Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park shows cross-border collaboration in conservation works

The park is operated by Botswana and South Africa’s government wildlife bodies

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By Keletso Thobega for Botswana Guardian

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a classic example of how countries are collaborating on cross-border and regional projects geared at bolstering conservation efforts.

Jointly operated by Botswana and South Africa through the Department of Wildlife and National Parks and SANParks respectively - it is the first transfrontier park established in Africa.

Director in the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Kabelo Senyatso told this publication that the collaboration has been highly beneficial.

“The two authorities (DWNP and SANParks) have continually worked to harmonise conservation approaches across the KTP, which has benefited the wildlife in this land parcel, as demonstrated by healthy and increasing wildlife numbers for most species.”

He said that loss of livestock to mammalian carnivores, especially lions, wild dogs and hyenas, is the most dominant human-wildlife conflict issue.

Gantsi, with its white sand and long stretches of flora and fauna, is considered the capital of the Kalahari. Officials at the wildlife department office in the town said the recurring challenges in the area are mostly related to human-wildlife conflict and wildlife invasion.

The DWNP director said over the past few years, there have been impressive efforts aimed at conservation, with special priority on ensuring that there is a people-based approach that puts livelihoods at the centre of rural interventions.

Among some of their interventions Semyatso mentioned trophy hunting quotas issued to Community Based Organisations, who then use the income earned for socioeconomic development; and campsites awarded to some, for example, BORAVAST Trust has been awarded a campsite at Two Rivers (Kalahari Transfrontier Park), which is used to help raise income for the community.

There is also support with development of Land Use and Management Plans which help guide on optimal use of land for socio-economic development.

This in addition to other projects supported by other Departments within the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, including the salt project at Zutshwa, Khawa Dune Challenge,

Prosopis removal by BORAVAST Trust, Khuis nature park and the Tsabong camel park among others.

Generally, natural resource management in the Kalahari landscape is characterised by conflict between conservation goals, economic development and livelihoods, particularly as it is home to large herds of angulates and iconic predators, the landscape was dominated by low-density wildlife with hunter-gatherer livelihoods.

Botswana ascribes to several world conservation organisations such as Conservation International, CITES and WWF, which encourage the development of a single international wildlife culture.

Furthermore, Botswana is one of the several countries who, having recognised the significant scale and detrimental economic, social and environmental consequences of the illegal wildlife trade, committed to decisive and urgent action to tackle illegal wildlife trade, particularly in endangered fauna and flora.

In accordance with the 2014 London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade treaty, the signatories committed to working in unison to make efforts towards ending illegal wildlife trade.

In March 2015 Botswana hosted the Kasane Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade to evaluate progress in achieving the objectives of the London Declaration and reaffirm commitment to eradicating wildlife products from markets, strengthening legal frameworks and deterrents to strengthen law enforcement efforts.

These were echoed at the 2016 first meeting of the African Wildlife Forensics Network which assimilated forensic science in the system of illegal wildlife trade enforcement in Africa.

This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organization Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Read the original story here.