Relationships between protected area managers and adjacent communities, as well as communities’ attitudes, views and perceptions of these areas, are critical for the success of conservation efforts. It is important for protected area managers and administrators to understand how local communities view these areas and their management, so that they can build sustainable working rel ationships. This paper is based on a survey of 375 semi-structured questionnaires administered to household heads, living at distances ranging from the edge of the reserves to 50 km away from the reserve boundary across the Great Fish River, Mkambati, Hluleka, and Tsolwana nature reserves in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The paper provides a longitudinal assessment of households’ knowledge about the role of reserves and the reserves’ impacts on livelihood assets. In addition to households’ knowledge about the role of reserves, the paper also provides an assessment of people’s attitudes towards their location and management, as well as views on the best way to manage the reserves. For 79% of community members, reserves were important as they were seen to conserve biodiversity and valuable ecological systems necessary for sustaining life. Most (75%) respondents indicated that closely located reserves gave them opportunities to learn about nature conservation and to subsidize their incomes through tourism ventures. However, 58% had a problem with reserves’ staff, due to restrictions on resource use, which negatively impacted their livelihoods. Over half (51%) of the households argued that sustainable conservation can only be achieved through an integrated approach where conservation and local communities’ needs are given equal weight. We concluded that reserve managers should look at communities as active partners in the management of protected areas if sustainable conservation objectives are to be realised.

中文翻译：

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南非东开普省社区对自然保护的看法

保护区管理者与邻近社区之间的关系，以及社区对这些地区的态度，看法和看法，对于保护工作的成功至关重要。保护区管理者和管理者必须了解当地社区如何看待这些地区及其管理，以建立可持续的工作关系，这一点很重要。本文基于对375个半结构化问卷的调查，这些问卷针对户主，居住地范围从保护区边缘到距大鱼河，姆坎巴蒂，赫卢莱卡和Tsolwana自然保护区的保护区边界50公里在南非东开普省。本文提供了有关住户关于储备的作用以及储备对生计资产影响的知识的纵向评估。除了家庭对储备的作用的了解外，本文还评估了人们对其所在地和管理的态度，以及对管理储备的最佳方法的看法。对于79％的社区成员而言，保护区非常重要，因为保护自然区可以保护生物多样性和维持生命所必需的宝贵生态系统。大多数（75％）的受访者表示，保护区的位置很近，使他们有机会了解自然保护和通过旅游企业补贴其收入。但是，由于对资源使用的限制，有58％的储备金人员出现了问题，这对他们的生计产生了负面影响。超过一半（51％）的家庭认为，可持续保护只能通过综合方法来实现，在这种方法中，保护和地方社区的需求应给予同等重视。我们得出的结论是，如果要实现可持续的保护目标，保护区管理者应将社区视为保护区管理中的积极伙伴。