Addo Elephant National Park

Expanded Public Works Programme

The Expanded Public Works Programme in Addo Elephant National Park (AENP) is made up of three projects:

• Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism (DEAT) Poverty Relief Project
  
• Working for Water Programme
  
• Coast Care Project

DEAT Poverty Relief Project

The total DEAT poverty relief grant in the AENP thus far totals R78, 914, 514 (approx R79 million) and consisted of two phases: February 2001 to April 2004 (R55,867,000) and February 2005 to March 2007 (R23,047,514).

A total of 275,864 mandays have been spent and a total of 753 people were employed on the poverty relief projects. All labour was sourced from local communities adjacent to the AENP in accordance with the Expanded Public Works Programme criteria.

Training of the local community members is an intrinsic part of the poverty relief programme in order to equip people with the skills necessary to find further employment when exiting the project.

The poverty relief programme has included the following work: road construction, road maintenance, old fence removal, new predator-proof fence erection, unwanted structure removal, rehabilitation of areas and eradication of invasive alien plants.

The construction of Camp Matyholweni and the new southern access road were part of this poverty relief project.

Without the poverty relief grants by DEAT, development of the new areas incorporated into the AENP would be impossible. The projects are vital in terms of rehabilitating newly incorporated land for the purpose of reintroducing wildlife and expanding the conservation area of the AENP.

Working for Water Programme

Funded by the Department of Water Affairs, the aim of the Working for Water Programme (WfW) is to eradicate and control invasive alien plants, as well as provide employment and skills training to previously unemployed people in local communities.

Through controlling invasive alien plants, WfW aims to increase biodiversity and increase the water runoff in catchment areas.

The programme operates throughout the Park, with the main target species being black wattle, eucalyptus species, jointed cactus, lantana, bramble and rooikrans.

The current allocation for WfW in the AENP is approximately R2.7 million (2005/6 year).

For more information, contact the Project Manager, Bruce Taplin, at brucet@sanparks.org

Coast Care Project

The DEAT-funded Coast Care project in the AENP has been allocated R5 million over a three year period (2005-2007).

120 people previously-unemployed people have been employed on this project to clean up the coastal area of the AENP. Work also includes maintenance on the Park’s Alexandria Hiking Trail.

Skills training is also an important part of this project. Communities involved are those closest to the coastal areas of the Park: Colchester, Alexandria, Kenton-on-Sea and Bushman’s River.

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