ABSTRACT
For many decades, tourists have enjoyed their visits to South Africa's impressive network of national parks. Since the advent of democracy in the country, much has changed for the better with regard to access to these precious conservation resources and the way in which they are managed. But the tourist who enters the rugged desolation of the Richtersveld National Park, or admires the unique beauty of the Makuleke region of the Kruger National Park, is unlikely to realize one other key change. These conservation areas are not owned by South African National Parks (SANParks). Instead, they belong to communities of rural people who live nearby. These are contractual parks, in which an unconventional kind of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is evolving. It has the potential to be a kind of win–win CBNRM that profits both the community owners and the conservation agency.
