/ 3 June 1999

SA-US PARKS TO COOPERATE

THE national parks of South Africa and the United States have agreed to work together after the director of the US National Parks Service toured several local reserves, said spokesperson for the National Parks, Adel Smit, on Thursday. She said the director of the US National Parks Service, Robert Stanton, visited the Kruger National Park, as well as the West Coast and Cape Peninsula national parks. “He also visited Robben Island and Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden,” she added. SANP Chief Executive Mavuso Msimang accompanied Stanton on the tour. Both men agreed that their organisations would benefit from closer cooperation in their social ecology and community involvement programmes. They will also share ideas on visitor and information management, commercialisation strategies and managing businesses not the core of the parks’ primary missions.