Key thinkers behind the planned trans-frontier conservation area that involves Botswana, South Africa and
Zimbabwe are optimistic about its success, writes MESH MOETI
The confidence of officials at the ministry of environment, tourism and wildlife finds expression in the remarks of one of them: “Mind you, we pioneered the first trans-frontier park on the continent”. Everyone is holding their breath as they take last minute glances at the programme for Thursday’s signing of a memorandum of understanding that will pave the way for negotiations leading to a second transfrontier
project that involves Botswana. Above all, they are hoping for the best. Here’s why.
The cocky statement about being pathfinders in projects of this nature aside, privately even the most sanguine of bureaucrats say they are “cautiously optimistic”. This comes out of realisation that, notwithstanding the success of the Kalahari Trans-frontier Park (KTP), this time the project ÔÇô a trans-frontier conservation area extending across the boundaries of Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe in the areas of land adjacent to the confluence of the Limpopo and the Shashe Rivers ÔÇô is a bit more complex in at
least two dimensions. The first is that while KTP involves only two countries, Botswana and South Africa, the venture they are laying the ground for on Thursday involves a third player ÔÇô Zimbabwe. Then comes the question of land ownership.
With KTP, the respective governments own land on both sides. The new project involves land that is privately owned ÔÇô or at least that is the status in Botswana and South Africa. In Zimbabwe the picture is somewhat different because part of the land is state-owned, while some of it is in private hands. Talk of a Limpopo-Shashe Trans-frontier Conservation Area came as a sequel to the success of KTP. The initial negotiations involved the KTP partners ÔÇô Botswana and South Africa, with Zimbabwe coming into the picture late in the show. Since the land earmarked for the project is not state-owned, there was need to involve landowners at the early stages. Seizing the moment, the landowners in Botswana grouped themselves into a group known as Northern Tuli Game Reserve Landowners Association (NOTUGRE) to represent the interests of people who collectively own the 70, 379. 6843 Hectares of land on the Botswana side. They drafted a document that put forward their interests with respect to the establishment, operation, and management of the proposed trans-frontier conservation area.
“There was a lot of going backwards and forth with the document to make it palatable to government,” says a source at the ministry. Central to government’s position was that whatever arrangement was finally entered into with the current composition of NOTUGRE, should remain open to future entrants ÔÇô provided they conform to the land use agreement. Sensitive to the perception that Botswana’s tourism sector is lily-white and that indigenous Batswana are systematically locked out of the lucrative business, government did not want what would appear like an exclusive arrangement for the present landowners, says a source close to the negotiations. The result is an agreement ÔÇô to be signed on Wednesday between government and NOTUGRE ÔÇô that leaves the door open for future entrants to the land use plan. The wording of the agreement states that should government or local Botswana communities and landowners wish to extend the trans-frontier conservation area to incorporate further land, the parties commit to facilitating the process subject to full adherence to the management plan of the trans-frontier conservation area.
It is further guaranteed that membership of NOTUGRE would not be “unreasonably withheld” from the new entrants ÔÇô should they apply for it. There is also a provision for consultation with local communities about the development of the trans-frontier conservation area. It is fittingly symbolic that the two signings will be held a day apart. Back to the regional project. While the initial transfrontier conservation area encompasses NOTUGRE (in Botswana), Vhembe Dongola National Park and some surrounding properties (in South Africa), as well as Tuli Circle Safari (in Zimbabwe), the MoU to be signed by the three countries’ ministers responsible for tourism ÔÇô Kitso Mokaila (Botswana), Marthinus van Schalwyk (South Africa), and Francis Nhema (Zimbabwe) ÔÇô does not preclude future inclusion of additional land into the proposed trans-frontier conservation area.
The key objectives of the trans-frontier conservation area, as captured by the MoU, are to: foster trans national collaboration and co-operation between the three countries in implementing ecosystem and cultural resource management promote alliances in the management of biological and cultural resources
enhance ecosystem integrity and natural ecological processes by harmonising wildlife management procedures across the participating countries’ international boundaries removal of barriers that impede the natural movement of animals ensure local communities participation and benefit from the management and use of natural and cultural resources within the conservation area promote cross-border tourism The MoU opens the door for negotiations proper to establish the project. It is at this stage that the finer details will be hammered out.
There is a heightened sense of urgency among the project’s drivers from the three countries. In four years, a partner in the venture ÔÇô South Africa ÔÇô will be hosting the football World Cup, and everyone wants everything to be in place by then to reap the expected benefits of increased tourism activity just before, during, and after the sporting spectacle. In Botswana, tourism officials point out that the project fits nicely into the country’s overall drive to diversify ÔÇô not only the economy ÔÇô but also the tourism sector itself. One senses exasperation that for far too long, Botswana tourism seemed to sell a single commodity ÔÇô the Chobe area.
“We see this project as an extension of our effort to diversify our tourism from Chobe by having different products throughout the country,” says an officer at the department of tourism. “We want to keep visitors
longer, and we can only do that when we have different products spread across the country. That way, we can move them (visitors) around.” Any anticipation of likely hurdles in this ambitious project? “We don’t foresee many hurdles because we already have a model to follow,” says one of the key thinkers in the undertaking. The model referred to is the Kalahari Trans-frontier Park.
(FPN)
