SOUTHERN AFRICAN PEACE PARKS

Greater Mapungubwe

Progress Report

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1997 - 2008

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• The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, which follows the protected area footprint, was proclaimed a World Heritage Site in July 2003. Mapungubwe is home to the famous Golden Rhino - a symbol of the power of the King of the Mapungubwe people who inhabited the Limpopo River Valley between 900 AD and 1300 AD; at the time the largest kingdom on the subcontinent.
• Peace Parks Foundation, Rupert Family Foundation, De Rothschild Foundation, De Beers, National Parks Trust and WWF-SA assisted SANParks by facilitating negotiations with landowners to either contract land or purchase properties to consolidate the core area of South Africa's contribution to the proposed TFCA - the   30 000 ha Mapungubwe National Park, officially opened on 24 September 2004.

• While Northern Tuli Game Reserve boasts a number of upmarket lodges and tented safari camps, Mapungubwe National Park had hardly any tourism infrastructure. The South African government's Poverty Relief Programme (now the Expanded Public Works programme) therefore funded the construction of a 40-bed main rest camp, a wilderness trails camp, a tented camp and campsite, game-viewing hides, a lookout point at the confluence, a day-visitors' facility and an entrance gate. A tourist road network was also constructed, the main archaeological sites rehabilitated and prepared for tourism, newly acquired farmland restored to its natural state, the park fenced in preparation for the reintroduction of game, and staff housing built. This programme is ongoing.
• On 21 June 2006 the owners of Notugre and the Botswana government signed an MoU that enabled the latter to act on Notugre's behalf regarding the then Limpopo/Shashe TFCA.
• On 22 June 2006, the MoU signalling the three nations' intent to establish and develop this transfrontier conservation area was signed by Mr Kitso Mokaila, Botswana's Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa's Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and Mr Francis Nhema, Zimbabwe's Minister of Environment and Tourism. This followed years of intricate negotiations.
• Following the appointment of an international coordinator in February 2007, the trilateral technical committee with supporting joint working groups was formed and subsequently held three meetings. A strategic plan for the TFCA's development was drafted and a visioning exercise was completed by the three countries to determine a vision, mission, long-term goals, objectives and actions for the TFCA. A site visit was undertaken to discuss a proposed crossing point over the Limpopo and Shashe rivers that would link the various components of the park and to investigate projects that would benefit the local communities.

• As an elephant management plan will be an important part of the TFCA's joint management plan, updated statistics of numbers and distribution were needed. A survey of the elephants in the Central Limpopo River Valley was therefore undertaken at the end of June 2007 and 1 187 elephants were counted. As the elephants avoid areas with high human populations, they are largely confined between the fence on the South African border with Botswana and Zimbabwe and the Tuli Block's back-line fence.

   

  

• In a significant step to protect an endangered species, a pack of 18 African wild dogs donated by SANParks was translocated from Marakele National Park in South Africa to the Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana in November 2007. Their reintroduction into the area is meant to facilitate the establishment of a viable population of these endangered animals on both sides of the Limpopo River.

   

• Also in November 2007, a "Return of the Spirits" ceremony was held in Mapungubwe National Park, a World Heritage Site. "A dignified return of the ancestors to their home where they will rest in peace," was the way South Africa's Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism described the ceremony. Proceedings started with cleansing and healing at Pretoria University, which had previously exhumed the remains of inhabitants of Mapungubwe for archaeological research purposes. It is believed that a highly sophisticated civilisation, which traded with Arabia, Egypt, India and China, existed in Mapungubwe between 900 AD and 1300 AD.

• As part of the development of the TFCA, Peace Parks Foundation is supporting the rehabilitation of components of the Shashe irrigation scheme in the Maramani Communal Area in Zimbabwe, close to the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. The Shashe irrigation scheme was fenced to protect it from elephants. Furthermore, proper zoning and planning of the area would encourage the reduction of dry-land cropping in sensitive wildlife dispersal areas, a key element to the TFCA's functioning. Certain areas within the communal area could thereby become a conservation area, forming a link between the wildlife farms on the Zimbabwean side, the Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana and Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa. This would also increase the potential for nature-based tourism activities.          View video clip

• International coordinator Johan Verhoef had a productive 2008 and good progress was made with the TFCA's integrated conservation and development plan (land-use study), alternative livelihoods study, elephant conservation management policy, predator management plan and cultural heritage plan. The drafting of an integrated management plan is still in the preparation phase, but terms of reference for the various planning projects, including their funding and implementation, have been finalised

• On 19 June 2009 the interim name Limpopo/Shashe was changed to Greater Mapungubwe TFCA by the Ministers of the three partner countries. View video clip