South Africa's newly minted Ramsar wetland on the Wild Coast shows that the notion of development is contested territory. The story of a Pondoland fisherman shows that while the bull elephants tussle, it's the grass that is trampled.

Nalo Danca was so engrossed in working his fishing line at the Strandloper River mouth on the Wild Coast one November day last year that it took him a while to clock that the person locking him in a choke-hold from behind might be law enforcement.

He'd say that he was fishing in his backyard, just as the amaMpondo have been doing for longer than recorded history. He'd also say that customary fishermen like him don't need a permit to cast their lines here, and that he was doing so in a designated fishing spot.

The ranger who had him in the choke-hold would say that he was poaching in a nature reserve, finish and klaar.

Danca is from Nyavini village, just across the Mtentu River that marks the northern boundary between communal amaMpondo land on the Wild Coast and the Mkhambathi Nature Reserve. He's not the first fisher from here to find himself in hot water.

But his case comes just as the reserve is declared a Ramsar wetland. Last week on Wednesday, 15 April, government officials jetted into this remote piece of the Wild Coast where they joined local leaders and communities to celebrate the declaration of...