Conservation and development in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park

The Limpopo National Park was formed in 2001, when the status of a hunting area was changed into that of a protected area. It forms part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTFP), which also includes the Kruger National Park in South Africa, the Gonarezhou National Park, and other protected areas in Zimbabwe. The South African Peace Parks Foundation (PPF),  is one of the major driving forces behind the formation of Transfrontier parks (TFPs) and conservation areas (TFCAs). Nelson Mandela and the late Prins Bernhard of the Netherlands were among its patrons, when PPF was founded in 1997. Linking nature conservation and economic development, the foundation’s support for transfrontier conservation is funded by a large number of international donors, including Dutch organizations such as the ‘Postcode lotterij’.

Africans feel threatened by elephants

NOS news reportage on residents in Limpopo National Park, Mozambique, for the Dutch 20.00 hrs news, 16 April 2011:

‘The elephant is on its return in Africa. More and more land is returned to nature. Yet, the livelihoods of people who live in such newly proclaimed nature reserves are threatened, concludes a team of researchers who worked on the edge of nature reserves.‘

Peace Parks: Good for animals, not for people

Reportage for the Dutch television programme, Nieuwsuur

by Lucas Waagmeester (NOS-journalist), 16 april 2011:

‘People will reap the benefits of nature conservation. That was the promise at the launch of Peace Parks, some 14 years ago. But rural people living on the edge of these parks are threatened rather than benefiting.

In the Limpopo national park in Mozambique, some 30,000 people now find themselves living in a park. Elephants destroy fields, while lions love to eat cattle. What should go first: allowing wildlife in, or enabling people to move?’