Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park

Introduction

A major, dynamic conservation initiative – the establishment of transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) – is currently unfolding across the southern African region.

By supporting sustainable economic development, TFCAs will play a key role in Africa’s ecotourism development. Southern Africa’s first TFCA, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, was formally opened on 12 May 2000 by the presidents of Botswana and South Africa. In the same year, the governments of Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland signed five protocols on the establishment of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resource Area. These milestones were followed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the governments of the Kingdom of Lesotho and South Africa on 11 June 2001, which paved the way for the establishment of the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Area. In June 2001 the governments of Mozambique and Zimbabwe signed an agreement to establish the Chimanimani TFCA in the Chimanimani Mountains.

On 9 December 2002, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) was proclaimed with the signing of an international treaty at Xai-Xai, Mozambique by the heads of state of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. As recent as 1 August 2003, a treaty on the establishment of the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park was signed in Windhoek by the presidents of Namibia and South Africa. Agreements to develop further transfrontier conservation areas in southern Africa are under way, with some in the final stages of development.

The establishment of transfrontier conservation areas is an exemplary process of partnerships between governments and the private sector. While the main players are the relevant governments and implementing agencies, donors and NGOs have also greatly contributed towards the creation of transfrontier parks. In the case of the GLTP entities such as the World Bank, USAID Regional Center for Southern Africa, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, WWF Netherlands, Novamedia, the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation, the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, Deutsche Bank, SAFRI/DaimlerChrysler, the African Wildlife Foundation and Peace Parks Foundation have made major contributions towards creating what can be considered as the world’s greatest animal kingdom.

Background

The Great Limpopo TFCA began with a meeting between President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and the president of the World Wide Fund For Nature (South Africa) in 1990. In 1991 the Mozambican government used funds made available by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for feasibility studies toward the implementation of a TFCA pilot project. The 1992 Peace Accord in Mozambique and the South African democratic elections of 1994 paved the way for the political processes to proceed towards making this idea a reality. Feasibility studies initiated by the World Bank culminated in a pilot project that was launched with GEF funding in 1996. This process led to the signing a trilateral agreement in Skukuza, South Africa on 10 November 2000 by Minister Helder Muteia, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Mozambique; Minister Valli Moosa, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in South Africa, and Minister Francisco Nhema, Minister of Environment and Tourism in Zimbabwe. The Skukuza Agreement signalled the three nations’ intent to establish and develop a transfrontier park and surrounding conservation area, at that time called Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou.

Since the signing of the trilateral agreement, working groups operating under a technical committee were established. The technical committee, in turn, would work under the Ministerial Committee.

Finally, on 9 December 2002, the heads of state of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe signed an international treaty at Xai-Xai, Mozambique to establish the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

The signing of the GLTP treaty effectively transformed the technical committee into a joint management board and the working groups into management committees. The thus established permanent management committees deal with conservation, safety and security, finance, human resources, legislation and tourism. Facilitating the process is an international coordinator, who was replaced in November 2003 when Mozambique took over from South Africa as coordinating country to develop and implement the GLTP project. In terms of the Skukuza agreement, the coordinatorship rotates every two years.

Where is the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park?

The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park will link the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique; Kruger National Park in South Africa; Gonarezhou National Park, Manjinji Pan Sanctuary and Malipati Safari Area in Zimbabwe, as well as two areas between Kruger and Gonarezhou, namely the Sengwe communal land in Zimbabwe and the Makuleke region in South Africa into one huge conservation area of 35 000 km² .

The GLTP will bring together some of the best and most established wildlife areas in southern Africa. The park will be managed as an integrated unit across three international borders. The establishment of the GLTP is the first phase in the establishment of a bigger transfrontier conservation area measuring almost 100,000 km².

The larger transfrontier conservation area will include Banhine and Zinave National Parks, the Massingir and Corumana areas and interlinking regions in Mozambique, as well as various privately and state-owned conservation areas in South Africa and Zimbabwe bordering on the transfrontier park. The final delineation of the area will be determined by way of broadly consultative processes that are currently under way. The Great Limpopo TFCA is truly the jewel among the various southern African TFCAs currently being developed.

Major features

The GLTP comprises a vast area of the lowland savannah ecosystem, not only in the transfrontier park itself, but also in the conservation area that will be reintegrated for joint management. This ecosystem is bisected by the Lebombo Mountains running along the border between South Africa and Mozambique. Five major river systems cross this ecoregion in a generally west-east flow. The dry savannah is maintained due to a relatively low average rainfall of about 550 mm per year.
The four main landscapes include lowland plains savannah in the majority of the area, a somewhat hilly granite plateau in the western portions, the Lebombo Mountains that rise to an average of only 500 m above sea level, and the floodplain riverbank areas along the Save, Changane, Limpopo, Olifants, Shingwedzi and Komati rivers.

