ARE PEACE PARKS EFFECTIVE PEACEBUILDING TOOLS?
EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF GREAT LIMPOPO TRANSFRONTIER PARK AS A
REGIONAL STABILIZING AGENT
By
Julie E. Darnell
Submitted to the
Faculty of the School oflntemational Service
of American University
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
m
Ethics, Peace, and Global Affuirs
Chair:
~~~Christos K yrou 1 lw') w Louis Goodman, Dean I tacfi~ \ Date
2008
American University
Washington, D.C. 20016
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Copyright 2008 by Darnell, Julie E.
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by
Julie E. Darnell
2008
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ARE PEACE PARKS EFFECTIVE PEACEBUILDING TOOLS?
EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF THE GREAT LIMPOPO TRANSFRONTIER
PARK AS A REGIONAL STABILIZING AGENT
BY
Julie E. Darnell
ABSTRACT
In recent decades peace parks and transboundary parks in historically unstable regions have become popular solutions to addressing development, conservation and
security goals. While the absence of overt militarized conflict is necessary for a peace
park to be established, little research has been done as to whether the parks increase the
stability in the area; improve the lives of proximal indigenous people; and help countries
meet development goals. This project evaluates if the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park
has increased the stability of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe and reduced the
potential for future internal conflict.
11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project would not have been possible with the input and guidance of so many
people. First, thank you to my committee members, Professors Julie Mertus and Christos
·Kyrou. Your input during the inception of the project and continued support throughout
the thesis were instrumental to its successful completion. Thanks also to Professor John
King for your guidance on the questionnaire, your willingness to provide feedback was
greatly appreciated; to Professor Lucinda Peach for your responsiveness and words of
encouragement; and to Jeff Epstein for generously agreeing to review the ethics portion
of this paper and providing such helpful feedback.
I am extremely grateful to the School of International Service for awarding me a
research travel grant, enabling me to attend the 2008 Environment Interdisciplinary
Association Conference. I presented the ethics portion of my thesis at this conference and
found the experience extremely insightful and a rewarding capstone for the thesis in
general, which greatly contributed to my experience as a graduate student and student
researcher.
Finally, a special thanks to my family, whose support during this process was a
constant source of motivation. In particular, I am deeply grateful for the unwavering
support and encouragement of my lovely husband, Randy Ramsey.
lll TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii LIST OF TABLES ...... v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...... vi
Chapter 1. THE GREAT LIMPOPO TRANSFRONTIERPARK ...... 1 2. WHAT IS A PEACE PARK? ...... 5 3. INTRODUCTION TO KEY PEACE PARKS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PEACEMAKING CONCEPTS ...... 24
4. HISTORY OF THE PARK ...... 31 5. RESEARCH DESIGN ...... 53 6. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ...... 59 7. PEACEBUILDING ANALYSES ...... 91 8. DEVELOPMENT ANALYSES ...... 103 9. CONCLUSION ...... 114
Appendix A. MAP OF PARK ...... 119 B. TIMELINE ...... 120 C. DIAGRAM OF PARK MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE ...... 123 D. MDG SEVEN ...... 124 E. WDI...... 126 F. QUESTIONNAIRE ...... 128
WORKS CITED ...... 132
lV LIST OF TABLES
Table
I. CONFLICT TRAP EVALUATION ...... 104
2. GDP GROWTH RATE ...... 106
3. GDP PER CAPITA INCOME ...... 106
4. PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION LIVING ON LESS THAN $1 A DAY ...... 108
5. PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION LIVING ON LESS THAN $2 A DAY ...... 108
6. PERCENTAGE OF ADULT POPULATION INFECTED WITH HIV ...... 108
7 CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX DATA ...... 111
8. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION'S RESOURCE ALLOCATION INDEX (IRAI) & COUNTRY POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT (CPIA) ...... 111
9. GLOBAL INTEGRITY INDEX ...... 112
10. SELECTED WDI INDICATORS FOR MOZAMBIQUE, SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE (1998) ...... 126
11. SELECTED WDI INDI CA TO RS FOR MOZAMBIQUE, SOUTH AFRICA, AND ZIMBABWE (2005) ...... 127
v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
A WF African Wildlife Foundation
CAMPFIRE Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources
CBNRM Community Based Natural Resources Management
FRELIMO Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique)
GEF Global Environmental Facility
GLTCA Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area
GL TP Great Limpopo Tranfrontier Park
IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature (often referred to as the
World Conservation Union)
KfW German Bank for Development
LNP Limpopo National Park
NEPAD New Partnership for Africa's Development
NGO Non-governmental Organization
RRP Refugee Research Programme
RENAMO Mozambican National Resistance (Resisencia Nacional Mocambicana)
SADC Southern Africa Development Community
VI SANParks South African National Parks
TBCA Transboundary Conservation Area
TBPA Transboundary Protected Area
TFCA Transfrontier Conservation Area
TFPA Transfrontier Protected Area
US AID United States Agency for International Development
UN United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
WB World Bank
WWF World Wide Fund for Nature
Vll CHAPTER 1
THE GREAT LIMPOPO TRANSFRONTIER PARK
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Southern Africa is an unprecedented development endeavor reversing the trend of depleting the natural resources of a developing country. Choosing to foster conservation, Mozambique, South Africa, and
Zimbabwe are attempting to also meet economic development goals via ecotourism with the creation of this large transboundary park. Furthermore the park, as a "peace park," has the potential to serve as a stabilizing agent for both the region and the individual states that comprise the park. However, development efforts, particularly when they are fast-tracked out of desperate need for economic change, are often inadvertently instituted at a cost to the local people. With the promise of attracting tourists and jobs, this peace park has the potential to greatly benefit local communities, or, if mismanaged, be an irritant that further deteriorates the region.
Historically, development has been driven by very realist motives. States deemed strategic to world powers often receive more aid than others. Powerful states have made a habit of exploiting the resources of poorer states via conquering, colonialism, extracting natural resources, and exploiting less expensive labor. Dangerous waste and
environmentally hazardous industries, outlawed in developed nations, are shipped to poor nations eager for income at any cost; and increasingly, low wage positions in
industrialized nations are being outsourced to nations with less expensive labor and lax
1 2
labor laws and environmental regulations. However, in recent years states have been forced to cooperate with each other as the world population increases and natural resources are recognized as limited and worth conserving. This is particularly true with the environment and industries impacting the environment. Many environmental issues are not confined by state boundaries. A single river, such as the Colorado River in North
America or the Zambezi River in Africa, can be an important water source for several nations. The concept of natural resources as a point of conflict is a familiar one, but transboundary peace parks represent the hope that natural resources can also serve as a tool for cooperation between nations that facilitates both growth and stability.
In the 1980s, South Africa's Kruger National Park was a place feared by
Mozambicans. This is the route that many chose to take as they fled their civil war
embroiled country for the relative safety of South Africa. Many had family and friends in
South Africa, and the possibility of finding work in South African mines, but to get there they had to pass through mine fields at Mozambique's border, scale a barbed wire fence
charged with a lethal electrical voltage, and walk the thousands of acres of National
Park. 1 Between the wild animals and rangers that had orders to shoot trespassers on
sight, the park was perhaps the most dangerous part of the crossing. 2 It is estimated that
as many as 200 people a year died at the fence alone.3 The fence, erected by South
1 Tania Monteiro, "'Hundreds killed' by South Africa's Border Fence," New Scientist, January 20, 1990.
2 At that time Kruger park rangers had orders to shoot poachers on sight and refugees were shot as suspected poachers.
3 Monteiro. 3
Africa's apartheid regime after Mozambique gained independence from Portugal, has long been a symbol of divisiveness.
