Current Status

Status 1997 - 2008

2009-05-03

• 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.
  • About 4600 animals in total have been translocated to Limpopo National Park.
  • 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, Massingir hiking trail and Campismo Albufeira;
  • 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;
  • 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;
  • The good working relationship between the Limpopo and Kruger national parks continues on an operational level. The joint security committee meets regularly and in November 2008 Kruger National Park loaned a patrol boat, donated by the SANParks Honorary Rangers, to Limpopo National Park for regular patrols on the Massingir Dam to control gill netting in the Olifants Gorge;
  • Phase two of tourism development in the park began in the early part of 2008. This entails developing concessions in the Boala and Madonse areas as well as a further concession at Massingir;
  • Good progress was also made with the tender process for two major consultancies whose results will guide the Agence Française de Développement investment. The latter will be focused on the planning and development of the so-called ‘buffer zone', the area where communities live along the Limpopo and Olifants rivers, as well as infrastructure development in the park;and
  • In September 2008, 4x4 enthusiasts were given the opportunity to explore Limpopo National Park and at the same time participate in a census that would have a meaningful impact on the knowledge base of the park. Dubbed Census on Safari, data collection encompassed plants, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, insects and fish. Peace Parks Foundation assisted in the compilation of a database that would standardise the means by which the contestants captured data from the field. The database includes a spatial reference by means of GPS location and associated multimedia data, such as photographs, video footage and audio files.
• 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 . In terms of the Skukuza Agreement, this rotated every two years between the three countries and was replaced by a permanent secretariat.
• 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 is demining the Sengwe Corridor.
• 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, 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.
• An environmental impact assessment was begun on the crossing point over the Limpopo River to link the Zimbabwean component to the Mozambican and South African sections.
• On 22 May 2007, the World Biodiversity Day, a new wetland of international importance was announced: the Makuleke Wetlands in northern Kruger National Park. The Makuleke Wetlands are part of the 24 000 ha private Makuleke Concession and, in the words of the Ramsar Convention "an excellent example of a flood plain vlei type". There are 31 flood pans in the area which attenuate floods, resulting in reduced flood damage in downstream areas of Mozambique.
• The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) Treaty provides for the development of both the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park and larger transfrontier conservation area (GLTFCA).The GLTP will form the core area of the GLTFCA, and together they will represent seven different land-use categories, namely national parks, private game parks, private conservancies, safari hunting areas, government controlled hunting areas, proposed ecotourism development areas and communal areas.In 2008, on the Mozambican side, land-use planning assistance was given to the Licoturismo initiative, a consortium of private landowners that lies south of Limpopo National Park and east of Kruger National Park. A current landscape character will be done using a Geographic Information System (GIS), leading to detailed regional planning and zoning.
• At the end of 2007, the Frankfurt Zoological Society signed a 10-year agreement with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to assist with the management of Gonarezhou National Park, a Zimbabwean component of the GLTFCA. The project will focus primarily on support for park management, with a component of ecological monitoring. To date a general park management plan has been completed and work has started on upgrading the workshop and office facilities at Chipinda Pools.