A community game reserve in rural KwaZulu-Natal considered a flagship project for land restitution and transformation in South Africa is creating jobs and advancing the country’s goal to go green, according to a report in AllAfrica.

Land for the 40,000-acre game reserve was restored to the community of Somkhanda through the land reform process in 2005, the report said.

Farming the Wild is a community project backed by $2.2 million of government funds. Managed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Green Fund provides financing to help encourage investment in green initiatives.

Somkhanda Community Game Reserve is a green-economy solution suitable for rural areas across the country, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs. “The sustainable use and conservation of wild animal and indigenous vegetation resources have the ability to … transform the poor rural economy of South Africa.”

The community chose to place the majority of the land in conservation and create a game reserve to drive development in the area, the report said.

Somkhanda Game Reserve is promoted as a flagship project for land restitution and transformation in South Africa, as well as an example of conservation-based community development, according to its website.

The Somkhanda community partnered with the Wildlands Conservation Trust and the World Wildlife Fund to guide them in establishing the reserve.

They are participing in the Black Rhino Range Expansion Program, which is introducing endangered black rhino to the reserve.

“Revenue can be generated from hunting, live game sales, game products and ecotourism,” the department said.

The project is expected to create about 80 jobs.

The Wildlands Conservation Trust is coordinating financial expenditure of the project.

Somkhanda was South Africa’s first community-owned game reserve to be formally designated a nature reserve.

Apart from the rhino population, the game reserve has buffalo, Impala, leopard, nyala, zebra, giraffe and a variety of typical bushveld game.