for project work, where the many different local communities will be introduced to tourism opportunities, focusing  on eco-tourism, agri-tourism,  birding related tourism, cultural related tourism  and the hospitality industry that comes along with all tourism related matters.

Old School Birding Club will act as the catalyst to get the many different local communities to work together as one big team, where visitors to the area will experience the vastly varied landscapes, ecosystems and cultural identities that make up the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site along the eastern Seaboard of KZN South Africa

The current situation where the local population is excluded from the tourism mix, due to them not having a tourism product suitable for the international tourism market will be addressed through the gradual development of birding friendly tourism products such as bird hides, walking trails and nature based tourism as well as cultural and historical tourism initiatives.  The Old School Birding Club is in place to set up and manage a tourism initiative called old school birding Route, which will be a collection of all the above mentioned activities along with accommodation and other hospitality ventures like restaurants, bars and live music venues.

These activities and related infrastructures will be managed through a co-operative style management structure that will run a collective bookings office  and information distribution network, which will enable local rural folks to assimilate into the current tourism structures in an organized and well managed manner.  The tourism potential of Umkhanyakude District Municipality is huge, as there are no factories or industrial development nodes within the area,  leaving nature based tourism as a very easy option to pursue.

Problem is how ever that the formal tourism industry currently sees these folks as an irritation, and potential competitors.  Old School Birding Club is working on this and we hope to instill the idea that the more tourism products available, the more tourists we will be able to please.  More happy tourists will mean more folks coming to the area, thus increasing the size of the market considerably.  The first step is to get the domestic tourism market functional and making money, then the international sector will soon follow, as international tourists want to do what the domestic tourists do.

International tourists  do not appreciate being misinformed and showed one side of the story, which is not actually the truth, but a disguised version of the truth which the elite want to show the world, only to come home and see a vastly different picture on TV where hunger and deprivation are the main show.  Doing things this way and allowing the local rural folks on the ground to benefit directly from tourism has many beneficial outcomes, with crime reduction, poverty alleviation,  job creation, cost effective improved nature conservation tactics, improved roads, better education systems, higher community standards and so much more.

The purpose of old School birding club is thus to put this community development strategy in place and get the folks within the rural areas of Umkhanyakude District Municipality working within the formal tourism industry, through Old School Birding Route, as is envisioned in the Tourism development white papers of KZN and Central Governement.  

by Frankie2ocks  

 

 

IWPA set to demolish working infrastructure. Why ?

visit the official site of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority
Official web site for the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority

I found  a link to  this in FaceBook  http://zululandobserver.co.za/153111/demolition-works-st-lucias-estuary-beach/?fb_action_ids=1632876876763099&fb_action_types=og.comments  

Does anybody know when the Public Participation Process Meetings for this proposed development were held ?

In my opinion this should never have been allowed, as the development will have a very serious night light footprint, which will be bad for TURTLE BREEDING as has been demonstrated every time that the public asked for development in this zone.  This light pollution impact has been used as the primary reason,to block all development along the beach front of St. Lucia for many years

How is it that when the IWPA want to do stuff there is a different set of rules to when the public want to do stuff ?  The #PPPM (Public Participation Process Meetings) for these developments that I am hearing about that are meant for the St. Lucia Estuary and St. Lucia Beachfront seem to be held in private or secret, coz nobody seems to know about them untill after the fact.  I have personally sent the IWPA a request to be registered as an interested and affected party to all their public participation  process meetings for all developments within the park, but have yet to be informed of any of the MANDATED PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS MEETINGS.

Next question is,  are these esturine developments included in the St. Lucia Estuary Management Plans,   as is mandated in the #ICMA or Integrated Coastal Management Act, chapter 4, sections 33 and 34, and chapter  5 sections 34 to 42? –

Then of course there is the rather pertinent question of  why is the St. Lucia Estuary management plan not included in the various local municipalities IDP’s or the Umkhanyakude District Municipalities IDP so that things like human settlements and agricultural development within  the St. Lucia Estuary water catchment zones can be addressed from the central and provincial government levels, through the correct government departments, such as environmental affairs, human development, agriculture, water affairs, tourism and others.  see this youtube video discussing sediment traps (or lack of sediment traps) in the St. Lucia Estuary water Catchment zones and the Umfolozi river system.

see also this youtube video which is a eye opener….

It is my opinion that Andrew Zaloumis during his time as CEO of the iSimangaliso Wetland park , made things very difficult for others to work with him, and always used the status of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park as a World Heritage Site to bully and intimidate others into stepping down and not pursuing the agenda that they had been mandated to pursue.  Here we are talking about structures like the Coastal Management Committee, who are mandated to ensure that Estuary Management plans are in place, but have yet to hold public participation process meetings for the St. Lucia Estuary Management Plan here within the Mtubatuba Local Municipality.

The evidence of political interference is open and there for all to see, how ever taking action seems to be somewhat difficult, as there are so many different laws and legislation that the IWPA hide behind, which are extremely cumbersome and rather expensive to penetrate, due to the political connections that Andrew Zaloumis  (as the Park CEO)  has, from his past as an ANC supporter during the 1980’s and 1990”s before the change of government.

These are complicated matters, that need to be addressed by COGTA, how ever my past experience attending the Mtubatuba Local Municipality IDP revealed that COGTA does not have the MUSCLE POWER or TEETH to force the IWPA and its CEO Andrew Zaloumis to tow the line. Instead Andrew Zaloumis was seen as the leader and pushed all attempts to work in a cooperative manner under the bus, and simply bulldozed his ideas through due to political posturing and political support along with political directives from the highest levels possible. (READ CORRUPTION)

It is time that us ordinary folks got together and stopped #UNCLEANDREW in his tracks.   Perhaps now that Andrew Zaloumis is not in town, and there is an INTERIM CEO for the IWPA we may have a chance, provided we act in the next few weeks.

Please consider supporting us, as the ARBU (Association of Recreational Beach Users) morally by signing our online petition here, then asking your friends and acquaintances to also sign this petition.

 

Authored for iSimangaliso.org by #FRANKIE2SOCKS aka Frank Gainsford

also authored by Frankie2socks   — 4x4ban.blogspot.com   4ubrand.blogspot.com