Blyde-Olifants Conservancy
Vision
The Blyde-Olifants Conservancy (BOC) aims to establish, through its membership of privately owned game farms, a 17,000 hectare big game reserve with the potential to grow over time to in excess of 21,000 hectares. The imperative behind the establishment of the reserve was to increase the range of these small privately owned farms by removing the internal boundary fences between them to develop a larger, more biodiverse and genetically viable reserve.
The Blyde River forms an area that resembles a delta just before its convergence with the Olifants River
The BOC area enjoys the most stunning variety of views in the Lowveld: perennial watercourses and sandy plains punctuated with characteristic boulder formations, all set against the brooding vista of the escarpment as a backdrop. It also has access to two of the few perennial rivers of the Greater Kruger ecosystem: the Blyde River and the Olifants River.
Clicking on the maps below indicates the current status of the reserve on the ground (agreements signed and fences removed between the founding Lissataba and Phuza Moya farms) and an example of the potential in the medium term for the Reserve.
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Potential
Spanning both the Blyde and the Olifants Rivers this future reserve will protect close to 35km of the Blyde and Olifants Rivers and surrounding valleys where unique riverine and granite-derived habitats are found.
The surrounding valleys and sandveld-top lands of these vitally important rivers have provided habitats for rare game species in the past. Roan, Sable and Tsessebe used to occur here, as did Common and Mountain Reedbuck in plentiful numbers; some of the largest specimens of Common Waterbuck in Africa have been recorded in these areas. Sharpes Grysbok and Klipspringers are also found in the rocky and hilly areas of these river valleys. The reserve contains prime Klipspringer habitat and is proving to hold some of the largest populations in the region.
The presence of elephants throughout ancient migration routes from the savannah low country up the Olifants River and into the Makutswi and Blyde river valleys continues to be a reality even though these routes have been fenced off for the past 40 years. The reintroduction of elephant, lion and plains game on the neighboring Makalali and Selati Reserves, starting in 1993, saw the beginning of a return to the spectrum of previously occurring diversity found in these areas up until fifty years ago and lost due to the ravages of the short-lived cattle industry.
On the Blyde-Olifants Conservancy’s western border a community conservation and tourism project has been established - the Maburuburung Ecotourism Project. The Maburuburung Trust is a current member of the BOC and seeks to incorporate approximately 1800 hectares of communal state land into the BOC. At present this initiative is awaiting ratification from the Tribal and Provincial authorities before a suitable business partner can be identified and the legal status of this proposed change in land use can be underwritten. This will be the first privately owned nature reserve in South Africa to have a neighboring community as a member with a landholding contribution if these processes are successful.
