New land acquisitions have enlarged two of the Northern Cape’s national parks to more than 100 000ha.
The parks’ bigger footprints will allow them to cope better with climate change, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Monday.
In a speech delivered at the opening of a wildlife film festival in Durban, he announced a ”corridor of properties” has been added to the Namaqua National Park, linking it to the coast.
The park is home to the world’s smallest tortoise — the Namaqua speckled padloper — and conserves its richest succulent flora.
”We have already acquired the majority of the corridor properties, and SANParks [South African National Parks] is currently engaged in a discussion with [diamond-mining company] De Beers with a view to the contractual incorporation of the coastal area between the Groen and Spoeg rivers.
”It has also recently been decided to expand the footprint of the park across the N7 [national road] into the Kamiesberg range, south-east of Kamieskroon.”
Van Schalkwyk said the park’s expansion means it will vary in altitude from sea level to 1 600m. ”This will provide a greater variety of habitats and thus reduce the risk to our endemic species posed by climate-change trends. With the acquisition of the corridor farms, the … [park] now expands to over 100 000ha,” he said.
More expansion
A second park in the province to pass the 100 000ha mark is the Tankwa Karoo National Park.
”The recent acquisition of new properties has brought in an important component of the Tankwa River system and more of the biologically important Roggeveld Mountain escarpment. Again, this provides necessary large expanses crucial for conserving arid habitats, but also the altitudinal variation that build resilience as a key response to climate-change risks.”
Also in the Northern Cape, it is planned to buy land along the Riet River for incorporation into the newly proclaimed Mokala National Park, located about 80km south-west of Kimberley.
In the Western Cape, there are plans to acquire a 3 700ha property, including threatened lowland fynbos habitat, for the Agulhas National Park.
Van Schalkwyk said discussions are also under way with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry on the ”full assignment” of 100 000ha of Garden Route indigenous forest to SANParks.
By a recent agreement, the mountain catchments and forests of the renowned tourist route are currently ”managed” by SANParks.
”[This would] lay the basis for the proclamation of a Garden Route National Park by the end of March [next year]. This park would incorporate the Tsitsikamma National Park, the Wilderness National Park, the Knysna Lake area and the indigenous forests and mountain catchment areas.
”This would lay a basis for the integrated management of the estuaries and lake systems, fynbos areas, indigenous forests and marine protected areas that make up the Garden Route,” the minister said. — Sapa