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HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Park Times)- When announcing the expected proclamation of the Blyde River Canyon National Park, environmental affairs minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said that “the canyon and its surrounds contain amongst the richest combination of plants and animals in southern Africa.”

This rich biodiversity is now threatened in some areas by applications made to prospect for gold and silver on farms adjoining the park, and possibly also one farm inside the park’s boundaries. An application to prospect on the farm London, which immediately borders the Blyde River Canyon Park, has been lodged with the department of minerals and energy by Tamarron Trading 157 (Pty) Ltd.

In the environmental management plan that accompanies the application, the intention is announced to prospect for gold and silver using a JCB/backactor, three types of drilling equipment and a high density concentrator, with about 40 prospecting boreholes or trenches being created. The plan also indicates that roads will need to be constructed in order to prospect.

Since the prospecting application came to the attention of the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), they have opposed this application and others that have been lodged in the past, as any mining activities are likely to negatively impact on several red data species, as well as potentially damage sensitive wetlands of extremely high conservation importance.


MTPA spokesperson Jimmy Masombuka indicated that the wetlands are regarded as “irreplaceable” in the province’s Strategic Environmental Assessment plan. Not only are the wetlands in the immediate vicinity thought to be under threat, but a tributary of the Treur river runs through the proposed prospecting area. If pollution or contamination from any prospecting activities passed along this tributary into the Treur itself, the once extinct and now re-introduced critically endangered Treur river barb is likely to be harmed.

The pollution could also potentially pass into the Blyde River, one of the cleanest rivers in the country and the saving grace of the health of the lower Olifants River. Mercury, a dangerous environmental toxin, is often used in small scale gold mining operations.

Cyanide salts are also commonly used to purify gold. Further, in an assessment carried out by SANBI(South African National Biodiversity Institute), the farm London was earmarked as having a high biodiversity value and was intended to be put forward for gazetting as a protected environment in terms of the Protected Areas Act early next year.

The area has also been registered as a Natural Heritage Site. Despite the sensitivity of the area, the environmental management plan submitted in support of the prospecting application is merely a standard 19-page document supplied by the department of minerals and energy in which details have been filled in by hand.

Although one section of the MTPA was informed by the department of minerals and energy (DME) of the prospecting application as is routine, it seems that the MTPA in its role as custodians of the Blyde River Canyon Park was not considered to be an interested and affected party.

They are not identified as such in the environmental management plan submitted to DME, despite the fact that they are named as an adjacent farm in the same document. The only interested and affected party named is Global Forest Products, who own the land where the prospecting is planned. Global Forest Products has declined to comment on the issue as they say they have instigated legal proceedings regarding the matter and they do not wish to jeopardise these proceedings.

However, sources indicate that Global Forest Products and the MTPA have been in consultation about the possibility of creating a small sustainable boutique hotel on the farm London, away from the sensitive wetland, which the potential prospecting or mining activities could jeopardise.

Sources also indicate that a previous application made to prospect on the farm London has been approved despite vehement objections from Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency. The Department of Minerals and Energy spokesperson said that confirmation of the status of the application could only be released through recourse to the Public Access to Information Act.

The Kruger Park Times telephoned Philipp Betz, who is listed as the contact person in the Tamarron Trading application. Betz declined to comment on the matter over the telephone, and a mutually convenient location and time for discussion could not be made before going to press. Sources have linked Betz’s name to other prospecting applications on other farms in and around the Blyde River Canyon Park, namely Berlyn and The Peak, which have also been opposed by the MTPA.

MTPA spokesperson Jimmy Masombuka said that the department “will consider the relevant channels to challenge the issue.” The matter of the opposed prospecting applications has apparently been taken from a regional to a national level, and the department of environmental affairs and tourism and the department of minerals and energy should be engaged in cooperative governance discussions to decide whether the search for new gold and silver mines may go ahead in what Marthinus van Schalkwyk has described as an area that “has the potential to become one of the fastest growing malaria-free tourism destinations in Africa”.

By Melissa Wray
Kruger Park Times

Labels: blyde canyon, conservation, mining

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Park Times)- Raptor experts hunting for South Africa's rarest breeding bird on the border of Limpopo and Mpumalanga have discovered a total of four pairs of breeding Taita Falcons in the Drakensberg escarpment, and believe that there may be more pairs lurking on the mountains' inaccessible cliff faces.

Over the last month, a team of raptor specialists have been scrutinising the cliffs in search of the diminutive birds of prey, and team leader Andrew Jenkins called their mission “a qualified success”, saying that they did not find as many pairs as previously hoped for.

He added that there were some logistical issues to be overcome, but the team learnt a lot and any further work in the area would be “meaningfully informed by what has already been done." Jenkins hopes to return later in the year as the birds’ breeding season really gets into full swing, when he believes he will find more pairs in areas where the recent survey did not reach."

If our suspicions become reality then the area supports a very significant part of one of the world's rarest raptor populations." The name ‘Taita’ comes from the place in Kenya where the bird was first identified.

It is a naturally rare bird, and is hard to spot in the areas where it occurs because it habitually perches for hours on cliff faces. The highest density of Taita Falcons confirmed is thought to be in the Batoka Gorge between Zimbabwe and Zambia, where ecotourism activities are thought to be threatening the population.

The falcons also occur from Tanzania to Ethiopia. Little is known about these birds because of their rarity and the inaccessibility of their nest sites.

Whilst searching for the small and elusive Taita Falcon, the birders kept track of the other cliff nesting raptors that crossed their field of view.

Although not all the observations are compiled yet, Jenkins estimates that they saw about 12 pairs of Lanner Falcons, three pairs of Peregrine Falcons, about 20 pairs of Rock Kestrels and five pairs of Verreaux’s Eagles.

He says that the statistics gathered will help provide a benchmark for the management of the Blyde Canyon National Park. He commented that there has been a striking change in the numbers of Lanner Falcons, which have increased significantly when compared with a previous survey carried out in the area some years ago.

The numbers of peregrine falcons have declined when compared to the previous survey." It is an interesting thing to note. The figures are telling us something…The trick is to figure out what the reason is." He said that the change could have been caused by something as concrete as a change in land use practices in the area, or something not immediately transparent to observers, such as global warming.

by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times


Explore our birding safaris: the Blue Swallow Southern Birding Safari, and the Limpopo Lanner (Birds of the North) Safari.

Labels: blyde canyon, conservation, hoedspruit, taita falcon

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."

Labels: blyde canyon, hoedspruit, national park, van schalkwyk

NELSPRUIT - South Africa plans to turn the world's third biggest canyon, the Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga, into a National Park.

A memorandum of understanding was signed on Thursday as the first step towards establishing the Blyde River Canyon National Park.

Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Buyi Sonjica and representatives of the Mpumalanga provincial government signed the memorandum.

"The area identified for the Park includes the canyon and is one of the country's eco-tourism and wilderness jewels," said environmental affairs and tourism spokesperson, Mava Scott.

The 50,000 hectare park will have a 110-bed hotel with restaurants and craft shops, creating about 150 new jobs.

There will also be a centre to provide training in hospitality, tourism and business.

The centre and hotel will be built at a cost of R30m.

The park is on the Panorama Route which includes other popular tourist attractions like the historical mining town of Pilgrim's Rest, God's Window, the Bourke's Luck Potholes, and the Three Rondawels.

The world's biggest canyon is the Grand Canyon in the United States, while the second biggest is the Fish River Canyon in Namibia.

Labels: blyde canyon, mpumalanga, national park, panorama route