Strengthening relationships to keep national parks safe
|Published
Cape Town - More than 30 rangers will be deployed to Table Mountain National Park, including Seam (Sea, Air, Mountain) teams, which are specialised members to monitor security patterns and incidents as we head towards the Easter weekend and school holidays.
Among efforts to combat syndicates operating in the area was the handover of a drone by the Western Cape Government’s (WCG) Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety (POCS) to assist with aerial surveillance and help SANParks rangers during search and rescue operations.
This follows the recent handover of drones to the Cape Winelands, Overberg, Garden Route and West Coast District Municipalities.
Among its high-tech functions, the drone, valued at about R18 000, includes a hand held control, an on-board camera, a visual screen, and recording ability.
The drones were donated to the POCS by the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, to sharpen crime fighting efforts.
Reagen Allen, MEC for Police Oversight and Community Safety, said: “As the WCG, we are committed to empowering our partners and stakeholders, to assist them with their crime-fighting efforts and bolster their disaster management capabilities.
“This technology will allow SANParks to have greater reach, with an additional ‘eye in the sky’ over our mountain, slopes and hiking trails.
“Creating safer spaces across the province remains a priority of the WCG. We will continue to incorporate and utilise technology in our war on crime.”
SANParks manager Megan Taplin said partnerships were key to the successful fight against crime in the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP).
This week, SANParks, head of Communication, JP Louw, said it was the man on the ground in communities who helped to fight and curb syndicates operating at national parks, especially the TMNP, which has been plagued by robberies and attacks.
Ahead of the festive season, park crime-related incidents peaked at 33 in November 2023 and came down to six in December and one in January.
Louw said placing more boots on the ground for the Easter period and working with the community was key and that the strategy had already shown positive results.
“For TMNP we are looking at 30 rangers (Easter period),” he said. “We have in the range of 40 to 50 of what are called tourism monitors, that is a project which has been made possible by the Department of Tourism.
“We have a Seam team which is a specialised safety team and we are looking at doubling the team. They are just a little under 20 members and we want to push that close to 40 and improve the equipment they have.
“We are looking at the general personnel who manage the park, to close that gap, so your field rangers can focus on the work they have to do.
“We have established relationships with the police. We have launched the Table Mountain National Safety Forum which includes us and the City and the police.”
He added that while rhino poaching was a concern at the Kruger National Park, they were satisfied with the decrease in poaching cases: “With that being said, we have been receiving satisfactory sentences for poaching.
“The latest reports for rhino poaching show Kruger National Park is no longer on top of the list for this issue.
“This is an indication that the approach we have adopted from the management side and based on partnerships is working.
“We also rely on the relationship of the communities living in the surroundings and we have invested much into that. We have a whole division called social economic transformation, whose primary role is to look at the relationship with communities adjacent to the parks.”
Pierre Nel, Senior Section Ranger at West Coast National Parks, SANParks, said their teams also monitored poaching of oysters, crayfish and abalone on the marine life and conservation in the park.
