There’s a quiet little revolution happening in eco-tourism, according to Birdlife South Africa. Big five safaris are popular, but birding has taken off, creating a brand of low-impact, sustainable tourism that has the likes of Sakamuzi Mhlongo and Junior Gabela of Sakamuzi Bird Guides, building businesses in out-of-the-way places like Zululand.
Both are from the “village” and travel to the city under duress to market their birding business.
“The forest is my office,” says Mhlongo.
He decided to spread his wings when he discovered just how many special forests were on his doorstep. In addition to his home in the Amatikulu Reserve, on the banks of the Mkuze River about 130km northeast of Durban, there is the Dlinza forest near Eshowe with its aerial boardwalk, the coastal dune forest surrounding Mtunzini, the scarp forest at nearby Ngoye and the 7,000ha Nkandla forest about 60km from Eshowe.
“Zululand is one of the best areas for birding. We have grasslands and wetlands and estuaries, so it is very diverse in terms of ecosystems,” Gabela says.
Birding took Gabela from fishing with his father alongside the Amatikulu estuary to featuring on CNN’s African Voices and a nomination for an entrepreneurship award. He has extended his bird-guiding range, which now stretches to Richards Bay (especially to see the waders in summer), the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve.
The paths of the two are almost identical with Mhlongo mentoring Gabela after he trained as a field guide at the Amatikulu Reserve.
But it was fishing that sealed the deal. “Fishing teaches you to be patient,” says Mhlongo. “When you sit with your rod, you observe every movement. The African finfoot was one of the special birds that swam slowly past. When visitors came, they sometimes showed me a book and asked if I’d seen this bird. I took them to the right spot. They often gave me a tip and I began to understand what guiding was all about.”
Guiding also meant further qualifications. Both trained at the Wakkerstroom Tourism & Education Centre and are accredited guides with Birdlife South Africa.
They remember writing to Birding South Africa 15 years ago, asking to be part of the Zululand Birding Route, the organisation’s first project aimed at linking what are now formally known as avitourists with local guides and community-owned accommodation and services.
When visitors came, they sometimes showed me a book and asked if I’d seen this bird. I took them to the right spot
— Sakamuzi Mhlongo
Even as far back as 2010, increased interest in birding was evident. The department of trade, industry & competition estimated that year that between 8,000 and 16,000 international birders visited South Africa annually while between 21,000 and 40,000 local “twitchers” travelled to spot birds. It said avitourists spent between R927m and R1.725bn a year. South Africans contributed between R482m and R890m and international birders between R309m and R618m. This equated to a contribution of between R1.2bn and R2.2bn to GDP.
Most importantly, travelling birders were believed to spend more than other visitors, taking longer trips and spending more on local guides.
It wasn’t always like that, says Mhlongo. Guides linked to big tour operators openly competed with locals. Today they work in partnership, handing over their charges to guides who know the area and can find the right birds quickly.
“In a single trip, I can set up a top 10 special birds. If you come alone and search yourself, it will take five to six months. We will make your trip shorter because we know exactly where they are,” says Gabela.
They say birding tourism dropped off during the pandemic when they relied just on domestic birders. But internationals are now flocking back and they envisage soon reaching pre-pandemic levels, which they estimate to have been much higher than the 2010 figures.
Tourists are split 50/50 between local and international and there have been many changes. When he started guiding 23 years ago, Mhlongo says, his guests were mostly older people. Now, birdwatchers are getting younger, he says.
Much of the pair’s marketing is done via social media and referrals come via word-of-mouth. Then there are the returns. “People with binoculars who I took to see the green barbet 20 years ago are returning with cameras. That’s now the big thing. We have a whole new market. People who have come back to take good photos are returning for even better shots,” he says.
In addition to birding tours, the two also help university students collect data for research projects and host school tours, educating pupils about the value of their local habitat and possible future career opportunities. They also mentor newly trained guides and contribute towards compiling birding books in Zulu — another rare find, until now.
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