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JOHANNESBURG- Five southern African countries have agreed, in principle, to establish a third Transfrontier Park, a development that will boost regional tourism and conservation efforts and facilitate cross-border travel.

This comes after July's agreement to establish the Limpopo-Shashe Transfrontier Conservation Area between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Tourism and environmental ministers from Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia converged on the resort town of Victoria Falls on Thursday to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to connect a number of established protected areas, mainly along the Zambezi River.

Up to 36 national parks and game reserves in the five countries could become part of the new Transfrontier Park.

These include areas such as the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Caprivi Strip in Namibia and the adjoining area in Angola, the Kafue Wetlands in Zambia and the Victoria Falls in both Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Zimbabwe's Tourism and Environment Minister Francis Nhema said the project could cover an estimated 30,000 square kilometres of savannah, woodland, river and wetland ecosystems in the countries concerned.

Under the agreement visa requirements will be scrapped by September 2008 for international and domestic tourists wishing to visit the Transfrontier Park in all countries involved.

The first Transfrontier project, the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, was established in 2004 by South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and incorporates the Kruger National Park, Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou Park and the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.

At 35,000 square kilometres, the Limpopo Transfrontier Park will remain the largest and is already partly operational between South Africa and Mozambique. The fence on the Zimbabwean side is yet to be fully removed.

Zimbabwe has faced accusations of destroying its wildlife heritage due to rampant poaching by established game hunters with connections to the ruling party and by ruling party militants who invaded some national parks at the height of land seizures between 2000 and 2003. However, Zimbabwe still remains home to sizeable numbers of wildlife with abundant elephant and other species.

Nhema said the new Transfrontier project would make it much easier to manage regional ecology and to achieve regional integration in such areas as law enforcement and wildlife crime prevention and fire management.

Labels: great limpopo park, greater limpopo park, national park, transfrontier park

GOVERNMENT has set aside Z$10.4 billion (around US$40M) for the completion of various tourism infrastructure projects in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park for the 2007 fiscal year, an amount players in the sector say falls short of their expectations.

The Park, which is one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries on the continent, is expected to boost tourist arrivals in the country and the region.

Analysts say the money, although welcome, still falls short of the project's requirements given the magnitude of work that needs completing.

"The country needs to move into the Gonarezhou Park with speed so that we do not lose out in the race to grab our tourist share from the project. Given that the target is 2010 (when adjacent South Africa expects an influx of tourists as it hosts the Football World Cup) we had thought the Government would advance a huge chunk to the project so as expedite infrastructure development in the area," said one analyst.

Zimbabwe Council of Tourism president Mr Paul Matamisa echoed the same sentiments saying the industry had bargained for more from the fiscus but what they had been offered was far below what was needed to complete different projects.

"The amount though welcome falls short of what we had bargained for and this is likely to severely cripple our plans. In fact, we had requested the Ministry of Finance for the expeditious creation of the Tourism Development Fund that was mooted earlier this year.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing tangible at the moment and what we got are statements of intend but this does not augur well for the sector. Other countries in the project are actually leaving us behind as we for the Government to unlock the funds," he said.

He said the industry had a lot of potential to jumpstart the economy and the country needed to be serious about investing in the sector.

"As the tourism industry we will continue to knock and cry for recognition as time is fast running out," Mr Matamisa.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said the money was a clear indication that the country was taking the tourism sector seriously although they could have bargained for more.

"The tourism sector which contributes immensely to the country's foreign currency earnings needs to be prioritised. Enough funds should be set aside to promote the development of the sector," he said.

The money set aside is part of Government initiatives aimed at helping the tourism industry to rehabilitate tourism facilities as well as ensuring sustainable energy supplies in the potential foreign currency-spinning sector.

Presenting the 2007 national budget the Minister of Finance Dr Murerwa said the Z$10.4 billion was meant to develop tourism infrastructure in the Gonarezhou Park.

Last year the Government allotted Z$2 billion (revalued) for the improvement of infrastructure and electrification of some projects in the Gonarezhou Park which forms part of the GLTP.

At the same time the Zimbabwe National Army started the de-mining of the Sengwe Corridor (which connects Gonarezhou to Kruger), while plans are underway to upgrade Buffalo Range Airport in Chiredzi to meet international standards.

Labels: great limpopo park, greater limpopo park, national park, transfrontier park, zimbabwe

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

PRETORIA- Almost 50% of the country's national and provincial parks are under dispute over ownership in one form or another, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

"Communities are now becoming owners of national parks and it is forcing the parks system to rethink how to approach co-operation with communities," said the epartment's director-general, Crispian Olver.

While co-operation with communities living on the boundaries of conservation areas had improved, the matter was still touchy, he said.

There was still an old school mindset in SA National Parks and in provincial parks that believed these conservation areas were places for animals and not people, particularly those living on the park's boundary.

But that mindset had changed considerably because of the land claims process.

Olver said conservation authorities initially saw this as a big threat.

But the department was increasingly seeing it as an opportunity as it linked some of its work, such as community-based natural resource management and building community benefits from tourism and small, medium and micro enterprise developments.

"You are starting to see a series of, I would almost say, experiments where communities are now developing various economic activities around parks and even in parks."

For example, the Makuleke in the northern Kruger National Park had game lodges that they owned and managed.

"In fact have hunting safaris, which is in its own right a controversial issue."

There were similar projects in the Richtersveld, Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park and in the Eastern Cape.

"A number of experiments are underway which are going to be valuable for the future of conservation in this country. It is forcing the pace of change with conservation authorities," he said.

Labels: land claims, land reform, national park, restitution

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