Bennie Visser
The notion that the Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape may supersede Kruger National Park as South Africa’s premier reserve is one that very few would take seriously. Yet this is exactly what the powers that be on national level believe to be a very real possibility. They say while Addo will never have the area of Kruger, it will exceed it by diversity.
The director of research development at South African National Parks (SANP) headquarters in Pretoria, Dr Anthony Hall- Martin, is one of the most enthusiastic driving forces behind the expansion of Addo.
It is “a huge park boasting Africa’s big five within an hour’s drive of a major city with an unparalleled diversity in fauna and flora”, he enthused at a gathering at Addo arranged by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The occasion was the ceremonial fence-cutting to expand the elephants’ enclosed camp by 6E000ha to 15E000ha. The land was purchased with R15- million donated by IFAW and the guest of honour was equally enthusiastic Minster of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa.
Moosa is very popular in the conservation fraternity. “An environmental minister belongs in the environment and not an office,” he said.
His keen attitude, he said, is in line with the government’s commitment to conservation and job creation. He is also largely being credited with brokering a deal which will, within a year, see the Addo reserve stretching to the coast.
Officials cited the massive development of eco-tourism related guest lodges and similar facilities which are thriving on the periphery of the Kruger National Park. “These create jobs,” they said.
At Addo, the number of private lodges near the park has increased from one to 18 in eight years. The growth rate of tourists has been sustained at 20% a year to its present 105 000 visitors per year.
The government’s plan with Addo is a super-park stretching from the Donaldson Dam (formerly Lake Mentz), along the Zuurberg range past the little town of Addo to the coast. In the process the greater Addo Elephant Park will engulf the Zuurberg National Park and the coastal Woody Cape Reserve, and stretch dozens of kilometres into the sea where no fishing, commercial or otherwise, will be allowed.
This, Hall-Martin said, would create a huge variety of habitats and geographic features.
When the land purchase programme is complete, the entire park will be enclosed with elephant-proof fencing. At national and other main roads, culverts will allow elephants and other game to roam freely.
The greater Addo Elephant Park initiative will see a park big enough to support an elephant population of 2 500. At present, there are 316 elephants at Addo.
IFAW, with its two-million donors worldwide, is a welcome partner for the SANP in the venture. One of IFAW’s conditions is that no elephant culling may be done on land purchased with its money.
The current phase is the purchase of land and it is here that a few snags are encountered. Some land owners are smelling money – lots of it – and have upped their asking prices substantially. It is not uncommon for farmers to claim that their land is indeed very suitable for agriculture, even though there has been no such development on the farms for many years. Others want to join the party with visions of lucrative private lodges within the park, and some farmers have tried to swap relatively small tracts of land for such rights. Generally, a wide variety of objections are raised, but in almost all the cases money talks and farmers are prepared to negotiate.
Without too much of a fuss and working quietly behind the scenes, SANP and IFAW have already achieved what many thought would be impossible. Within months, the greater Addo Elephant National Park will stretch to the coast.
IFAW’s South African director, Sarah Scarth, said what remains is the wrapping up of land purchases and then the expensive and extensive process of elephant-proof fencing. The eventual super-park and its eco-tourism infrastructure will create many, many jobs in a province that desperately needs them.
“With an enthusiastic and committed environmental minister like Valli Moosa on board, everything is possible.”