Pretoria - It is worrying that only a small percentage of black South Africans visit the country's National Parks, says Water and Environmental Affairs Minister, Buyelwa Sonjica.
Speaking at the launch of National Parks week at Addo National Park in the Eastern Cape on Monday, Sonjica said several visitor profile reports in the country's national parks show that certain groups were largely absent among visitors.
"If we were to look at our visitor figures from the last two years, we would see that only a small percentage of black South Africans visited the National Parks. We should be extremely worried about the glaring disparity in national parks' visitation between various racial groups," she said.
Without greater visitation and interest among other sectors of society, national parks are only likely to be known by a smaller segment of society which is undesirable and unacceptable. Sonjica added that the survival of the national parks system, natural and heritage, truly lies with the people of South Africa.
"As a people, we have always been land-based communities living in harmony with nature for generations. This spiritual attachment to the soil, the trees, the animals and the sun, has been the basis of our value system. It stands to reason then that our parks as the national treasure of our people must appeal to us all, irrespective of the shade of your skin."
The major challenge for national parks is to make them more accessible and appealing to an increasingly multicultural society.
Sonjica hoped the National Parks Week, which kicks off on Monday, would provide much needed opportunity to establish a real multicultural visitor profile and also assist in the development of a deep sense of national pride, which will result in building stronger constituencies and ambassadors of conservation and the environment through affordable local holiday destinations.
The minister believes the theme of the campaign "Know Your National Parks" signifies an admiration for the scenic surroundings and the coming together to promote the guarding of ethnic environment, natural resources and shared heritage.