Twenty years later portions of the fence have been brought down and the mines dug up with the opening of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP). At a fence cutting ceremony in 2002, South Africa's minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Valli Moosa stated the fence had been built to "fortify the apartheid laager" and that,
"this fence was erected by the apartheid regime in 1975, after the liberation of
Mozambique. We are bringing down the laager. You don't solve a problem with your neighbour by building a fence. "4
There are great hopes for the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Kruger National
Park is one of the most visited parks in the world drawing over a million tourists annually. 5 By partnering with an already established tourist draw, Mozambique and
Zimbabwe hope to jump start ecotourism endeavors. The park holds the possibility of bringing much needed jobs to the region, achieving significant conservation goals, while promising to be an agent of peacebuilding for the three nations that have faced major internal turmoil in the last half of the twentieth century.
This paper provides a case study of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park and evaluates if the park is an effective peacebuilding tool. Asserting that development and peacebuilding are related, the research methodology evaluates if the park is a stabilizing
4 Melissa Wray, "How Much of the Fence Between the Park and Limpopo Nature Reserve has been Removed", Destination Kruger Park http://www.krugerpark.co.za/ krugerpark-times-3-1-kruger-fence-21861.html (accessed 2008 February 17).
5 The 2006/2007 SANParks annual reports cites 1,313,185 visitors for the 2006- 2007 fiscal year. South African National Parks, South African National Parks Annual Report 2006-2007 (Pretoria, 2007). 4
agent in the region using Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko's evaluative method
(peacebuilding), Johan Galtung's violence indicators (peacebuilding), and Paul Collier's development traps (development). Additionally, an analysis of ethical issues related to the park familiarizes readers with wide reaching issues related to the park. Familiarity with these issues equips the reader to critically evaluate the subsequent peacebuilding and
development analysis. CHAPTER2
WHAT IS A PEACE PARK?
The term peace park has many different meanings. It can represent any one of the numerous peace parks, generally small tracts of land hosting a monument to lasting peace, established throughout the world by concerned individuals and organizations. One of the more famous peace parks is the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park in Japan. Within the United States and Canada the Rotary Club has erected dozens of peace parks and monuments. Seattle hosts "Peace Park" established by a University of Washington professor with the proceeds from the Hiroshima Peace Prize. Located on a small plot of land cleared of abandoned cars and debris, Peace Park was dedicated in 1990 to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima. The park is home to a statue of Sadako Sasaki, the young girl who survived the Hiroshima bombing but died of radiation at the age of twelve. Children from around the world visit the park and leave paper cranes with the statue as symbols of their wish for world peace. Washington, D.C. 's Lafayette Square is the home of another "Peace Park," the location of the longest continuous peace vigil.
Peace Park was established in 1981 when William Thomas Hellanback started his antinuclear vigil. The vigil has continued 24 hours a day ever since.
Additionally, the border of the United States and Canada hosts many formal parks celebrating the friendship between the two countries and the over 3,000 miles of contiguous, undefended border. Among these parks is the 2,300-acre International Peace
5 6
Garden. This formal botanical garden sits on the border of South Dakota, United States and Manitoba, Canada. The International Peace Garden was conceived by Dr. Henry
Moore as a place "where the people of the two countries could share the glories found in a lovely garden and the pleasures found in warm friendships."6 The park hosts memorials to World War II, 9-11, a 120-foot Peace Tower, and seven Peace Poles presented to the Park by the Japanese Government. The park draws tourists from all over the world and is home to an international music camp for children. Citizens of both
Canada and the United States assist with the upkeep of the park during gardening days.
The term "peace park" also refers to trans boundary protected areas (TBP A's) founded in celebration or hopes of a lasting peace or in some instances established specifically to resolve conflicts. This is the type of peace park on which this paper focuses. The first international peace park, the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park was founded in 1932, uniting parkland in the United States and Canada. This park was established as a symbol of "peace and friendship" between the two countries and served the dual purpose of uniting the two protected areas of wilderness and enabling the rangers on both sides to be better stewards of the land.7 The proponents of the trans boundary park recognized that ecosystems are oblivious to borders drawn by people. "In this larger context, the existence of the 'Peace Park' is a statement about human stewardship and
6 Nan Shipley, A History of the International Peace Garden (International Peace Garden, 1982).
7 Rotary International, "It Began as a Bold Idea: Where no boundary could be seen, no boundary should be ... " http://www.nps.gov/glac/pdf/rotary_ web.pdf (accessed 27 January 2008). 7
cooperation within the relatively intact ecosystem we call the Crown of the Continent. To most everyone, it is one place. "8
While the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was a symbolic celebration of the peaceful relations between two countries, the transboundary peace park has more recently served as both a peacebuilding and a peacemaking tool.9 In the last decade, peace parks have been springing up all over the globe with increasing frequency. From the Balkans to the Korean demilitarized zone, transboundary peace parks are being utilized to foster cooperation between countries with a history of conflict. The continents hosting the largest number of transboundary protected areas are Africa and South
America. In Southern Africa 18 transboundary peace parks are in development, with six
of them involving South Africa. 10 In South America peace parks are being increasingly
used to resolve border disputes and stabilize conflict areas. La Amistad Peace Park and
the Cordillera del Condor Peace Park are two examples of peace parks used to mitigate
conflict in areas of high biodiversity. The following overviews of the La Amistad Peace
Park and the Cordillera del Condor provide further context for the peace park concept.
8 National Park Service, "Peace Park Introduction", National Park Service http://home.nps.gov/ glac/forteachers/peace-park-introduction-continued.htm (accessed 27 January 2008).
9 Peacebuilding is connotative of actions that help to foster peace, through normalizing relations and providing opportunity for reconciliation, in an area that may be prone to instability but is not actively engaged in a conflict. Peacemaking is used in reference to efforts to resolve a current or ongoing conflict.
10 Peace Parks Conservation and Conflict Resolution, ed. Saleem H Ali (2007). 8
La Amistad Peace Park (Costa Rica and Panama)
Established in 1979, La Amistad is significant as the most mature of the new models of conflict resolution peace parks and its success has helped popularize the concept. As one of the most peaceful of the Latin American countries and the strongest regional democracy, Costa Rica does not have a state military, nor do paramilitary or guerrilla groups have strongholds in the country. 11 However, Costa Rica is surrounded by regional instability and its half-century of peace is an anomaly in the region.
Panama has more recently known conflict and experienced regular conflict related to access to its isthmus and U.S. intervention in the region. Bordered by instability in the form of the Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua and the U.S./ Panama tensions related to the canal and General Noriega, Costa Rica chose a path of positive peace to stabilize its borders. Eschewing militarized borders, Costa Rica opted instead to take a proactive role at maintaining friendly border relations with Panama by leading the negotiations to establish La Amistad as a transboundary park.
La Amistad is notable for its biodiversity, its success as an ecotourist draw, and being one of the first parks with peacebuilding as an active goal. With a portion of the park decreed a World Heritage site the region is recognized by the United Nations for its ecological value. The portion of the park in Costa Rica contains nine of the twelve life zones present in the country and combined with the Panama portion represents the largest
protected area of mountain ecosystems in Central America. 12 The importance of this
11 Costa Rica's military was disbanded in 1948.
12 Global Environmental Facility, "Conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in La Amistad and La Osa Conservation Areas", 9
region to the global community has helped attract funding for biodiversity projects, sustainable development projects, and conservation projects drawing the attention of
NGO's and international institutions. Additionally, La Amistad and Costa Rica's other national parks have become poster-children for the potential of ecotourism. Finally, the border region that constitutes La Amistad was actually a source of conflict between Costa
Rica and Panama that was settled in 1921. However, decades of distrustful relations
followed the peace treaty "settling" that border dispute and the relationship vacillated
between amiable and tense. While political tensions have escalated, due to failed trade
agreements and relationships with the United States related to exploration for oil reserves
and the building of a thoroughfare road, the park has been a continuous source of
cooperation between the two countries . 13
Both Panama and Costa Rica have two borders and it is interesting to compare the
other border of each country. During Nicaragua's civil war, Costa Rica's northern border
became a military outpost for the Sandinista rebels. Nicaragua's General Daniel Ortega
conceived the effective strategy of creating a transboundary park to help facilitate the
demilitarization of Costa Rica's northern border. The creation of Si-a-Paz Peace Park
helped eliminate the military elements, but in subsequent years the park has floundered.
http://www. gefweb. org/Outreach/ outreach-PUblications/Proj ect factsheet/CostaRica cons-1-bd-undp-eng-ld. pdf (accessed 1 December 2007).
