The mayor of Mbhashe Local Municipality, Councillor Samkelo Janda, said they are on a mission to change the well-known Collywobbles Vulture Colony area to become a nature reserve outside Dutywa.
Janda said this in a media briefing held at the Mbhashe Local Municipality Council Chamber, last week. He stated that this municipality had many plans to ensure that they develop the heritage sites of this municipality, including Collywobbles, where they keep vultures.
“We also post these precious sites on our websites, and we use our social media space so that whenever there is an activity that is taking place in those areas people can know about them. We also have pamphlets that we have produced as the municipality.
He confirmed that there are a number of institutions they are working with, including Vulture Counting with the Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT), Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA), which are also helping the municipalities to promote the areas of tourism in their areas.
“We are working with traditional leaders and the communities of these areas, because communities must also understand what we are doing. Fortunately, this area of Collywobbles has strong community leadership that wants to see it being developed.
“We are partnering with William and Mary University from Virginia; when we showed them Collywobbles they were very interested, and as a result they dispatched the researchers from this university to visit the area, last year. The aim of the visit was to see that area so that they could assist us in terms of how we could develop it.”
He added that when they interact with the communities, they said that given the fact that it is not well-managed, there is nothing that they benefit from about the birds that are there and the visits that are made by people.
“We agreed that that could work nicely if we can develop it into a nature reserve, so that the communities have a significant role to play and to protect the area; that was our first plan. We are just on the last lap of it now,” said Janda.
He said the second thing they are doing is to look for investors because the municipality alone will not be able to drive that development there, so they must look for a private partner that could work alongside the community, and then the municipality, as the government plays the role of facilitating and ensuring that their communities benefit from their own natural resources.
