Johannesburg, South Africa — Political grandstanding and greed are threatening the world's biggest game reserve.
The proposed Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is meant to link South Africa's Kruger National Park with its Mozambican and Zimbabwean counterparts as the first step towards creating the planet's largest cross-border conservation area.
But political interference by South Africa's environmental affairs and tourism minister Valli Moosa, coupled with apparent corruption by consultants, and a failure to consult affected communities may yet derail the dream.
Ironically, it is Moosa's almost boundless enthusiasm for the initiative that has caused the most serious problems.
Dismissing advice that the project would take five to 10 years to get off the ground, Moosa promised an 'instant Kruger' in Mozambique by slashing delivery timetables in half, pledging to drop 120km of the Kruger Park's fence by June 2002, and insisting that at least 1 000 elephants be herded into Mozambique to kickstart the venture.
What Moosa forgot, however, was to warn the estimated 30 000 Mozambican villagers living within the borders of the proposed super-park.
The first they heard about the "Africa's miracle" was when the inaugural herd of 30 elephant arrived on their doorsteps last year October.
But, not even the elephants are happy. Two bulls immediately smashed their way back into Kruger, and have since been followed home by a steady trickle of jumbos, with a mass breakout by six females just last week.
"Enormous political pressure was exerted. There was very little that anyone could do at an official level," says former SA National Parks international co-ordinator for the Limpopo Park, Dr Leo Braack.
"The rest of the process went very smoothly over the past three years, but began unravelling towards the end of last year."
The peasants have slowly rebuilt their lives, but complain that neither government nor park officials have yet bothered to consult them.
Disgruntled village leaders, who met with park officials, foreign donors and government leaders in Maputo this week, warned they would rather wage war against lion, elephant and other wild animals than move from their ancestral land.
"The elephant release was symbolic and important politically ... but inadequate community consultation remains an overriding concern. South Africa's classical conservation know-how is excellent, but its record for community consultation can and must be improved," said German Development Bank (KfW) divisional chief for southern Africa, Kurt Hildebrand.
Speaking from Germany, Hildebrand warned that any attempt to steamroll communities would force funders to reconsider their positions. The KfW, German government and World Bank are the central funders for the transfrontier park, while South Africa's Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) has been appointed as the implementing agent.
"We are completely opposed to forced removals. Even a hint of this would destroy the philosophy of the entire project, and would destroy its viability," said Hildebrand.
Hildebrand isn't alone. The Wits Refugee Research Programme released a scathing study this week detailing community perceptions of the proposed super-park.
"We spoke to 84 household heads representing 1 000 people in 11 villages, and 40% of them had never even heard of the Limpopo Park.
Even more worrying are indications that 71% of those who had heard about it, did not actually have any real information or understanding about the park," said research programme head, Hernan del Valle.
A full 83% of respondents said they had never been physically consulted, while an equal number said they would refuse to move from their ancestral land even if offered cash and new homes elsewhere.
"Another striking finding is that 76% of respondents said they had been promised benefits from the park, but believed that no-one or only a very few people would actually benefit," said del Valle.
The study, which was slated by PPF spokesman Werner Myburg as the product of "professional jealousy", is supported by a draft KPMG tourism audit due out next month.
"The concerns are widespread, and the community meeting in Maputo has reinforced these findings. If the process is bulldozed by external forces, the entire Limpopo Park is jeopardised," said Limpopo Park senior consultant David Grossman.
Myburg insists, however, that PPF has consulted adequately and points to a community survey by consultancy group, SUNI Limitada. Both the R300 000 study and PPF's website claim there are only 7 800 villagers in the proposed park in Mozambique, and that they are all aware and supportive of the planned eco-tourism initiative.
Mozambican government census figures and village surveys by Wits researchers, however, indicate that there are probably closer to 30 000 people in the region.
Myburg also conceded that PPF had been forced to axe SUNI just last month after investigators exposed it as a bogus front company.
"It's a very difficult situation. We were fed false information, and lied to about SUNI's directors. Our investigators eventually discovered that it isn't even a registered company. We only found out afterwards, and moved quickly to dismiss them," said Myburg.
"It appears that PPF employee Herb Bourn and at least one highly placed Mozambican official were secret directors."
Neither Bourn nor SUNI executive director Brian Ring were willing to name their Mozambican partner on Thursday, but Bourne admited to writing the terms of reference for SUNI.
"I wrote the terms of reference, but acted ethically at all times," insisted Bourn.
The scandal isn't Bourn's first brush with notoriety. He advised disgraced Mpumalanga parks chief Alan Gray on how to irregularly alienate state assets in a web of trust funds and investment companies in the 1990s.
"We're trying to put it all behind us, so let's be fair. There was some political intervention, and we agree there wasn't any real community consultation before the elephants were released, but we're learnt valuable lessons and have worked hard to catch up. We now have an exhaustive consultative process in place," said Myburg.
The World Bank, Grossman and Hildebrand are all also hopeful that both PPF and the Mozambican government's recommitment to community participation this week signal a change in attitude.
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"Government's reaffirmation to the concept of community participation was particularly important," said Grossman.
World Bank consultant Rod de Vletter told the Maputo meeting that it was essential to urgently clarify the rights of affected communities, and suggested that donors fund legal representatives for the mostly illiterate villagers to ensure they got a fair deal.
"Community equity is important. We need to establish rights for the communities in the proposed reserve, even if they get land outside it," he said.
PPF has also agreed to scale back its rollout of the project, mothballing its R250 000 elephant boma in Mozambique and pledging not to release anymore animals without thorough consultation.
PPF's Limpopo Park project manager Arrie van Wyk added that the foundation had also decided to create a 'model' mini reserve of 30 000ha along the Kruger Park border to show villagers what they could expect when the park was expanded over the next five to 10 years.
"We want to create an enclosure and stock it with common game, creating jobs and an example that villagers can refer to when we talk about the greater Limpopo Park. The bulldozers went in this week to constuct the [30km] fence, and we're meeting local communities at the weekend to discuss the project further," said Van Wyk.
He added that the PPF had also deployed its first community outreach officer, South African Eddie Makuleke, to the region this week.
"We're dealing with our resource problems, and finally getting our community structures in place," he said. - (By Justin Arenstein)
