Mbhele, SiphesihleMadlala, AyandaIssacs, Moenieba2025-05-142025-05-142025Mbhele, S., Madlala, A., and Isaacs, M. 2025 February. Co-management: a failed promise for the Dukuduku and KwaNibela communities surrounding the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. PLAAS Policy Brief 65,PLAAS UWC (Living Landscapes in Action).https://hdl.handle.net/10566/20403This policy brief reviews the implementation of co-management arrangements in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (IWP) region. We draw on theexperiences of the Dukuduku and KwaNibela communities, who continuously have to bear the brunt of social and spatial injustices caused bythese agreements. The policy brief is based on findings from the Living Landscapes in Action (LLA) project based at the Institute for Poverty, Landand Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape (UWC), where two associate researchers have been based in the communities formore than two years (see Madlala et al, forthcoming). The LLA project seeks to integrate social and spatial justice into biodiversity conservationthat considers the historical injustices of land dispossession and the displacement of local communities for conservation, a practice also referred toas fortress conservation. We have also worked collaboratively with Masifundise Development Trust fisher representatives in the Dukuduku andKwaNibela areas. In this policy brief, the focus is on the governance arrangements put in place for the communities surrounding the IWP to implement.eniSimangaliso Wetland ParkNatural resourcesSouth AfricaCo-managementHeritage siteArticle