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nce. This mandate is informed by International (International Union for the Conservation of Nature); National (Bioregional strategy, National Biodiversity Action Plan) and Provincial Biodiversity Conservation strategy, and is in line with National and Provincial legislative frameworks for biodiversity conservation and tourism. The importance of alignment with provincial priorities, such as the Provincial Growth & Development Plan (PGDP) cannot be overemphasized. The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency is striving to be a renowned biodiversity conservation agency and prides itself in its unique rich biodiversity and malaria free network of Provincial Parks with beautiful landscapes and beaches. The relevance of the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency rests in its conscious acknowledgement of the dynamic and challenging environment it operates in.

The key performance indicators have been drawn from the Agencyal goals; these goals have been reduced from nine to five from 2008 – 2010 in order to fit the revised strategic objectives. The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism agency has biodiversity and tourism as its core businesses but it has also place significant emphasis on its People and Parks Programme. This programme is aimed at involving communities that surround the various reserves in the operations of the reserves and strives to create benefits for the communities that will uplift the communities and contribute to the economic development of the regions around the reserves and to the Province as a whole (2004 – 2009 Strategic plan).

The vision, mission and Agencyal values have also been revised to accommodate the growth of the new agency and to better define its way forward with regard to biodiversity, tourism and people and parks. The Agency is not required to make a profit, however is has acknowledged that the annual grant received is insufficient to fund the Agencys activities and it has now embarked on a programme through the commercialisation department to attract investors to the protected areas to manage commercial developments such as upmarket lodges and other activities as well as to investigate eco tourism potential and sustainable harvesting of products such as honey bush tea.

The revised vision for the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency is: A Province where Biodiversity Conservation and Tourism Management underpin sustainable development whilst the Agency’s mission has changed to be the premier entity for managing biodiversity and tourism in the Eastern Cape (ECPTA Draft strategic Plan 2011 – 2014). The protected areas have the potential to serve as rural economic engines, given appropriate investment. The potential of the parks for both biodiversity conservation and tourism development is huge and there is a need to unlock it. In view of this, Strategic Management Plans as well as an Ecotourism Plan were developed for each of the protected areas. Through the implementation of these plans the potential of the parks will ultimately be realised; in order to achieve this there is a need for participation of the private sector, the natural resources users and other stakeholders (ECPTA Draft strategic Plan 2011 – 2014).

SUSTAINABILTY AND ECPTA

The ECPTA does not define the concept of sustainability in its policy on natural resource use within provincial protected area; instead the policy defines sustainable use as the continued derivation of benefi