Mercedes Sayagues
Controversial American entrepreneur James Blanchard has set his sights on including parts of the famed Inhaca island in his huge Mozambican theme park, despite the fact that he has yet to deliver on his grandiose scheme.
Blanchard has asked the Maputo municipal council for a 276ha concession in Ponta Torres, the south-eastern peninsula of Inhaca island. This would expand his Mozambican empire to 236 000ha – the size of Mauritius – stretching from Inhaca to the South African border.
But Blanchard has proved he is not the economic messiah many Mozambicans had hoped he would be. Critics say his Blanchard Mozambique Enterprises (BME) has not delivered any of the promises it made when its huge concession was approved by the Council of Ministers in 1996.
His staff are known as the “five musketeers” – hardly enough people to pull together the grandiose theme park Blanchard had described as being worth $800-million.
Inhaca, roughly 40km2 and 35km away from Maputo, is a maritime reserve. It qualifies as a world-class tourist destination, with beaches of powdery sand, palm trees, clear waters and coral reefs. It has a 40-bed hotel and camping sites which attract a modest influx of tourists but little income for the island’s 5 000 people.
Critics say Blanchard’s excuse -that bureaucratic delays in obtaining approval from the Mozambican authorities have held up his projects – does not hold water.
Says Antonio Jose Reina, chair of the local branch of the Endangered Wildlife Trust: “I don’t see a proper team nor a programme, nothing practical in the field. I feel disappointed, and a bit guilty. I pushed to remove the eucalyptus plantation out of Matutuine, thinking Blanchard’s project would be better for the environment. Now I wonder.”
The only thing done so far is a 27km-long, solar-powered fence on the mainland to protect the jewel of the proposed theme park, the Maputo Elephant Reserve and its 200 elephants.
The fence was supposed to be finished in February. It wasn’t. Elephants cross through the gaps and trample over the plots. In mid-April, 400 peasant farmers, some armed with pangas, threatened the reserve’s administrator, Paulo Tomas, and demanded a solution.
Tomas defused the crisis, but the problem remains: at a recent meeting in Massoane, the first problem raised was the destruction of crops and huts by elephants.
BME project manager Eugene Gouws says the hitches have been caused by delays in negotiating with the communities over the path of the fence and the compensation to be paid for loss of property.
Once these are resolved, he says, the fence will be completed in less than 15 days. Ladders will be built over it to allow community members access on both sides. The people of Massoane, however, say the fence blocks their usual paths.
Gouws, while waxing lyrical about BME’s dialogue with the community, did not know the name of the person representing the community at the company’s regular meetings.
Some critics wonder if Blanchard will turn out to be a bluff. The millions he promised to invest are nowhere to be seen. There is no sign of partners and investors.
Developing the highway, railway and airstrip needed on Santa Maria Machangulo (the original concession), let alone building lodges, involves expensive logistics.
Developing Inhaca should be easier since basic facilities, such as an airstrip and boat connections with Maputo, already exist. But the island already has tourist operators, and intense pressure on the land.
Conservationists say other areas should rather be developed. They cite the 1990 United Nations Integrated Development Plan for Inhaca, which recommended a tourist load of no more than 500 people at any given time.
Gouws says so far BME only has a basic plan for the island. “It does not make sense to make detailed plans before knowing the size of the concession,” he says.