"A chattering bird builds no nest"

Time flies—my stay in South Africa is already drawing to a close! It’s been a busy few months of project design and implementation…

 

Interviews with reserve stakeholders, including wardens and community education and out-reach managers, have provided background information of the scope and spread of in-reach and out-reach partnership programs in the Kruger to Canyons region. It has been remarkable to learn the extent to which increased rhino poaching in the area has impacted so much of reserve function and management. Big changes have been happening in the past few years with regard to wildlife asset protection, financial budgets, relationships between the K2C reserves, and relationships between each reserve and their nearby communities.

 

I’m using three reserve-community transects as case studies to delve into the details of partnership engagement and perceptions. In-person interviews with reserve stakeholders and community members really help to color the data with qualitative details that are so crucial, especially with the layers of contention between the two respondent groups.

 

To conduct community member interviews I’m receiving assistance from an organization called Plough Back to the Communities in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga. They provided me with a wonderful translator, Lydia, and also facilitated community entry for Lydia and me to conduct interviews. It is necessary to receive permission from community leaders before working in a village, similar to how it is necessary for a respondent to consent to participating in a study. Plough Back to the Communities also ensures that the community leaders receive a report of relevant findings from the study following data collection and analysis. It is through relationships like these that researchers can conduct important studies and study subjects have access to synthesized reports of the information they provided—a benefit to both parties.

 

Each new phase of my project has been more challenging and engaging than the previous, and wouldn't have been possible without your support. On to the next!

See you all Stateside ‘just now’,

K