A BOLD attempt to reverse Man’s steady encroachment on the habitat of African wildlife moved a step closer to realisation yesterday when the presidents of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa opened a border post for a vast game park straddling their frontiers.
In an attempt to boost tourism and generate income for impoverished local communities, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park will eventually cover about 16,000 square miles (41,000sq km) — almost double the size of Wales — and contain no barriers to prevent game roaming wild.
The new park, agreed in 2002, will combine the Kruger National Park, in South Africa, with the Limpopo National Park, in Mozambique, and the Gonarezhou National Park, in Zimbabwe, to create the largest transnational game park on the continent.
President Mbeki of South Africa hailed the opening of the Giriyondo border post between the Kruger and Limpopo parks as another step in breaking down colonial fences. “The Giriyondo access facility . . . is just the beginning of a new era when we will bring down the colonial fences which divided our nations over several centuries,” he declared. “Today, we take yet another step to free ourselves from the chains of our past and open up to our peoples and wild animals the spaces of freedom as nature has intended.”
The initiative, in which about 6,000 people will be relocated out of an area set aside for wildlife, has been hailed by environment and wildlife organisations.
Jason Bell-Leask, regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: “This is a very positive initiative. Certainly animals don’t know what borders are. The modern approach to conservation has to be regional as well. It makes ecological and economic sense. Local people stand to make enormous gains and have been involved in the entire process.”
He dismissed fears that the vast area would facilitate illegal migration into South Africa from its much poorer neighbours or provide hiding places for criminal gangs preying on Western tourists.
“One of the reasons why the new park is being rolled out in stages is because security is paramount. This is a long-term initiative and all the security concerns, particularly policing, are being addressed. South Africa will have to take the lead in that but we have the capacity, such as helicopters and so on, to cope and the other countries have put aside resources for this as well,” he added.
Hundreds of illegal immigrants each year already brave attacks by lions and other wild animals in an attempt to slip across the Kruger from Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world, and find work in South Africa. Many Zimbabweans have also fled into Mozambique before trying to gain access to its far wealthier neighbour.
Independent analysts play down such issues and say that the potential economic gains far outweigh the disadvantages. They emphasise that local people stand to gain far more than they lose. “It will be a huge tourist draw, and South Africa will just have to carry most of the cost of policing,” said an official with the Peace Parks Foundation, which promotes transboundary parks worldwide and argues that such areas can reduce border tensions.
Mr Mbeki said that the park would be a big tourist draw in 2010, when South Africa hosts the football World Cup.
“I have no doubt that the easy access facilities and open spaces within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which has been branded as the world’s largest animal kingdom, will be a major attraction before, during and after the 2010 Fifa World Cup,” he said.
Mr Mbeki was joined for the ceremony by his Zimbabwean and Mozambican counterparts, Robert Mugabe and Armando Guebuza.