13 Juan Jose Castro and others, "The La Amistad Biosphere Reserve," in Conservation ofBiodiversity and the New Regional Planning, ed. Richard E. Saunier and Richard A. Meganck (Organization of American States and the IUCN--The World Conservation Union, 1995). http://www.oas.org/osde/publications/Unit/oea04e/ begin.htm#Contents [accessed December 2, 2007]. 10
The largest portion of Si-aPaz is in Nicaragua and the park has not had the oversight or
funding that La Amistad received.
The Darien Gap wilderness forms an intimidating border between Panama and
Colombia. Described as impassable Darien Gap hosts two national Parks, Darien
National Park in Panama and Los Katios National Park in Colombia. Beyond the parks,
the area is undeveloped, although there has been a lengthy battle to build a road through
Darien Gap, providing the missing link to the Pan-American Highway. The border is
impacted by Colombia's guerilla wars and is considered the "most lawless" of all of
Colombia's five borders.14 Although violence in the area has abated over the last several
years, the area is still considered unsafe due to the presence of paramilitary groups.
Colombia's conflicts are daunting and rather than collaborating, Panama has grown to
view the Darien Gap as a barrier that helps to protect the areas inland. 15 However,
discussions are currently underway to create a transboundary protected area between
Panama and Colombia. This would formally protect the Darien National Park World
Heritage Site in Panama, which is currently threatened by degradation as a result of
unregulated development and side effects of Colombia's conflict.16
La Amistad illustrates an important phenomenon, that of a country with
significant park experience and a higher level of stability positively influencing its
14 Jeremy McDermott, "Analysis: Colombia's conflict spills over", BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1913475.stm (accessed 20 January 2008).
15 Alex Sanchez, "Tiny Panama Roars", Council on Hemispheric Affairs http://www.coha.org/2008/03/18/tiny-panama-roars/ (accessed 1 June 2008).
16 Pascal 0. Girot, The Darien Gap Region Between Colombia and Panama: Gap or Seal? (San Jose, Costa Rica: The Earth Council, 1998). 11
neighbor. Loose parallels can be drawn between Costa Rica and South Africa: Both countries exist in regions that experienced heavy colonization and as a consequence were subject to arbitrary borders; both have a historical investment in national parks and a mature government conservation network; and both countries serve as regional anchors in an unstable region. Costa Rica, by working to perpetuate positive peace with its neighbor may inadvertently be helping to prevent the spread of conflict in the conflicted Andean bioregion. La Amistad is now cited as an example of how "transborder park cooperation may result in mutual benefits that lead to collaboration in other arenas."17
A hallmark peace park and a transboundary area in existence for over two decades, La Amistad's future is bright. The park is a proven stable entity, demonstrated by the ratification of the park by both countries in 1992 and its continued success as a tourist draw. There have been no border disputes or irresolvable political hurdles, and the park has helped to create a stable border on the periphery ofregional instability.
Attributed with helping to promote conservation in a region of high biodiversity and protecting indigenous lands, the park provides economic opportunities via ecotourism.
When applying Galtung's theory of violence indicators (see Chapter Five), it appears that while the national parks composing what is now the La Amistad Peace Park may have contributed to structural and cultural violence by the displacement of indigenous people, the later uniting of those parks via the peace park has brought greater transparency and accountability to how the indigenous people are treated, decreasing the structural violence. Government regulations request the involvement of local communities in park
17 L. Hamilton, "Managing mountain parks: Special challenges," Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1999). http://www.fao.org/documents/ show_ cdr .asp?url_file=/docrep/x0963E/x0963e06.htm. 12
governance through committees and laws protecting the rights of the indigenous people.
The affiliation with the peace park has identified both countries as active peace builders helping to foster positive peace and reduce cultural violence.
Cordillera del Condor Transboundary Protected Area Project (Ecuador and Peru)
A source of conflict for over 150 years, the border between Ecuador and Peru, was referred to as "the open wound." 18 Most recently erupting in violence in 1995, the border is home to approximately 80,000 indigenous people from four tribes that span both sides of the border. 19 These people, who identified with tribal nations rather than state boundaries and who held the rights to the land legally, had no stake in the politics of the border, but sought a resolution as victims of the conflict.20
Community leaders campaigned for a peace park in the area, hoping that the park would put an end to the dispute and help remove some of the danger to the inhabitants of the region. Working with local NGO's the indigenous residents decided that 70 percent of the land should be preserved, "including ritual areas, high plateaus and forests for hunting and gathering ... "21 While they were able to establish these rules, concern
18 ITTO, "The Incredible Condor," ITTO Tropical Forest Update 14, no. 4 (2005): 7.
19 Kintto Lucas, "Ecuador-Peru Start Work on Park of Peace", InterPress Third World News Agency http://forests.org/archive/samerica/parkpeac.htm (accessed 7 January 2008).
20 ITTO, "An Indigenous Solution," ITTO Tropical Forest Update 14, no. 4 (2005): 8.
21 Ibid.: 9. 13
remained about their longevity and the community petitioned the Ecuadorian government to make the area a nature preserve.
Cordillera del Condor has a high level of biodiversity with many endemic species and the remoteness of the Peruvian side, the largest portion of the park, has helped insure the integrity of the area prior to its being formally declared a national preserve.22 The park is still young but signs indicate that conflict has abated between Peru and Ecuador, although tensions linger. Having long been a region of intense poverty in both countries, the park attracted substantial funding from international institutions to support various park projects related to development and conservation, providing additional points of collaboration between the two nations. "The fact that the area contains important biodiversity was a key factor which has helped lever additional support for impoverished communities living in the same area."23 The cessation of active conflict and creation of institutional processes to protect the area has significantly reduced the physical and structural violence in the region. The Cordillera del Condor serves as an example for other transboundary parks attempting to resolve conflicts, such as Siachen Peace Park
(India and Pakistan) and the Balkans Peace Park Project (Kosovo/a, Montenegro and northern Albania).
22 Global Transboundary Protected Areas Network, "Cordillera del Condor Transboundary Protected Area" http://www.tbpa.net/case_Ol.htm (accessed 7 December 2007).
23 Ibid. (accessed 7 December 2007). 14
There are currently over 227 transboundary protected areas, up from 59 in the late
1980s.24 Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park is notable as the first transboundary peace park. La Amistad is significant as one of the oldest of the current brand of peace parks - parks established between countries with a previously contentious past and an ecotourism success in a developing country. And the Cordillera del Condor is recognized as the first peace park used to resolve an active conflict. South Africa has introduced a new brand of peace park, one that actively tries to create massive swaths of contiguous migratory routes for endangered wild animals, while simultaneously serving as international tourist destinations designed to help attain development goals. Additionally the burst of Peace Parks established in Southern Africa correlate nicely with the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). While
NEP AD has little direct involvement in the parks, NEP AD and the parks established by Peace Parks Foundation have several common goals including sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and fostering peace and security.
