EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday 9.00pm
PARLIAMENT on Wednesday ratified an agreement with Botswana that will see the two countries establish Africa’s first transnational game park straddling their shared border.
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, which will be formed later this year, will take up 38000 square kilometres of semi-desert land densely populated with buck, lion, leopard and birds of prey, according to conservationists.
It will be a nominal merger of South Africa’s Kalahari Gemsbok National Park and the Gemsbok National Park in Botswana, said Dick Paris, the director of parks at South Africa’s National Parks Board. The bilateral agreement passed by parliament formalises a 60-year-old understanding between South Africa and Botswana that has kept the border between the two parks open, allowing the animals to roam freely in search of water and food.
Paris said that the agreement is a relief to conservationists who have fought off many attempts over the years by authorities to build a fence between the parks. “Immigration authorities said [a fence] would help control illegal movement [of people], and veterinarians thought it would stop the spread of disease. It has been quite a job to stop them,” he said. “With this bilateral agreement the two countries are saying, ‘There is not going to be a fence’.”
Unfenced, the park will ensure a bigger gene pool for the species of the Kalahari region, such as its 350 lion, to prevent inbreeding and improve the animals’ chances of survival in times of hardship, he said.
Under the agreement, South Africa and Botswana will set up a joint management board of four members from each country to run Kgalagadi. — AFP