Education Bursaries 2008 - Enos Mngomezulu

The Wilderness Trust is already acknowledged as a leader in the educational process thanks to innovative programmes that aim to educate the youth of Africa, inspiring and assisting them so that they can continue to preserve their magnificent natural heritage. The Trust funds bursaries for students either at graduate or post graduate level in the wildlife and environmental fields.

Education Bursary Recipient 2008 - Enos Mngomezulu

Enos Mngomezulu is known to many guests of Pafuri Camp in the Kruger National Park as a quietly spoken, very knowledgeable guide. He has received a bursary from the Trust to study Natural Resource Management at the Southern African Wildlife College. The overall aim is to have someone within the Makuleke community trained with the knowledge necessary to manage the resources of the Makuleke concession in the Kruger National Park.

The year-long certificate course provides the following outcomes in a conservation management environment and application:
- Supervise operational situation in order to maximise efficiency and effectiveness.
- Exercise leadership of people involved in operational situations in order to enhance their performance and productivity.
- Implement, supervise and evaluate management planning practices, e.g. integrated catchment management, plant and animal management, security and legal aspects, cultural heritage management and tourism development in order to monitor progress and performance against goals.
- Undertake supervisory and operational functions while continually monitoring and adapting own performance as required.
- Use firearm competently and maintain area integrity.
- Develop a set of values and ethics regarding conservation and environmental issues.
- Implement policies regarding HIV/AIDS in the workplace.
- Maintain infrastructure in conserved areas.
- Understand ecosystem components and processes.
- Promote conservation understanding through cooperation with local communities and environmental education.

In his own words...
I am a member of the Makuleke Community that was forcibly removed from the so-called Pafuri Triangle in 1969, when it was added to the Kruger National Park, and resettled in the area of Nthlaveni some 100km away. Although not yet born at that time, my parents were young adults and were part of the removals. Since 1998 we have succeeded in restoring ownership of the land to the community in the form of the Makuleke Communal Property Association (CPA) and we have implemented several programmes and processes to increase and improve capacity within the community to administer and manage our asset in a responsible and sustainable way, both in the environmental and financial context.

To this end some 20 young members of the community have been through University of South Africa (UNISA) diplomas and degrees in various environmental and financial fields and are now gaining experience in various fields in the ecotourism industry in particular. Currently the Pafuri Triangle is jointly managed as a contractual park with the Kruger National Park responsible for conservation activities, private concessionaires for ecotourism and commercial opportunities and the Makuleke CPA comprising 50% of the Joint Management Board. Ultimately it is vital for the long term sustainability of the area that we, as a community, are able to manage all functions of the area ourselves.

Accordingly, and as one of the members of the community fortunate enough to be guided through UNISA and other qualifications, I see it as a personal responsibility to obtain the necessary skills and experience in this field and to contribute to the sustainability of our communal heritage and asset. Since completing my UNISA diploma in Nature Conservation I have worked at two private lodges in order to gain experience in the ecotourism field. This has entailed a year-long stretch at Entabeni Lodge and more than two years at Pafuri Camp within the Makuleke Contractual Park. While the skills I have obtained in the employ of the aforementioned lodges are invaluable in the ecotourism business, I have not been involved with hands-on conservation management. I feel I am now sufficiently fluent in an ecological and environmental understanding of the area and its management needs to benefit comprehensively from further studies, including the practical implementation of theoretical conservation skills.

As a result I intend completing the certificate course in Natural Resource Management offered by the premier conservation skills training provider in South Africa, the Southern African Wildlife College.