Bio-diversity

The Tembe Traditional Council & its community is the one tribe in the province of KZN that still believes & strongly upholds its customs & cultural norms.this has assisted in the maintenance and promotion of unity, security, good governance, retention of dignity, ubuntu-botho and respect amongst thr community. One of such customs is the observance and celebration of Marula Festival, which is an annual event. This is one most important cultural events that attracts participants across neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Swaziland. Communities from 48 sub-wards of KaNgwanase bring along marula juice/beer in containers of different sizes which have been harvested in their respective areas. The Royal family members perform a ritual, drinks and tastes the marula beer, then the communities are allowed to ferment and drink the amarula juice at their own places. At the festival, once the ritual hs been performed, the Inkosi adresses the people. The adress is taken seriously as it adresses the following issues:promotion of unity; ubuntu-botho, caring of orphans and victims of HIV/AIDS; conservation and wise utilisation of natural resources; promotion of peace, stability & security; socio-economical development in the area; principles of good giovernance, good morals and promotion of a sense of preserving and observing cultural activities. At the end of the speeches atrts feasting in tarditional music, amarula juice/beer and traditional dishes.Due to passion displayed by communities, the TTC identified a need to engage them in a project that both preserves and growa the marula trees to cater for denad and supply. The TTC are forerunners in that region in placing special focus on the importance of sustainable utilisation of the natural resources and in encouraging & developing natural resource utilisation and conservation based projects. In order to achieve this, the growing & processing of marula trees need to be formalised, areas set aside & developed for growilng marula trees and processing various products like marula beer, juice , jam nuts and oil. The TTC thus identified a need for the formalisation of growing marula trees and processing project. A project like this has great potentila to increase the local economy and highlight the area as a tourism destination, whilst utilising the natural resources found locally. It has the capacity to start small and grow enormously where the benefits would spread throughout the community from children to adults. One of the aims of the naruka festival development is to utilise a valuable resource to develop the area into an economic hub in Southern Maputaland. This will be done through the following steps: 1)increase support to local indigenous trees for life programme through increasing number of participants and concentrating on propagating marula seedlings, 2) train identified community members in business andproduct production, 3) complete infrasrtucture for processing product, 4) marketing of concept/development

South africa