A new study has highlighted the alarming deterioration of many of South Africas critically important provincial nature reserves due to systemic mismanagement, budget cuts and infrastructure collapse.
The EMS Foundation conducted an extensive in-field investigation of 53 provincial nature reserves across the countrys nine provinces between February 13 and June 10.
Only three of the reserves assessed Madikwe Game Reserve in the North West, De Mond in the Western Cape and Goegap in the Northern Cape were found to be functioning as intended. A total of 16 reserves were either permanently or temporarily closed eight were found to be paper parks listed but non-operational.