Abstract:
Rural community participation in tourism-based developments in and around protected areas has emerged as a major trend in the Developing world during the last three decades. The basic design of rural community participation in tourism-based developments involves the empowerment of rural communities to participate in such a way in the planning and management of these developments that they have a greater level of control on the effects that these developments have on them and on their environment. The motivation behind the popularity of the approach towards participatory development stems from the dissatisfaction with the centrally driven, top-down type of development that originated during the previous century and out of a desire to purposefully involve rural communities to the extent where they can effectively and sustainably develop and manage their resources. The research of this study presents an analysis of the participation of the Mbila community of the Sodwana Bay National Park in the tourism-based developments of the region. The literature in the study revealed that the principal fundamentals of rural community participation in tourism-based developments reside in the empowerment of the community to be able to involve themselves sufficiently in the tourism-based developments of their region. The focus of the research was therefore on determining the quality of the empowerment that the Mbila community enjoy and on the subsequent levels of control that this empowerment provides them with. The research results revealed however, that although the community seems to be sufficiently empowered to legally participate in the tourism-based developments of their area, they are still not involved to the degree that this participation generates meaningful changes to their overall livelihood. The reasons for these low levels of participation include aspects such as the harshness of the physical environment and the subsequent limited development opportunities in the area; the prevalence of insufficient levels of education and training; difficulties experienced in the communication between some of the institutions and the presence of certain forms of restrictive legislation. The study argues that satisfactory levels of participation can only be achieved if these difficulties are overcome to the extent where they permit community participation that achieves the enhancement of the quality of life for the Mbila community. Copyright
