Current Status

Status 2000 - 2006

2007-05-03

• The respective Ministers of the Environment signed an MoU towards the establishment of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park on 10 November 2000.
• On 4 October 2001 the first 25 elephants were translocated from Kruger National Park to Limpopo National Park. At this tri-national event Dr Nelson Mandela opened the gate between South Africa and Mozambique to allow the truck transporting the elephants to cross the border, where they were officially handed over by Minister Valli Moosa of South Africa to his Mozambican counterpart, Minister Fernando Sumbana.
• Mozambique proclaimed the million-hectare Limpopo National Park on 27 November 2001 and requested the Foundation’s assistance in overseeing its development as a SADC-approved project. The following have been achieved:
  • Management and tourism development plans were completed and indicated that the park could accommodate 486 180 visitors per annum;
  • All known suspected mined areas and development sites were cleared of land mines and unexploded ordnance, according to international standards;
  • The boundary for the buffer zone was realigned to ensure that the communities living along the Limpopo River would have adequate space for their resource utilisation needs;
  • To date, 150 people have been trained and are currently employed. Given the fact that Kruger National Park attracts 1.3 million tourists a year and that one job is created for every eight tourists visiting, Limpopo National Park has the potential to create 61 000 jobs.
  • 4 148 animals were translocated which, combined with 50 km of fence being dropped, encouraged more animals, including some 500 elephants, to cross into the park by themselves;
  • Park headquarters and staff housing were built;
  • The first tourism facilities were opened in September 2005 and include the Machampane tented camp, Machampane wilderness trail, Shingwedzi 4×4 eco-trail, Aguia Pesqueira campsite, Campismo Albufeira and Massingir hiking trail;
  • A resettlement working committee was established and seven communities living in remote areas inside the park have opted to relocate to areas with better living conditions, and
  • Grants totalling €11,9 million by the German Ministry of Cooperation through KfW and €11,0 million by the Agence Française de Développement were secured.
• Since the signing of the MoU in 2000 working groups were operational under a technical committee which, in turn, was operational under the ministerial committee. The signing of the Great Limpopo treaty effectively transformed the technical committee into a joint management board and the working groups into management committees. The thus established permanent management committees deal with conservation; safety and security; finance, human resources and legislation, and tourism. Facilitating the process and driving the development of the TFCA is an international coordinator, who was first appointed by the partner countries in 2000; the position was funded by the Foundation . This position rotated every two years between the three countries and will ibe replaced by a permanent secretariat in 2007.
• Presidents Chissano, Mbeki and Mugabe signed a treaty establishing Great Limpopo on 9 December 2002.
• The South African government funded tourism infrastructure development projects in Kruger National Park, designed to facilitate the movement of tourists in Great Limpopo.
• The Makuleke region’s first luxury lodge opened in 2002 and the second opened in July 2005.
• The Pafuri Integrated Land-use and Tourism Plan was drafted in order to integrate tourism development and conservation in the Pafuri region. This region includes the northern section of the Limpopo and Kruger national parks, the Makuleke region, areas in South Africa’s Limpopo Province that lie to the west of Kruger National Park and the Makuleke region, and the Sengwe and Tshipise communal areas in Zimbabwe.
• The establishment of a combined local authority comprising the Chiredzi, Beit Bridge and Chipinge district councils in Zimbabwe was instrumental in establishing the Sengwe/Tshipise Corridor. The Zimbabwean Ministry of Defence has started demining the Sengwe Corridor.
• A tourism development plan for Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe was completed.
• The Great Limpopo joint management board developed a five-year integrated development and business plan that will provide a comprehensive package of business and investment opportunities. It will also guide the joint management board and management committee activities over the next five years, as well as the country-specific interdepartmental budgeting processes; provide potential funders and donors with information on Great Limpopo, and establish the baseline for evaluation of this project.
• Presidents Guebuza, Mbeki and Mugabe officially opened Giriyondo Access Facility between Kruger National Park and Limpopo National Park on 16 August 2006.