Click on the image to view a map of the Wild Coast area.

The Wild Coast Conservation and Sustainable Development Project is now complete and the final documents can be downloaded from this site. 

The Pondoland region of the MPA Hotspot was the focus of a recent strategic environmental assessment that identified priority conservation areas and developed a detailed plan of action to reconcile the extraordinary beauty of the region, the unique cultural attributes of its inhabitants, its globally unique biodiversity and the very real need for responsible and sustainable economic development. The compilation on this action plan, was under the auspicious of an inter-governmental and multi-stakeholder forum called the Wild Coast Conservation and Sustainable Development Project, which was jointly project managed by the Wilderness Foundation and WWF SA. The GEF (UNDP) has funded the implementation phase of this project which will be project managed by the Eastern Cape Parks Board, who will work with local stakeholders and organizations active in the region to see the objectives of this project become a reality. The GEF committed funding will assist to expand the existing protected areas in the Wild Coast bio-region as well as to support capacity building programmes.

There is a current need to complement this initiative by creating a network of stewardship corridors linking these core protected areas. The creation of stewardship corridors will meet a major project objective: to create an integrated land-use plan for the region that nests biodiversity conservation and sustainable use objectives into the regional local economic development framework. The proposed Conservation International MPA Stewardship Trust will provide funding to negotiate and draw up stewardship contracts with landowners in priority biodiversity areas in the region, and provide the necessary incentives to achieve these contracts, from land rehabilitation to assistance in developing conservation-based livelihoods on the properties.

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