Support Sudanese Farmers مبادرة شراءالقمح من المزارعين
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A Strategy to Modernize Al-Dindir National Park
Objectives
1. To promote al Dindir National Park (DNP) potential to the tourism sector, scientific research and academic community, and environmental conservation organizations at national and international levels.
2. To make DNP and the neighboring communities (about 20 villages between al Dindir town and the main campus of the park) a model of sustainable development, in its environmental, social, and economic dimensions.
The outputs of these objectives are expected to address a wide range of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) to make DNP and the neighboring communities an exemplar that can be spread, improved, and reproduced.
Table 1. Mapping of the expected outputs and SDGs
| No. | Output | SDGs |
| 1 | Raised national and international awareness of the biodiversity protection and wildlife protection in DNP | SDG 15 |
| 2 | Improved publicity of DNP as a tourism destination. | SDG 1 |
| 3 | Involved local civil society organizations in the agenda of climate change and biodiversity. | SDG 13, SDG 15 |
| 4 | Established communications with the national and international universities and institutes to encourage scientific research projects. | SDG 17 |
| 5 | Forests rehabilitation. | SD 15 |
| 6 | Established flooding control methods for River al Dindir | SDG6, SDG11, SDG13 |
| 7 | Use of renewable energy (solar or biomass) to supply the DNP resorts and the villages of the local communities with electricity (distributed generation). | SDG 7, SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 11 |
| 8 | Sustainable agriculture projects | SDG 2, SDG 8, SDG 15 |
| 9 | Local communities’ access to clean water | SDG 6 |
| 10 | Publicized local cultures. | SDG 11 |
| 11 | Built resorts for DNP, both at the park site and al Dindir town using environment-friendly materials and architecture | |
| 12 | Constructed 100 km tarmac/asphalt road | SDG 9 |
| 13 | Enhanced livelihoods of the local communities as a result of tourism activation, implemented projects and sustainable use of the resources. | SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 8, SDG 11 |
| 14 | Growth of tourism’s economic gains | SDG8 |
Background and situational analysis
DNP is a wildlife reserve and a zone of ecological importance, covering an area of approximately 10 000 Km2. It is situated about 500 km Southeast of Khartoum and about 100 km from al Dindir town, the gateway to the park. DNP is a permeant or seasonal settlement for a diverse animal species including, lions, hyenas, buffalo, giraffe, Soemmerings gazelle, and elephants.
Because of the importance of DNP to tourism and biodiversity, governments of Sudan have set policies and implemented plans mainly to upgrade the capabilities of the wildlife administration and control of poaching and unauthorized use of land. Moreover, regional and international organizations have been involved in projects to develop the local communities and work on environmental issues like biodiversity and deforestation.
Nevertheless, these efforts have not been able to mitigate the ongoing declines in wildlife, forests, tourism, and livelihoods of local communities. Despite the available resources and potential, the local communities still struggle to access drinking water, power, health facilities, schools, and adequate housing. The failure to exploit these resources for the benefit of the people and the environment is due to political failures associated with the local and national governments throughout the past 30 years. Moreover, I believe that one of the factors that failed the previous interventions to enhance the DNP is the exclusive solutions vision.
The decline of the DNP and the livelihoods of the neighboring communities is a complex problem with correlated issues. For example, the illegal use of land affects the forests and leads to animal migration directly; or indirectly due to the induced climate change, e.g. drought, which in addition, results in an extension of grazing lands to inside the DNP boundaries. Therefore, the economic activities (based on agriculture and livestock) of the local communities were affected. Moreover, the illegal use of land deteriorates the biodiversity to cause environmental and economic concerns (mainly tourism) and again hardships to the local communities. Such problem should be approached with a holistic solution strategy, which can be obtained by following the sustainable development paradigm, especially under the waited democratic state that will afford the institutional and good governance.
Putting together exertions to make DNP a sustainable development zone, allows it to take its entitled status as an outstanding natural reserve in Africa, and enables the maximum utilization of environmental, economic and social benefits.
