Peace Parks

Peace Parks

It has a certain ring to it that's for sure. It's more than that though, Peace Parks, or Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) really do have the potential to change the face of conservation and so-called 'eco-tourism', not just in Africa but the world over.

Think about it. Where are the most remote and undisturbed parts of many countries? Often on borders, those areas that are often military controlled and therefore have low human populations and very little industry and infrastructure, or those areas where land is desolate and therefore not contested. The best thing about these areas is that they are often mirrored on the other side of the boundary so, hypothetically, what Mexico might think of as a narrow strip of no man's land on its northern most boundary in fact becomes a sizeable chunk of real estate if the Americans come to the party.

This is exactly what has been happening all over Africa and in other parts of the world. The concept of transfrontier parks is not new (take the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem straddling the Kenya-Tanzania border or the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska-Canada border), but the spirit of co-operation and enthusiasm is. The world is at a time in its history when boundaries have rarely been as flexible. This has allowed South Africa and Botswana, for example, to formalise their relationship and management of two bordering reserves - the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park and the Gemsbok National Park - to form one contiguous conservation area known as the Kgalagadi Tranfrontier Park which was officially opened by the two countries' presidents on 12 May 2000.

It's a process that has been put in motion between South Africa and its other neighbours as well: Namibia in the Richtersveld, Botswana and Zimbabwe in the Vhembe-Dongola project, Mozambique and Swaziland as partners in a TFCA incorporating the biodiverse Lebombo Mountains, and Lesotho as well. The TFCA that has really griped the public's imagination though, and which has featured most in the media is the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP).

The GLTP is an area incorporating South Africa's Kruger National Park, Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park and a former hunting concession called Coutada 16 in Mozambique's Gaza Province. Cautiously labelled the GKG - or Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou - TFCA in the early stages of the project, the area has now borrowed the name of a river that is common to all three countries: the Limpopo.

Still in its infancy, this tripartite agreement aims at harnessing the strong individual tourist product of each of the countries to achieve 'global advantage' and the formation of a regional economic engine (Kruger has nearly a million visitors a year, Gonarezhou 5000 and Coutada 16 a negligible amount). True to modern conservation, the scheme is as much about economic development as it is about the protection of land and biodiversity. It could not work any other way in the modern era and with any luck the GLTP will serve as a blueprint going forward in Africa.

-Chris Roche-

Posted: Other by CC Africa, Date: 21 November 2006