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Southern Africa Opens Transfrontier Parks PRETORIA, South Africa, September 23, 2002 (ENS) - Some of the most important biodiversity hotspots in Southern Africa are being protected by international cooperative efforts formalized as transfrontier parks and conservation areas. South Africa is reaching out in all directions forming alliances with its neighbors - Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho - to break down the political and physical barriers that prevent real conservation from taking place. The South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism says a transfrontier park means that the authorities responsible for areas in which the primary focus is wildlife conservation, and which border each other across international boundaries, formally agree to manage those areas as one integrated unit according to a streamlined management plan.
The authorities undertake to remove all human barriers within the transfrontier parks so that animals can roam freely. The first transfrontier park in southern Africa was declared early in the year 2000 by the presidents of Botswana and South Africa, and on May 12, 2000 the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park across the borders of the two countries was officially opened. Kgalagadi means "land of thirst" and the huge, desert landscape is part of the Kalahari Desert. Its red sand dunes are inhabited by black-maned Kalahari lions, leopards, cheetah, spotted hyaena, wild dog, black-backed jackal, gemsbok, blue wildebeest, eland, springbok, red hartebeest, duiker and steenbok. Some 215 bird species have been recorded. South African Environment Minister Valli Moosa said at the opening ceremony, "Today we are not only creating a very special conservation area that will be one of the largest in our region - we are also creating history between our two countries and for the Southern African Development Community as a whole."
Extending the transfrontier park concept, South Africa purchased land near the Vhembe-Dongola National Park to open up a transfrontier conservation area on land where the elephants already freely crossed the Limpopo River without regard for the borders of Botswana, South Africa or Zimbabwe. An international agreement on the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park - formerly called the Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou Transfrontier Park - was signed between ministers from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa in November 2000. Officially opened on October 4, 2001, the park is managed as an integrated unit across an unprecedented three international boundaries. The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park includes South Africa's world famous Kruger National Park, with its abundance of wildlife, established infrastructure and tourism base, as well as the geological splendor of Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe. A million hectare wildlife area in Mozambique, known as Coutada 16, has been added and introduced for the first time to the general public. The total surface area of the Great Limpopo Park is some 35,000 square kilometres. The establishment of the transfrontier park is the first phase of the establishment of a bigger transfrontier conservation area measuring a unprecedented 100,000 square kilometres, sometimes called Africa's Superpark. The first translocation of elephants from Kruger National Park to Mozambique took place on October 4, 2001 to mark the opening of the new transfrontier park.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela symbolically opened the gate separating the two sides of the park, giving the elephants free passage. On that day he gave a brief glimpse into the cycle of elephant life and death in the region. "Approximately 100 years ago," Mandela told the assembled dignitaries, "Kruger National Park had no elephants as the population had been hunted to extinction. History shows that 30 brave elephants walked across the Shigwedzi River from Mozambique to Kruger. They are the great grandfathers and mothers of these you see here today, which South Africa is now returning to Mozambique, thus repaying an old debt." There are more transfrontier cooperative efforts in various stages of completion. The signing of the Trilateral Protocol between Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland took place in June 2000 for the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area. The Namibian and South African governments have been negotiating thorny issues of land ownership as they develop the Ai-Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Area. A memorandum of understanding was signed in August 2001. The required Institutional Frameworks were concluded at the Bilateral Technical Committee meeting of June 26, 2002, where consensus was reached between the two countries that preparations for the signing of the Treaty may proceed. The Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area between South Africa and Lesotho became a reality at a ceremony in Johannesburg in July when Moosa signed the agreement establishing the 8,000 square kilometre area with his Lesotho counterpart, Lebohang Ntsinyi. The goal is to protect the biodiversity of the area between the two countries through conservation, sustainable resource use and development planning. Slightly different than a transfrontier park, a transfrontier conservation area is a cross-border region where the different component areas have different forms of conservation status, such as private game reserves, communal natural resource management areas, and even hunting concession areas. Fences, major highways, railway lines or other barriers may separate the various parts of a conservation area. Still, they border each other and they are managed for long term sustainable use of natural resources, although free movement of animals between the different parts is not possible. The Peace Parks Foundation was founded in 1990 by Anton Rupert, president of WWF South Africa, then called the Southern African Nature Foundation. With broad regional support, the foundation works to facilitate the establishment of transfrontier conservation areas or peace parks in Africa.
Mandela, patron emeritus of the Peace Parks Foundation, said, "I know of no political movement, no philosophy, no ideology, which does not agree with the peace parks concept as we see it going into fruition today. It is a concept that can be embraced by all." The Peace Parks Foundation supports economic development, conservation of biodiversity, and promotion of regional peace and stability through funding and technical assistance as nations negotiate and then manage the parks. All countries involved hope the newly protected parks and conservation areas will boost ecotourism and alleviate poverty as well as conserving wildlife and wild lands. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
Gemsbok in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Photo courtesy 
South African Environment and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa (Photo courtesy 
Elephant in South Africa (Photo courtesy 
Nelson Mandela and Anton Rupert (Photo courtesy 