Southern Africa and the Peace Parks Foundation
In Southern Africa, the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) has been actively forming
peace parks called transfrontier conservation areas (TFCA's). These parks seek to
preserve the wilderness for which Africa is known and boost some of the most struggling
economies in the world by creating attractions for ecotourists and jobs for rural
inhabitants. This concept of sustainable development is a key component of
24 Global Transboundary Protected Areas Network, "UNEP-WCMC Transboundary Protected Areas Inventory" http://www.tbpa.net/tpa_inventory.html (accessed 27 May 2008). 15
peacebuilding in Southern Africa. The Peace Parks Foundation states, "Peace parks epitomize harmony between humans and nature by using resources to create prosperity.
When this happens, peace usually prevails, as economic stability is a cornerstone of peace."25
Since its founding in 1997, the Peace Parks Foundation has played a major role in the development of I 0 peace parks in Southern Africa.26 Established by Anthon Rupert, the former South African Regional World Wildlife Fund director and tobacco billionaire, the PPF was instrumental in the conception and successful implementation of the Great
Limpopo Transfrontier Park. The foundation has been extremely successful and somewhat controversial. The speed with which the parks have been established, the fact that they driven largely by South African interests and the fact that they were supported by elites have spurred accusations of pushing through conservation goals at the expense of the fragile lower classes.27 That said, Rupert and other senior PPF officials have been consistently insistent that the park benefit the local communities.28 One reason for the
25 Peace Parks Foundation, "Peace Parks Foundation: Why the Title Peace Parks?" (accessed 3April 2008).
26 Ibid. (accessed 3 April 2008).
27 Jane Carruthers, "Tracking in Game Trails: Looking afresh at the politics of environmental history," Environmental History 11, no. 4 (October 2006).; Malcolm Draper, Marja Spierenburg, and Harry Weis, "African Dreams of Cohesion: Elite Pacting and Community Development in Transfrontier Conservation Areas in Southern Africa," Culture and Organization IO, no. 4 (2004).; Malcolm Draper and Harry Weis, "Super African Dreams: The Mythology of Community Development in Transfrontier Conservation Areas in Southern Africa," in Seminar on Ecotourism and Nature Parks in East and Southern Africa (African Studies Centre, Leiden: November 12, 2002).
28 Draper, Spierenburg, and Weis, "African Dreams of Cohesion: Elite Pacting and Community Development in Transfrontier Conservation Areas in Southern Africa."; 16
success of the PPF may be its singular focus; it works solely on creating parks and offers itself up as the coordinator. Well resourced, the foundation offers support to involved southern African government organizations related to the environment. This support comes in the form of manpower, funding, or expertise and most of the governments involved in southern African TFCA's have accepted the PPF's assistance.29
By boosting economies and lifting desperate communities out of poverty, these parks have the potential to be a critical development tool and as such a peacebuilding tool. In his book "The Conflict Trap," economist Paul Collier asserts that the primary root of conflict is the failure of economic development.3° Failing, war-tom states not only increase regional environmental degradation but also heighten regional instability.
As the regional hegemon, South Africa has a strong interest in stabilizing the region. Six of the eighteen parks currently in development involve South Africa's borders.31
Because of its status in the region, suspicion meets most of South Africa's actions.
Motives could be strictly related to conservation and regional development; or they could be selfishly benevolent, as in pursuing actions that benefit South Africa while stabilizing the region (which also benefits South Africa). South Africa has a strong motivation for
Peter Godwin, "Without Borders: Uniting Africa's Wildlife Reserves," National Geographic 2001.
29 Bram Buscher and Ton Dietz, "Conjunctions of Governance: The State and the Conservation-development Nexus in Southern Africa," The Journal ofTransdisciplinary Environmental Studies 4, no. 2 (2005).
30 Paul Collier, Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil war and development policy (Washington, DC: The World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003).
31 Southern African Development Community (SADC), "SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs)" http://www.sadc.int/fanr/naturalresources/ transfrontier/index.php (accessed 3 May 2008). 17
wanting to stabilize neighboring countries. The cities and mines of South Africa are beacons of hope for those struggling in neighboring countries. When its neighbors destabilize refugees flood into South Africa taxing already overburdened services for the poor and most recently inciting xenophobic tensions. An influx of displaced people can result in an economic decrease for countries with neighbors embroiled in civil war.32
Four of South Africa's six neighbors have experienced civil strife in the last four decades.
Although a majority of southern Africa TFCA's don't involve South Africa, with six TFCA's South Africa is a participant in more of the parks than any other country.33
Most of the other parks are either reuniting conservation areas divided during colonial or liberation processes, such as the "W" International Peace Park (Benin, Burkina Fasa, and
Niger); or address elephant overpopulation by re-establishing traditional migration zones or increasing the migratory area, such as Niassa-Selous TFCA (Mozambique and
Tanzania) or the Kavango-Zambezi TFCA (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and
Zimbabwe).
What's so Great about a Peace Park?
The peace park concept has generated a great deal of excitement in recent years.
A single solution that addresses conservation, economic stability and conflict resolution represents an easy bandwagon to jump on. Not only do ecosystems transcend man-made boundaries, but also many traditional cultures were split apart when the boundaries were
32 Collier.
33 Peace Parks Foundation, "Kavango-Zambezi TFCA's MoU Signed" http://www.peaceparks.org/news.php?mid=664&pid=669 (accessed 5 December 2007). 18
arbitrarily assigned. In Africa and South America development has often meant deforestation and environmental degradation as countries sell off their assets in attempts to jumpstart their economies. The peace park concept recognizes the value of the economy in the peacebuilding process and of sustainable development in the long-term economic development strategies. Additionally, it has the potential to help countries meet the United Nation's Millennium Development Goal Seven, which addresses sustainable development.34 As such, peace parks have been awarded millions of dollars in funding from development agencies such as the World Bank, KfW German
Development Bank, and the French Development Agency. The concept has the support of the United Nations as well as non-governmental organizations such as the World
Wildlife Fund, IUCN, and Conservation International.
The peace park concept doesn't come without its caveats. As a development tool, its value is largely unproven. While peace parks have been in existence since 1932, until very recently they were being used as agents of conservation, not development. There have been accusations that little research has been done to verify the assertion that large unbroken tracts of land are actually better for ecosystems and wildlife management than separate independently managed parks linked by roads.35 The parks have the possibility of serving as agitators between sensitive neighbors as the establishment of a peace park generally takes at least a decade from inception to founding and is fraught with complicated political barriers. Legal issues have to be tackled in addition to addressing
34 See Appendix D for entire text of Millennium Development Goal #7
35 William Wolmer, "Transboundary Conservation: the Politics of Ecological Integrity in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park," Journal ofSouthern African Studies 29, no. 1 (2003). 19
potentially conflicting wildlife and ecosystem management philosophies. On top of that, transboundary parks face issues related to border security. Waterton-Glacier was forced to close their backcountry border crossing station immediately after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. This seriously jeopardized the intent behind the peace park and threatened park revenues. However, the border issues benefited the park by
strengthening the cohesion of the two-parted unit as park officials worked together to find
a solution.36 Border restrictiveness threatens the planned U.S.-Mexico Peace Park that unites Big Bend National Park in Texas with protected areas in Mexico. The
construction of the border wall has put a serious roadblock in the almost two decades
long attempt to launch the park.
