• ASF At Work
    ASF At Work

iSimangaliso Wetland Park

The relationship with the ASF team and the Bhangazi community who live in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in Maputaland, South Africa, goes back many years.

Between the 1950s and 1970s, the residents of what is today known as the Eastern Shores of Lake St Lucia were forcibly removed from their ancestral land. This resulted in a post-apartheid land claim that was settled in 1999 through cash compensation, a right to a percentage of gate takings, traditional access to graves and other heritage sites, and development rights to a portion of land on the southeastern shore of Bhangazi Lake.

The ASF provides technical advice to the community trust regarding the development and operation of the Bhangazi site. The ASF is also working with the iSimangaliso Wetland Authority to develop other community-linked tourism opportunities in one of the gem’s in South Africa’s conservation-based tourism crown.