Singing, ululations, drumbeats and dancing heralded the establishment of one of the world’s biggest cross-border conservation areas on Monday, signed into existence by the presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The colourful ceremony to formally create the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) took place in the Mozambican coastal town of Xai-Xai, about 250km north of the capital Maputo, at the mouth of the Limpopo River.
Speaking after signing the treaty, South African President Thabo Mbeki said the new park — the biggest in Africa — would strengthen existing relationships between the three signatories.
”This initiative will act as a new framework of interaction between our countries, based on an agenda set by the African people themselves, turned into reality through reliance on our own resources,” he said.
Through a series of land corridors, the GLTP links Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park, South Africa’s Kruger National Park (KNP) and Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park.
According to the treaty, the process of managing the park will be done through a joint monitoring board and a ministerial committee. The document says the sovereign rights of each country shall be respected, ”and no party shall impose decisions on another”.
It further provides for security and border control.
”Where fences have been removed from previous international boundaries, each party undertakes to respect the sovereign rights of a bordering party and not to allow its officials to cross… unless previously agreed… ,” it states.
According to Peace Parks Foundation executive Willem van der Riet, the Mozambican authorities have received R65-million from the German Development Bank KFW to help establish infrastructure in their area of the park.
He said a further R65-million was also being made available by the same donor to help with the resettlement of local people in the corridor linking the Limpopo National Park to the KNP.
About R10-million of the amount would be used to remove mines — a legacy of Mozambique’s civil war — from the area.
The South African government has made available R40-million for the building of infrastructure, including bridges and roads, in the eastern part of the KNP.
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, speaking at the ceremony, said the success of the initiative would depend in part on the participation of local communities.
”In today’s world, conservation cannot be separated from human development.”
If conservation did not consider social and economic factors, it was doomed to failure.
”We have started opening borders for animals — they’re more disciplined than men — but in SADC we are looking at ways we can open the borders for all,” Chissano said to loud applause.
Veteran Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who like his South African counterpart cut short his speech because of the extreme heat at the venue, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the park.
He made no mention of how his troubled country will fund the establishment of infrastructure in the 50km-long land corridor needed to connect the Gonarezhou National Park to the GLTP.
Van der Riet said Zimbabwe’s current political problem were denying the country access to foreign funding.
Endangered Wildlife Trust past president Dr John Ledger, speaking by phone ahead of Monday’s event, warned that the partnership between the three countries was an unequal one.
”A transfrontier park is essentially a partnership between countries. Where there is an enormous disparity in the capacity of the park’s management in adjacent countries, this can lead to problems.
”It is difficult to have a partnership with this type of inequality,” he said.
But World Wildlife Fund-SA chief Tony Frost, in a similar interview, was more positive, saying the park was a ”brilliant idea”.
”From a peace-on-the-continent point of view, transfrontier parks have great potential for creating areas of co-operation,” he said.
Monday’s ceremony was held in Xai-Xai’s Heroes’ Square, on the banks of the Limpopo River. Hundreds of local people, many in traditional dress, crammed into the area to witness the event. – Sapa