In areas where the parks are adjacent to conflict the parks serve as areas of refuge
to displaced refugees and as safe havens for militias and guerilla fighters. An example of
a park strained by regional conflict is the transboundary Virunga Bwindi region
composed ofVirunga National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo) and adjacent
Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda) and Rwenzori Mountains National Park (Uganda). In
the last decade the area of conservation has faced the strain of the enormous influx of
internally displaced people fleeing the Rwandan genocide and internal conflict in the
DRC and Uganda. Over 60,000 people are reported to be living illegally within the
36 Customs And Border Protection Today, "Visitors once again enter the U.S. through the 'best care-killing scenery on the continent"', U.S. Customs and Border Protection http://www.cbp.gov/xp/CustomsToday/2003/November/other/goatHaunt.xml (accessed 3 February 2008).; Randy Tanner and others, "The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park: Conservation amid Border Security," in Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution, ed. Saleem H. Ali (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007). 20
park.37 Additionally, because the park is so difficult to access militias have taken up residency. Robert Muir, a scientist from the Frankfurt Zoological Society who works regularly in the area, described the area as "literally awash with military and militia and rebels who may not understand that the rangers are there to protect and conserve the wildlife."38 As a result, being a ranger is an incredibly dangerous profession--in the last ten years 120 of 660 park rangers have been killed in Virunga
National Park. 39 Not only is the ecosystem under duress because of the influx of so many people but recently endangered mountain gorillas have been assassinated as vivid warnings to rangers to back off in their efforts to stem illegal park activity. In these areas
the park rangers carry machine guns and look more like soldiers than the uniformed hiker
one expects to see in parks in North America. Landscape can serve as a conflict
indicator. According to Collier, large countries with difficult landscapes (such as dense jungles or mountains) are often more prone to insurgencies because of the ease of which
challenging militias can escape into the wilderness and disappear.40 Transboundary areas
in mountainous terrains have faced issues with them becoming the refuges of drug
37 Environment News Service, "Desperate for Fuelwood, Congolese Eye Virunga National Park", World Prout Assembly http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/ 2007 /09/desperate _for_f.html (accessed 20 January 2008).
38 Todd Pitman, "Rangers in the Mist Can't Protect Congo Gorillas", MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22627399/ (accessed 20 January 2008).
39 Ibid. (accessed 20 January 2008).
40 Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). 21
dealers.41 Finally, assertions have been made that Peace Parks are simply the newest fad, replacing similarly appealing concepts such as community based natural resource management when funders became bored with them.42
Terms Transboundary parks have sprung up with a diverse set of terminology. Most
often Transboundary Conservation Area (TBCA), Transboundary Protected Area
(TBPA), Transfrontier Protected Area (TFPA), Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA),
and International Peace Park mean the same thing. Transfrontier Conservation Area is a
Southern African term that means the same thing as Transboundary Conservation Area.43
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) defines a Transboundary Conservation
Area as:
Transboundary conservation areas are areas of land and/or sea that straddle one or more borders between states, sub-national units such as provinces and regions, autonomous areas and/or areas beyond the limit of national sovereignty or jurisdiction, whose constituent parts form a matrix that contributes to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, as well as the promotion of social and economic development, and which are managed co-operatively through legal or other effective means.44
41 F AO, "Peace on High: The importance of reducing conflict for mountain development" http://www.fao.org/mnts/archive/2004/imd2004_issues.html (accessed 3 May 2008).
42 Wolmer.
43 Conservation International, "What is a 'Transfrontier Conservation Area' or TFCA ?" http://www.conservation-southernafrica.org/ (accessed 17 February 2008).
44 Trevor Sandwith and others, "Transboundary Protected Areas for Peace and Co-operation," in Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 7, ed. Adrian Phillips (World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), IUCN - The World Conservation Union 2001). http://www.iucn.org/bookstore/HTML-books/BP7- transboundary_protected_ areas/cover.html [accessed April 19, 2008]. 22
The peace park is a subset of transboundary protected areas that are "formally dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity and of natural and associated cultural resources, and to the promotion of peace and cooperation. '45
Ironically, the term "peace park" or "park for peace" is frequently used as a part of a transboundary park's formal title in most continents with the exception of Africa where the Peace Parks Foundation has led the successful establishment of a large number of transfrontier conservation areas. Institutions may be deliberately avoiding the politicized nature of the term and choosing to focus more on current conservation effort rather than the area's historical conflict.46 So, while the Great Limpopo Transfrontier
Park is considered a peace park by definition, the words "peace park" are not a part of its name.
A final point of clarification is related to the Great Limpopo Park. The Great
Limpopo Transfrontier Park and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area are two different (but related) entities. The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is the current
35,000 km2 park formed largely by the Limpopo National Park (Mozambique); Kruger
National Park and Makuleke Reserve (South Africa); and Gonarezhou National Park and
Sengwe Wildlife Corridor (Zimbabwe). The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is a park of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). The GLTFCA will ultimately link national parks and hunting areas in Mozambique, South Africa and
45 Ibid.
46 Rachel B. DeMotts, "Placing the Local in the Transnational: Communities and Conservation Across Borders in Southern Africa," in African Environment and Development: Rhetoric, Programs, Realities, ed. William G. Moseley and B. Ikubolajeh Logan (Gateshead: Athenaeum Press Ltd., 2004). 23
Zimbabwe to form a 100,000 km2 nature reserve. The GL TP is the first step in establishing this conservation area. CHAPTER3
LITERATURE REVIEW: INTRODUCTION TO KEY PEACE PARKS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PEACEMAKING CONCEPTS
While the first peace park was established over 70 years ago, the concept has been embraced with new fervor in recent years. Seen as a solution to sustainable development, millennium development and peacebuilding goals conservationists and development officials are attracted to the all-encompassing solution that peace parks seem to embody.
Organizations such as the Peace Parks Foundation and the Trans boundary Protected
Areas Network have been founded in the last decade and conferences focusing on the subject are being held with increasing regularity. In September 2005 the Woodrow
Wilson Center for International Scholars hosted a conference focused solely on the impact of peace parks.47 Traditionally peace parks were established as a celebration of peace, such as the Waterton-Glacier Peace Park created in 1932 on the border of the
United States and Canada. The concept has evolved with the increased understanding of the transboundary nature ofbioregions and of human communities. Often state
boundaries were randomly drawn during colonial rule and have little relevance to the
people living near them. Boundaries can directly be the cause of dispute or during times
of conflict between nations or within a nation can become highly unstable regions whose
47 Parks for Peace or Peace for Parks?, (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, 2005).
24 25
fluidity attracts a criminal element. Examples of this include the border of Colombia, which has become a no-man's land with little or no state presence and a high criminal element related to narco-trafficking; or the Mozambique/South Africa Border. This border region posed a problem for Mozambique during its 16 year civil war in that South
African based rebel groups were able to easily move between the countries evading capture, and a problem for South Africa who felt compelled to stem the increasing flow
of refugees and insulate its apartheid government by erecting a fence along the border.
In cases where boundaries are mined or otherwise highly militarized, such as the
demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the region can become an
inadvertent wildlife sanctuary. 48
While environmental issues are often truly only addressed by taking a
transboundary approach this practice does not come without its caveats. Transboundary
initiatives are essential to natural resource management as resources regularly transcend
state boundaries. However, according to Ken Conca, "Clearly, there are great difficulties
in achieving peace and security through environmental cooperation, particularly when the
most common conceptualization of the environment is that of resources for capture, and
when the dominant framework within which decision makers operate is classical
realism." 49 Whether conservation efforts can alleviate poverty remains to be told. "A
serious escalation in conflict could be expected if the community relocates, foregoes
48 Efforts are underway to designate this area as an actual peace park.
49 Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko, eds., Environmental Peacemaking (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2002), 15. 26
resource access under a negotiation, but the promised jobs and benefits are slow to
materialize. "50
Environmental peacemaking has started to evolve from a concept of security,
where the environment is seen as a source of conflict, to an opportunity for cooperation
and, as such, peacebuilding. Building on Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons,"51 and
Thomas Malthus' theories,52 Thomas Homer-Dixon proposed that scarcity ofrenewable
resources, especially arable land, forests, and fresh water, would incite increased tensions
between nations. He goes on to posit that the "scarcity of renewable resources-or what
I call environmental scarcity-can contribute to civil violence, including insurgencies
and ethnic clashes."53 According to Homer-Dixon growing populations will put further
stresses on resources essential to sustaining life and as a result more conflicts will arise.
