New era entered with 'superpark'
2002-09-03 15:42
Massingir Velho, Mozambique - Standing on a flat bed truck in the middle of the African savannah, Mavuso Msimang ushers 100 animals into new hands.
The impala antelope, zebra and wildebeest being released from South Africa will restock depleted wildlife populations in southern Mozambique and play a key part in the creation of a "super park" spanning three countries.
Msimang, head of South Africa National Parks, says the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park project heralds a new level of regional co-operation in wildlife management.
"This is a Southern African Development Community (SADC) project. It has everything to do with promoting not just management of ecosystems but also everything to do with community empowerment and economic development," he said from his vantage point high above the scrubby vegetation.
Two years ago, environment ministers from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa laid the foundations for the new park, which will cover 35 000 square kilometres and include South Africa's Kruger Park, Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou Park, and the Limpopo park in Mozambique.
They hope the park will bring tourism and badly needed jobs to the poverty-stricken area and are promoting it as an example of regional partnership between members of SADC, the 14-member organisation for southern African economic cooperation.
Prospects for the new park, eco-tourism and rural job creation, are issues close to the heart of World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, which ends on September 4.
"The animals will bring tourism, but they will also give credence to the whole idea of (Africa's recovery plan) Nepad," said Patrick Matlou, acting director general of the South African department of environmental affairs.
Largest translocation in half a century
The animals being moved are part of the largest wildlife translocation in half a century, and represent one of South Africa's contributions to resource sharing for the new park.
The Kruger holds a huge range of animals and is home to the widest variety of cloven hoofed animals on earth. Its neighbour in Mozambique lacks significant numbers of medium- and large-sized animals, their populations having been wiped out during years of civil war.
But the Limpopo park boasts a 100 square kilometre lake formed by the Massingir Dam, playing host to abundant bird life, and offering a feature not found in the Kruger park.
For a year now, South Africa has been shipping wildlife across the border from the Kruger into the Limpopo to restock an area ravaged by nearly a quarter of a century of war.
Last year 40 elephants were moved, fitted with electronic collars, and tracked. Following the success of that project another 50 will be transported into the park this month.
Officials say almost 1 000 plains game animals were moved in the fortnight running up to Msimang's address in mid-August, and will not stop there.
Over the next two years they plan to move 5 000 other animals, including endangered white rhino, sable antelope and roan antelope.
And the next step in the park's development is to pull down the 350km fence separating the Kruger from the Limpopo park, and let the South African park's plentiful tourists experience the Mozambican side, said Manie Kriel, a legislator in South Africa's Limpopo province, which contains the Kruger park.
"We need to open up the park to get people to come through here. The people here need the business," he said.
Animal safety concerns
Wildlife groups say the park authorities may have been a bit hasty in their efforts, for while the transfrontier park will eventually re-establish natural wildlife migration routes, there are still issues over the animals' safety.
"There is a general feeling that things are moving ahead too quickly," said Jason Bell of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). "There are concerns about whether the animals will be safe on the Mozambican side."
Bell, IFAW's South Africa director, said moves by regional governments to open up corridors for wildlife movement were the only way to manage large populations of elephants which have reached their natural limits in many parks.
He said the Great Limpopo park, along with other planned cross border parks such as one to be created around the borders of Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, known as the Okavango-Upper Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, would need to be taken slowly and carefully.
"There is a general feeling that these initiatives are solving problems very quickly, but these should be looked at as longer-term projects," he said.
He added that there would be problems with moving wildlife into Zimbabwe as political turmoil had made it difficult to liase with local communities.
There have also been widespread reports of poaching in the country as the economy collapses and the rule of law is increasingly flouted in the country's rural areas.
The park will not open for a while.
The heads of state of the three countries must meet and sign an agreement to drop the fences - officials hope this will happen in November - and park planners must come to an agreement with local communities whose interests have allegedly been sidelined in the past.
Until then the translocated animals will be held in a 30 000 hectare fenced area inside Mozambique, bordering the Massingir dam.
Local sources said villagers had not been moved from the area, but would otherwise have made use of the land. There was still significant resentment at the project.