There are five major types of vegetation, namely Mopane woodlands and shrubveld in the northern portions, mixed bushveld in the southern half, sandveld in the southeastern areas of Mozambique, riverine woodlands mostly in Kruger and Gonarezhou, and seasonally flooded and dry grasslands in and around Banhine National Park.

The vast numbers of wildlife and plant species found here are the building blocks of successful ecotourism. These include at least 147 mammals, 116 reptiles, 49 species of fish, 34 different species of frogs, and an incredible 500 or more species of birds. In addition, at least 2 000 species of plants have been identified.

Cultural importance

Stone-age artefacts and more recent Iron Age implements at many sites provide evidence of a very long and almost continuous presence of humans in the area making up the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Early inhabitants were San hunter-gatherers who left numerous rock-paintings scattered across the region, while Bantu people entered about 800 years ago, gradually displacing the San. The available evidence suggests that humans occurred at low density and were mostly confined to the more permanent river-courses. It is reasonable to assume from the continuous presence at some sites (Pafuri, for example) that humans and wildlife existed in harmony, with no major impact of humans on wildlife or the reverse. The arid nature of the environment, together with an abundance of predators and diseases (e.g. malaria) would have played a role in preventing large-scale human population growth and settlement. Nevertheless, sophisticated cultures already existed by the 16th century, as evidenced by the Thulamela and other ruins near Pafuri.

Tourism opportunities

Based on its ecological heritage, the Great Limpopo’s primary economic activity is nature-based tourism. From a tourism development perspective, the key components in the GLTP are Kruger National Park and the Makuleke region in South Africa, which have had more than 100 years of tourism development and currently host more than one million visitors a year. The established, sophisticated tourism infrastructure in this part of the GLTP will serve as an ideal springboard for increasing tourism throughout the rest of the TFCA.

Mozambique’s biggest natural asset is its beautiful coastline. This has resulted in the development of the “bush-beach ecotourism” concept. Visitors can enjoy world-class game viewing – including most of Africa’s magnificent mammals, reptiles, birds and plants – in the GLTP, travel along the bush-beach ecotourism route, possibly stopping at Banhine National Park or Banamana Wetland for a “feathered five” experience, and continue to the beautiful coastal resorts of Gaza and Inhambane provinces. Eventually tourists will be able to cross the border between the Kruger and Limpopo National Parks, which would make both parks more accessible to visitors from both countries via a much shorter route.

The southeastern lowveld of Zimbabwe also provides opportunities for developing unique tourism experiences. In the southern portion, including the community areas which constitute the biodiversity corridor linking Gonarezhou to Kruger, numerous cultural tourism possibilities exist or are already being developed. Towards the northern part of Gonarezhou there are magnificent cliffs and gorges where canoeists and rafters could start their adventure down the Save River Valley to Zinave National Park, going on to the coastal estuary near Bazaruto National Marine Park and the dugongs in Linga-Linga Bay.

Current activities

An important component of the development process of the GLTP is the development of the recently proclaimed Limpopo National Park, which is primarily funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) as a SADC-approved project. The Mozambican Ministry for Tourism has mandated Peace Parks Foundation to assist the National Directorate for Conservation Areas in overseeing the development of the Limpopo National Park. A project implementation unit was subsequently appointed and significant progress in developing this 10,000 km2 park has been made. Activities include the relocation of approximately 6,000 head of different species of wildlife over a period of three years. This process started on 4 October 2001 when South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Mr Valli Moosa, with the assistance of the government’s implementing agency, SANParks, handed over the first 25 of 1,000 elephants to the Mozambican Minister of Tourism, Mr Fernando Sumbana. Other activities include a community development programme, the establishment of a 350 km2 wildlife sanctuary, the deployment of qualified field rangers, de-mining of the park according to international de-mining standards, and the drafting of tourism and management plans.

Since the signing of the GLTP treaty in December 2002, construction has started on a border post at Giriyondo to facilitate access by visitors between Limpopo National Park and Kruger National Park. The fieldwork analyses and action planning to create the biodiversity corridor linking Gonarezhou National Park to the Makuleke region (co-managed with Kruger National Park) have also been completed. A number of other exciting country-specific and cross-border projects are being planned as part of the development of the world’s greatest animal kingdom.