Other researchers have expanded on Homer-Dixon's research and asserted that
rather than being a source of conflict countries involved in seemingly intractable disputes
can find common ground on environmental issues, such as access to fresh water. In a case
50 Jennifer L. Jones, Transboundary Conservation in Southern Africa: Exploring conflict between local resource access and conservation (University of Pretoria, South Africa: Centre for Environmental Studies, 2004), 26.
51 In Garrett Hardin's article "Tragedy of the Commons" he asserts that communal natural resources will rapidly degrade with overpopulation, essentially making the argument for private landrights over community based resource management.
52 Malthus's argument that population will exceed the carrying capacity of the world has been influential in areas related to sustainable development, population control, and agricultural movements such as a the Green Revolution. His "An Essay on the Principle of Population" can be found online athttp://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/ malthus/malthus.O.html.
53 Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999), 177. 27
study on conflict in Central Asia after the collapse of former Soviet Union, Erika
Weinthal found that access to water proved to be an area of cooperation that helped diffuse other political tensions. 54 Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko propose that the focus on environmental scarcity as a source of conflict has obscured the potential of the environment as a source of cooperation.ss Juan Jose Cantos has specifically addressed peace parks defining them from a peace and conflict resolution perspective (as opposed to a conservation perspective): "International protected areas along borders contribute to reducing border tensions and issues of access by rural inhabitants to resources.',s6 He further asserts, "Commonalities in management problems on both sides of the border may eventually require a bi-national approach to long-term management of these protected areas and the surrounding buffer or multiple use areas."57
Conversely, while disputing Dixon's theory that resource scarcity results in conflict, Rosaleen Duffy argues that transboundary conservation areas can provide new sources of conflict for participating states as they traverse politically charged territories of resource sharing and border softening. 58 While the complicated politics involved in creating and maintaining a peace park provide opportunity for conflict, especially among
54 Erika Weinthal, "Environmental Peacemaking in the Aral Sea Basin," in Environmental Peacemaking, ed. Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2002).
55 Conca and Dabelko, eds.
56 Castro and others.
57 Ibid.
58 Rosaleen Duffy, "The Potential and Pitfalls of Global Environmental Governance: The politics of transfrontier conservation areas in Southern Africa," Political Geography 25 (2006). 28
neighbors with contentious pasts, the benefits of the endeavor seem to provide a strong incentive to work through contentions. Conflicts tend to occur most often when parties fail to see the benefit of cooperative resource management.59 Additionally, developing countries possessing a large wealth of exportable natural resources (especially those resources that command a high revenue in foreign markets such as oil, diamonds or cobalt) actually have an increased risk of conflict.60 The resources provide an ready source of funding and bartering chips for rebel groups, have been shown to decrease governmental stability and increase corruption by increasing patronage politics, and
~ountry's vulnerable to market fluctuation generally increases. 61
Conca and Dabelko utilize traditional environmental studies/international relations' methods to analyze cases, asserting that environmental peacemaking must take place on two levels to be considered peacemaking. They state that the environmental peacemaking effort must result in trust between the interacting governments, moving them away from a zero-sum approach to national security.62 Secondly, the peacemaking effort must "lay the foundation for transforming the national-security state.',63 This
59 Saleem H. Ali, "Conclusion: Implementing the Vision of Peace Parks," in Peace Parks Conservation and Conflict Resolution, ed. Saleem H Ali (Cambridge: 2007).
6°Collier, Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil war and development policy.
61 Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it.
62 Conca and Dabelko, eds., 10.
63 Ibid. 29
approach is complimented by Johan Galtung's theory of violence indicators.64 Galtung asserts that when attempting to transform negative peace to positive peace three forms of violence must be considered: direct or physical violence, structural violence, and cultural violence. The presence of any of these forms of violence is a prohibitive factor to attaining positive peace.65
Christos Kyrou's concept of Peace Ecology brings together many of these ideas, moving beyond viewing the environment as a tool for peacemaking and directly linking human and environmental stability. Peace Ecology highlights the interconnectedness of human society and the environment, acknowledging that war is detrimental to both people and the environment. As a result there is a human responsibility to future generations to protect the environment via actively seeking peace. Furthermore, Peace
Ecology recognizes the importance of bioregionalism not just in environmental spheres but also in terms of forming cultural identities and providing helpful commonalities to pursue collaborative transboundary efforts, such as transboundary peace parks.
Peace parks not only solve border conflicts and provide new opportunities for cooperation between countries with a history of conflict, but they also help developing countries capitalize on their natural resources without permanently depleting them. In regards to conservation goals, the peace park concept acknowledges that nature does not
64 Christos Kyrou, "Environmental Peacemaking, What it is and What it is Not: Past, Present and Future," in Fourth Biennial International Conference of the International Academy for Intercultural Research (Kent, Ohio: 2005).
65 Johan Galtung and others, Searching for Peace: The Road to Transcend, 2nd ed., Peace by peaceful means (London; Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2002). 30
adhere to state boundaries and that working regionally on conservation efforts can be an effective tool to prevent species loss and other forms of environmental degradation. CHAPTER4
HISTORY OF THE GREAT LIMPOPO TRANSFRONTIER PARK
Overview of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park
Located in Southern Africa and comprised of adjoining lands from Mozambique,
South Africa, and Zimbabwe, the proposals for the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park sound glorious. Currently the park is approximately 35,000 km2, making it the largest transboundary park in the world. The park is composed of the Limpopo National Park
(LNP) in Mozambique; the Kruger National Park (KNP) and Makuleke Contractual Area in South Africa; and Gonarezhou National Park, the Sengwe Corridor, Malipati Safari
Area, and Manjinji Pan Sanctuary in Zimbabwe. If proposed plans become fully realized the protected conservation area will expand to include over 100,000 km2, constituting an area the size of Portugal. On paper the park presents an extremely graceful solution to both human development issues and conservation problems. Kruger National Park in
South Africa is the most visited parks in the world, attracting over a million tourists annually. 66 These tourists are largely drawn to observe Kruger's enormous elephant population and the rest of the "Big Five" game: buffalo, leopard, lion and rhinoceros.
Over the last decade Kruger has struggled with a burgeoning elephant population that has
66 The 2006/2007 SANParks annual reports cites 1,313,185 visitors for the 2006- 2007 fiscal year. South African National Parks.
31 32
far exceeded the carrying capacity of the park.67 Expanding the elephants' migration area would help alleviate the pressure on Kruger, while making Kruger part of a pioneering conservation effort.
Kruger National Park is located in Northern South Africa and abuts the border of
Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park and
Mozambique's Limpopo National Park adjoin Kruger increasing the elephants' roaming area from 22,000 km2 to over 35,000 km2. 68 In Mozambique, the re-establishment of wildlife in the Limpopo National Park will hopefully draw tourists and provide income opportunities for the impoverished rural areas of Mozambique. In Gaza Province, where the Limpopo National Park is located, over 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.69 Opportunities for employment are scarce in the area, to the point where many people are forced to go to South Africa for work.70
67 Kruger ideally would host 7 ,000 elephants but currently hosts over 13,000 according to a recent census report conducted by long-time census taker Ian Whyte. Kruger Park Times Press Release, "Elephant Numbers up by Five Percent (Kruger, South Africa)", Save the Elephants http://savetheelephants.com/newsPress.asp ?linkID=34&articleID= 1840&searchTxt (accessed 8 May 2008).
68 The Mozambican portion of the GL TP has a carrying capacity of approximately 3,000 elephants. Peace Parks Foundation, "Elephants Migrate to Mozambique" http://www.peaceparks.org/news. php?op=2005&mid=507&pid=161 (accessed 29 December 2007).
69 World Bank, "Mozambique: Gaza Statistics" http://web.worldbank.org/ WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT /MOZAMBIQUEEXTN/O,,contentM DK:20585278~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:382131,00.html (accessed 15 May 2008).
