SANParks partners with neighbouring nations to benefit communities

In the ongoing efforts to curb poaching and snaring of animals within the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders, South African National Parks (SANParks) is working to create more partnerships with neighbouring countries to provide benefits to communities neighbouring the parks.

The Kruger National Park is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

This park links the Kruger with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.

ALSO READ: Poison, snares ravage animals in Kruger Park as poaching escalates

A visit to the Pafuri/Zimbabwe border post in the far north region of Kruger sees the Limpopo River forming a border between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

About 25 kilometres that way, as the crow flies, is the Gonarezhou border in Zimbabwe. The Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) lies on the southern Zimbabwean border with Mozambique.

It does not have a common boundary with the Kruger or the Limpopo National Park although these linkages were proposed via the Sengwe Corridor.

People crossing illegally

In its continuous efforts to manage animal movement with the Kruger’s proximity to the Zimbabwe border, Kruger regional ranger Richard Sowry said there are still many Zimbabweans and Mozambicans illegally crossing the borders.

He said the issue of food and protein was driving poaching around the area. Sowry said the corridor was part of the Sengwe community’s land near the GNP and is not within the transfrontier conservation area.

The multi-ethic group living in the Sengwe area is forced to survive on an illegal economy that includes border-jumping, poaching, smuggling and stream bank cultivation, which is cultivating within 30 metres from the highest flood level of the bank of a water body.

“The corridor starts a bit further down but the land use looks the same,” said Sowry.

“On the other side, there are people growing crops such as maize and sorghum. It’s those people in these past few months who have been concentrating on growing their crops. That’s because they had good rains in December, which is the growing season for the crops,” he added.

ALSO READ: Rhino poaching figures nothing to celebrate – experts

However, this wasn’t the case in the dry season, which was when poaching spiked. Sowry said SANParks partnerships were about realising benefits for the people.

“It’s fine to tell people they’ve got a national park, but they lose faith in the system of conservation if they’re not seeing any benefit from the national park.

“The benefit can be jobs, it can be someone owning and running their own little store where they’re selling meat, drinks or whatever to passing tourists.

“It can be people employed at the lodges who benefit from animals that are harvested or hunted in the area. The fees for hunting are large and that money goes to the communities. This process is ongoing, but right now we need to work on initiatives that grow revenue.

“Our communities in Zim said to us last year that they’ve been waiting for 20 years and hopefully now something will come of it. So they need to see benefit,” said Sowry.

“I am optimistic that when the benefit comes, they will see the value of wildlife. And when we appeal to them to stop members of the communities coming to set snares, coming to hunt with dogs, that they start policing themselves because they see the value they’re getting out of it.”

Situation at Makuleke

Meanwhile, at the Kruger’s Makuleke concession in the northern area at Return Africa Pafuri Camp in the Makuleke Contractual Park lies the quietly flowing Luvuvhu River.

It is shaded by nyala trees and fever tree forests and teems with hippos and crocodiles. It extends to the Lanner Gorge, palmfringed wetlands and rocky outcrops with 1 000-year-old baobab trees Makuleke village is also a supporter of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation area.

The Makuleke concession is the ancestral home of the Makuleke people and the most diverse and scenically attractive area in the Kruger.

Their history dates back to the 1820s when their clan settled on the land between the Limpopo and Luvuvhu Rivers, which formed the border between Mozambique, SA and Zimbabwe.

The community reclaimed its land after it was forcefully removed by the apartheid government in 1969. It had partnered with SANParks and businesses to improve the lives of the villagers.

During the forced removals, many villagers fled to neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Through the Land Restitution Act, they managed to reclaim the communal land in 1998, which was incorporated into the Kruger in Pafuri.