Table 2. SWOT framework
| Challenge | Strengths | Weaknesses | Opportunities | Threats | Actions arising from SWOT |
| Political | The ongoing democratic transition process | Political representation of the local communities | The democratic state and civil authority expected in the next years | Fragile political parties | Take advantage of the political shift to obtain governmental support |
| Economic | None | The poor economy of the country | Potential of agriculture, livestock, and tourism. | Poor planning and management experiences | Campaigning to utilize the potential resources |
| Social | The increasing awareness | Public participation | 1.Influence of the local civil society organizations
2. Influence of Social media. |
Youth drain to rural-urban migration | Use the increased public awareness to seek effective public participation, and counter the youth drain |
| Environmental | The well-defined and understood objectives | The land use and poaching culture in the local communities’ livelihood | 1.The noticeable organization and activities of the environmentalists after Sudan uprising
2.Influence of the local civil society organizations |
The needed coordinated efforts to address the threats | Call up the local organizations and the national and international environmental advocacy entities |
Stakeholder analysis and prioritization
Table 3. Stakeholder analysis
| Stakeholder | Role | Contribution | |
| A | National and international Non-Profit Organizations | Social development | 1.Financial and technological support
2.Capacity building 3.Highlight of the project importance |
| B | Civil society organizations | Social development | Implement or support the project activities |
| C | Governments | Government functions | 1. Policy reform
2.Finance and logistic support 2. Supervision |
| D | Education | Education and research | 1.Sustainability-educated students and graduates.
2. Research in sustainable development. 3. Support the policy reform |
| E | Advocacy groups | Environmental conservation and development agenda | Influence the policy and public opinion |
| F | Community | Beneficiary | 1.Engage in the project activities |
| G | Poaching, illegal farming and overgrazing groups and individuals | Unauthorized use of the resources | 1.Degrade the wildlife and biodiversity.
2.Deforestation. |
| H | Media | Communication | 1.Raise public awareness.
2.Campaign for the transition to sustainable development. |
Table 4. Stakeholder mapping and prioritization
| Stakeholder | Group | Individual | Level of interest | Level of influence | |||
| Score | Level | Score | Level | ||||
| A | National and international Non-Profit Organizations | Environment, tourism, and sustainable development organizations | Executives | 8 | High | 7 | High |
| B | Civil society organizations | Civil society organizations of the local society | Executives | 10 | High | 7 | High |
| C | Governments | Local and national governments | 1. Executives
2.Legislators |
10 | High | 10 | High |
| D | Education | Schools and universities | 1.School teachers and student
2.Professors, undergraduate, and graduate students |
6 | Medium | 4 | Medium |
| E | Advocacy groups | Environmental advocacy groups | Representatives | 10 | High | 5 | Medium |
| F | Community | National and local communities | All population | 6 | Medium | 5 | Medium |
| G | Poaching, illegal farming and overgrazing groups | Poachers, farmers, and grazers | Groups and individuals | 0 | Low | 7 | High |
| H | Media | TV, radio, newspapers, social media | Journalists, social media users | 8 | High | 8 | High |
Table 5. Stakeholder management plan
| Stakeholder | Power/Interest Matrix | Proposed activities | Frequency | Who is responsible | |
| A | National and international Non-Profitable Organizations | Key player | |||
| B | Civil society organizations of the local society | Key player | |||
| C | Governments | Key player | |||
| D | Education | Keep informed | |||
| E | Advocacy groups | Keep informed | |||
| F | Community | Keep informed | |||
| G | Poaching, illegal farming and overgrazing groups | Keep satisfied | |||
| H | Media | Key player | |||
Proposed intervention and implementation (this section to be revised and amended)
A national, international, or governmental organization to form experts’ team to:
- Review the reports and impact assessment of the previous projects related to DNP.
- Frame projects proposals to present to the government, organizations working with wildlife, environment, sustainable development, tourism, and any relevant others. The projects can be defined by grouping the outputs (Table 1) such as a project for outputs 1 to 4, and projects to the local and national governments for the outputs 7, 11, and 12.
- Work out and implement a plan for the stakeholders communication and engagement, especially the local communities and local civil society organizations. Populating Table 5 can be the start point of the plan.
- Formulate a strategy for the coordination between the participant organizations.
- Follow up the implementation.
