Blyde National Park To Be Declared In September
The Blyde River Canyon will officially be declared as a National Park on Heritage Day, September 24, this year. This was announced by Environmental Affairs and Tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk during a budget speech made to the national council of provinces.
The official name of the new national park has yet to be decided upon, but according to Chris Clarke who has been coordinating the initiative for the Department of Environmental Affairs and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) for some time, the preferred name of the new park is Mapulaneng National Park.
Last week a workshop was held with many of the stakeholders in the project, and the communities who have a strong land claim over the park land said that although the Blyde River has been renamed the Motlatse River, they prefer the Park to be called Mapulaneng.
This roughly translates to "place of fortune" (ma -mother, pula -fortune, neng -place of).
The new National Park will be a place of many firsts, and is already being heralded internationally as representing a new era in national park creation. It will bring one of the richest collections of plant and animal species on earth under formal protection, linking up a mosaic of different landscapes like mountain grasslands, mist-belt forests and woodlands and savannah bush.
It will incorporate some of South Africa’s rarest species, many of which are threatened with extinction.
It will also be the first national park to be looked after by a provincial authority. In terms of new environmental laws, the Mpumalanga Parks Board (now officially known as the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency - MTPA), will manage the park instead of SANParks.
In keeping with new visions for bringing conservation and people together, such as discussed at the last World Park's Congress, the MTPA will also be looking after the park for successful land claimants. The descendants of those people evicted from the land many years ago will become partners with the state, allowing the state to become custodians of the land, while the communities benefit from the area's tourism potential.
As highlighted at the signing of the memorandum of agreement for the creation of the park at Bourke's Luck in 2004, local communities will also be empowered to play a significant role in the new park which van Schalkwyk said "is expected to inject R500 million into the local economy over the next ten years."
Over the next three years, Environmental Affairs has budgeted R18 million for the development of the park. The first R10 million of this will be spent on the creation of a public-private partnership luxury hiking trail, which is expected to cost guests in the region of R800-R1,200 for a night's accommodation.
Also on the cards for the national park are 500 beds, restaurants, adventure activities like river kayaking, abseiling and forest canopy trails, and a cableway.
The park will initially cover an area of 44,000ha, but in excess of 10,000ha will be added as commercial pine plantations in the area are rehabilitated and returned to a more natural state over the course of several years.
Minister van Schalkwyk was positive about the creation of the new park, saying, "Blyde has the potential to become one of the fastest growing malaria-free tourism destinations in Africa."
The official name of the new national park has yet to be decided upon, but according to Chris Clarke who has been coordinating the initiative for the Department of Environmental Affairs and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) for some time, the preferred name of the new park is Mapulaneng National Park.
Last week a workshop was held with many of the stakeholders in the project, and the communities who have a strong land claim over the park land said that although the Blyde River has been renamed the Motlatse River, they prefer the Park to be called Mapulaneng.
This roughly translates to "place of fortune" (ma -mother, pula -fortune, neng -place of).
The new National Park will be a place of many firsts, and is already being heralded internationally as representing a new era in national park creation. It will bring one of the richest collections of plant and animal species on earth under formal protection, linking up a mosaic of different landscapes like mountain grasslands, mist-belt forests and woodlands and savannah bush.
It will incorporate some of South Africa’s rarest species, many of which are threatened with extinction.
It will also be the first national park to be looked after by a provincial authority. In terms of new environmental laws, the Mpumalanga Parks Board (now officially known as the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency - MTPA), will manage the park instead of SANParks.
In keeping with new visions for bringing conservation and people together, such as discussed at the last World Park's Congress, the MTPA will also be looking after the park for successful land claimants. The descendants of those people evicted from the land many years ago will become partners with the state, allowing the state to become custodians of the land, while the communities benefit from the area's tourism potential.
As highlighted at the signing of the memorandum of agreement for the creation of the park at Bourke's Luck in 2004, local communities will also be empowered to play a significant role in the new park which van Schalkwyk said "is expected to inject R500 million into the local economy over the next ten years."
Over the next three years, Environmental Affairs has budgeted R18 million for the development of the park. The first R10 million of this will be spent on the creation of a public-private partnership luxury hiking trail, which is expected to cost guests in the region of R800-R1,200 for a night's accommodation.
Also on the cards for the national park are 500 beds, restaurants, adventure activities like river kayaking, abseiling and forest canopy trails, and a cableway.
The park will initially cover an area of 44,000ha, but in excess of 10,000ha will be added as commercial pine plantations in the area are rehabilitated and returned to a more natural state over the course of several years.
Minister van Schalkwyk was positive about the creation of the new park, saying, "Blyde has the potential to become one of the fastest growing malaria-free tourism destinations in Africa."
Labels: blyde canyon, hoedspruit, national park, van schalkwyk
posted by Kruger2Canyons.com at
Saturday, July 29, 2006
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