70 Agencia de lnformacao de Mocambique, "Mozambique: Contract Signed for Ethanol Production", Agencia de lnformacao de Mocambique and AllAfrica Global Media ( allAfrica.com)_http://allafrica.com/stories/200710100997 .html (accessed 8 March 2008). 33
Gonarezhou, in Zimbabwe, is also facing a major elephant overpopulation problem that park officials hope to alleviate by increasing the elephant migration area.
The Zimbabwean portion of the GL TP is key to linking the transfrontier park to a proposed larger "Elephant Mega-Park" which includes regions of Namibia, Botswana and Zambia.71 The tribal lands around Gonarezhou, including the Sengwe Corridor, also struggle with high poverty rates and have few development opportunities. The communities hope to provide amenities to tourists in the form of "culture-based eco- tourism."72 The country's intensifying political instability complicates Zimbabwe's portion of the park, but through the years President Robert Mugabe has managed to curtail some of the more serious offenses (related to poaching and community interactions) that motivated park planners to threaten to remove Zimbabwe from the
GLTP.
By making the land profitable as conservation areas in Mozambique and
Zimbabwe, the bioregion would escape further deforestation and habitat loss.
Additionally the region in both countries is arid and not well suited for agriculture, making the idea of an income-generating park even more attractive. According to one author, "The remaining wilderness of Africa may be its only hope for overcoming its poverty and competing in the global economy; probably the safest prediction that one can make is that shortly the world's fastest-growing market, tourism, will be chasing the
71 Sanette Ferreira, "Problems associated with tourism development in Southern Africa: The case of Transfrontier Conservation Areas," GeoJournal 60, no. 3 (2004).; Wolmer.
72 CESVI, "Sengwe-Tchipise Wilderness Corridor" http://www.cesvi.eu/ index. php?pagina=pagina_generica. php&id=7 45 (accessed 10 April 2008). 34
world's fastest shrinking product: wildemcss."73 In Mozambique, wildlife had largely been hunted to the point of local extinction during the almost two decades of civil war in the 1970s and 80s. However, partially as a result of the war, the habitat has been preserved and the park was considered an excellent candidate for wildlife reintroduction once the landmines in the area were removed and communities brought on board with the project. In addition to minefields within the proposed park area in Mozambique, the border of South Africa was heavily mined and protected by a barbed-wire fence. Part of creating the park meant de-mining all potential parklands and bringing down enough of the barbed wire to allow animals to pass through. Additionally, the establishment of the park constituted an important cooperative effort between three neighbors with contentious pasts. South Africa brought to the table its wildlife and parks expertise;
Zimbabwe, the link to the elephant corridor and its long history of successful community resource management; and Mozambique, its wildlife-free wilderness and its least- developed-country-on-the-upswing status that has proven so attractive to funding agencies.
Mozambique According to Mozambique's long term development plan, "Agenda 2025": "The
current situation of Human Capital in Mozambique is significantly influenced by the
events that took place during the Portuguese colonial administration and by subsequent
73 Don Pinnock, "Superparks an Impossible Dream?," Getaway, November 1996, 93. 35
decision made upon proclamation of the National Independence. "74 Claimed as a
Portuguese colony in the late fifteenth century, Mozambique remained under Portuguese control until 1975. From the beginning Portugal cultivated a legacy of poverty.
Portugal's colonization was not the expansion of a rich country asserting its power, but that of a poor country trying to capture enough resources to support the people in
Portugal.75 Lacking the resources or interested citizens to populate Mozambique and instill governance, the colonial power assured submission by brutality and propagating a culture of fear. 76 Mozambique was initially seen as a potential gold resource. However, by the time the Portuguese realized that Mozambique did not have gold they had come to rely on the ports along Mozambique's coastline.
The people of Mozambique toiled under colonial rule, deliberately kept uneducated and unable to move beyond a subsistence livelihood. In the 1930s the situation became markedly worse when Portugal instigated a plan to cultivate the cotton needed by their linen producing industry so that Portugal would no longer have to import the cotton needed for fabric and could capture a larger profit margin. While the travails of cotton growing befell much of colonial Africa, Mozambique's experience is considered more detrimental because of the widespread enforcement of cotton growth on lands that were unsuited for cotton, the length of time that cotton was propagated on a plot of land
74 Committee of Counselors, Agenda 2025, The Nation's Visions and Strategies: Condensed Version (Maputo: Republic of Mozambique, 2004), 13, 4210/RLINLD/2004.
75 M. D. D. Newitt, A History ofMozambique (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
76 Allen F. Isaacman, Cotton is the Mother ofPoverty: Peasants, Work, and Rural Struggle in Colonial Mozambique, 1938-1961, Social history of Africa (Portsmouth, N .H.: Heinemann, 1996). 36
without a fallow period, and the number of people involved in growing the cotton. "It further impoverished an already poor country and intensified the distortions in the rural economy that would carry over into the postcolonial period. "77 In the 1960s
Mozambique's Liberation Front of Mozambique or FRELIMO party was formed with the union of several groups focused on overthrowing colonial power. FRELIMO launched its first attack in 1964, initiating a struggle for independence that would not end until 1975 when Portugal finally relinquished Mozambique. FRELIMO assumed power but stability evaded the country.
At the independence celebration the new President of Mozambique, Samora
Machel, declared that they had won the first stage of the struggle and but still had to overcome illiteracy, disease, poverty, and economic dependence.78 With few resources, the fragile peace soon devolved into conflict. While the conflict is widely classified a civil war between the ruling parties FRELIMO and the insurgent party RENAMO, many people dispute that categorization. Rather than being a war between two warring factions of the citizenry, it has been asserted that Mozambique's war was actually fueled by South
Africa. The insurgency party, RENAMO, was closely tied to South Africa and was responsible for thousands of deaths of civilians.79 Made nervous by Mozambique's new
Marxist government and still heavily engaged in apartheid, South Africa was concerned
77 Ibid.
78 Allen F. Isaacman and Barbara Isaacman, Mozambique: From colonialism to revolution, 1900-1982 (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press 1983).
79 William Finnegan, A Complicated War: The harrowing of Mozambique, Perspectives on Southern Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). 37
that a neighboring country with a strong black leadership would incite instability. 80
Mozambique provided resources for freedom fighters in Zimbabwe's struggle against
British colonial rule and South Africa was fearful that the FRELIMO government would provide similar support to the African Nation Congress (ANC) political party which was challenging the white ruling party in South Africa. With very little investment, bandits comprising RENAMO's terror crews wreaked havoc on the country for over a decade.
During this period of civil war, people migrated out of their inland communities to refugee camps or safer areas along the coast. The environmental impact of war is widespread and evident today, not only in the physical scars of war but also is present in
a lingering distrust of South Africa.
The Portuguese established many conservation areas, generally used for the hunting of big game species by European elites. The reserves were, for all purposes,
dissolved during the period of civil war and most big game species were hunted for meat.
Until recent times, Mozambique supported a large and varied animal population. Elephants, water buffaloes, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, baboons, giraffes, lions, cobras, adders, flamingos, herons, buzzards, and other animals thrived throughout much of the region. However, much of the country's animal habitat has been destroyed by decades of human encroachment and by civil warfare. The reserves and game parks established by the Portuguese suffered nearly complete losses of habitat during the civil war in the 1980s. The coasts, however, were less affected and remain relatively unpolluted, and the islands offshore continue to shelter a rich variety of marine life. 81
80 Ibid.
81 Lucas, (accessed 7 January 2008). 38
As a routine practice during the war, Mozambican peasants were targeted by RENAMO to demonstrate that the governing party could not keep them safe.82 Millions of
landmines were scattered in the areas that people conducted their daily routines making
tending and harvesting crops extremely dangerous.83 Livestock was systematically
targeted and eventually areas that were once fertile croplands and ranchlands became
devoid of domesticated agriculture. As a result people, were forced to hunt the local bush
meat and eat the local flora and fauna to survive. Biodiversity loss, especially of large
animals, was profound.84 Additionally, as hunting and poaching restrictions were instilled
in South Africa and Zimbabwe, poachers turned to the unregulated Mozambique to hunt
game.
Mozambique's civil war lasted 16 years, only ending with the waning of apartheid
in South Africa. In 1992 the fighting ended and in 1994 the first democratic elections
were held. The country then began the Herculean task of pulling itself from the bottom
of the least developed countries list and building a stable political climate. While over 60
percent of its population still lives below the poverty line, the country has had one of the
fastest growing economies for much of the last decade. War, while devastating, had the
benefit of limiting population growth and development. The World Bank states, "Low
population density, depopulation of rural areas during twenty years of civil strife, and
82 p·mnegan.
83 Lina Magaia, Dumba Nengue, Run for Your Life: Peasant tales of tragedy in Mozambique (London: Karnak House, 1989).
84 Finnegan. 39
underdeveloped infrastructure helped preserve many of Mozambique's habitats."85 The
Mozambican government has proclaimed sustainable development and ecotourism as
important components of the economic development strategy. With poverty rates highest
in rural areas and populations largely dependent on subsistence farming, developing
parks that provide ecotourism destinations will help Mozambique exploit its large tracts
of undeveloped inlands and over 1500 miles of coastline. The strategy seems to be
working. Conde Nast traveler recently declared Mozambique as one of the "hippest"
beach destinations in Africa and Mozambique expects over 1,000,000 tourists in 2008. 86
Additionally, tourism revenues from 2007 were estimated at $280 million as compared to
$163 million in 2006.87
South Africa
South Africa was granted free rule as a British Colony in 1910 and full
independence in 1961. Despite its independence many consider South Africa to be the
last bastion of colonialism, as apartheid did not end there until 1994. The end of apartheid
was a process that spanned decades and is cited as one of the successes of partially non-
violent change. The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 to help
attain rights for black citizens. When the Nationalist party gained power in 1948 the ANC
85 World Bank, Mozambique Transfrontier Conservation Areas Pilot and Institutional Strengthening Project (Washington, D.C., 1996), i.
86 Conde Nast Traveller, "Mozambique: Azura" http://www.cntraveller.com/ Special_Features/The_Hot_ List_2008/ Azura/ (accessed 4 June 2008).
87 Macauhub Economic Information Service, "Mozambique: Mozambique's tourism sector attracts US$900 million in investment in 2007" http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/news.php?ID=5446 (accessed 4 June 2008). 40
led the campaign against the laws dictating increasingly harsh segregation. The ANC slowly gained support, in 1952 its membership expanded from 9,000 to 100,000 after a series of protest rallies.88 However progress was slow, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the population was black, white people held control of the majority of the power structures. Although South Africa was met with widespread international criticism as early as the 60's, forced to leave the British Commonwealth of
Nations in 1961 in reaction against apartheid, and faced increasing economic sanctions until the end of apartheid, it took decades for the cultural tide to tum against apartheid.
Rather than a violent rebellion, the upwelling against apartheid took place on many fronts until it became apparent that any government that supported apartheid would not be viable. The ability to undergo such a significant change while preserving the
infrastructure of the state has allowed South Africa to remain the largest economy in
Africa and one of the most of the economically and politically progressive countries on the continent.
Apartheid did not only affect the social and political structures within South
Africa. The marginalization of such a large portion of the population also negatively
impacted the environment. In 1986 a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Report declared, "Apartheid is a killer and by far the most dangerous on the South
African veld. It kills not only people but their land and the environment as well.',s9 A
88 The Center for the Study of Conflict, Nonviolence Plays a Role in Ending Apartheid in South Africa ( 1994 ).
89 Lloyd Timberlake and Jon Tinker, Africa in Crisis: The causes, the cures of environmental bankruptcy, New ed., An Earthscan book (London: Earthscan Publications, 1988). 41
direct cause of apartheid was the relocation of people to what the government determined to be their tribal "homelands." These areas were without ports or minerals and had been historically used for grazing of herd animals and some farming. The allotted areas were also disproportionately small for the population forced to inhabit them. 86.3 percent of the land in South Africa was designated for 15. 6 percent of the population (white) and
13.7 percent of the land was designated for 72.5 percent of the population (black).90 The restricted sizes contributed to the degradation of the land and seriously limited the economic capacity of the families living on the land. Despite the end of apartheid and the election of the ANC to power, South Africa struggles with the legacies of apartheid and racism continues to be a problem exacerbated by an income gap that is largely drawn between blacks and whites.
The end of apartheid brought with it efforts to make restitution via a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission and progressive land reform laws. It was under these laws that the Makuleke community, forced to vacate their ancestral land in 1969, was awarded a large tract ofland in Kruger National Park and in the center of the GLTP.91 Currently the Makuleke own the land and have agreed to contract it to Kruger National Park for fifty years. Under the terms of the agreement the area will not be settled by the
Makuleke, but is being used as a conservation area within the Kruger National Park with ecotourism amenities established by the Makuleke.
90 Ibid.
91 Hannah Reid, "Contractual National Parks and the Makuleke Community," Human Ecology 29, no. 2 (2001 ). 42
South Africa has an extensive national park system and lucrative ecotourism industry. The park system was established in the early twentieth century when the impact of settlers on the landscape and wildlife became visible, making evident the need to take measures to protect the biodiversity. Most of South Africa's parks were created by relocating and fencing out indigenous people and from the very beginning the parks service had a dual role of promoting conservation and tourism.92 The end of apartheid brought with it the first efforts involve the local communities and propagate an "open system approach" where communities, rather than being fenced out and viewed as adversaries, were partners in the conservation process.93 The South African National
Parks system provides a wealth of knowledge and excellent support system to countries
like Mozambique that are in the process of forming new parks systems and conservation policies. However, it also has a history to overcome with indigenous people on both
sides of its border.94 Seventy-two percent of South Africa's conservation areas lie on
international borders, and the income generated from the parks is considered vital to the
economy. Protected areas are major tourist draws and tourism is the third largest income
generator for the country after mining and agriculture.95
92 Martha Honey, Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who owns paradise? (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999).
93 Ibid.
94 World Wide Fund For Nature, "The Conservation Challenge and context for CBNRM11 http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where _we_ work/africa/what_ we_ do/cbnrm/ challenges/index.cfm (accessed 4 March 2008).
95 Ibid. (accessed 4 March 2008). 43
South Africa is described as "a sophisticated, wealthy country with a11 the infrastructure and amenities of the most developed western societies. It is the so-called jewel of the African continent, one that defies comparisons to any other country surrounding it."96 South Africa's stable economy and strong infrastructure make it a leader on the continent and a valuable ally in establishing TFCA's. However South
Africa faces challenges similar to its neighbors, a legacy of colonialism that contributes to institutional mistrust and struggles with poverty, land rights and the need to create development opportunities to assist the rural poor.
96 Elizabeth Lamberti, "Mozamberti" http://mozamberti.blogspot.com/ 2007 _lO_Ol_archive.html (accessed 23 March 2008). 44
Zimbabwe
Once considered the breadbasket of Southern Africa, Zimbabwe teeters on the brink of famine; the unemployment rate is at 80 percent;97 a quarter of the adult population is infected with HIV/AIDS; and massive inflation, food and fuel shortages have paralyzed the economy.98 In recent years disturbing social policies, including farm
invasions, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people after the deliberate bulldozing of "slums" and shantytowns, and violence related to the presidential elections have made international headlines and effectively destabilized the country. Zimbabwe's
problems reflect a convergence of human rights, development, and conflict resolution
issues that, unless addressed with a multi-lateral approach, threaten to erupt in violence as
an increasingly large percentage of the population is driven into a state of desperation and
find themselves forced to leave Zimbabwe.
Land rights in Zimbabwe represent one of the prevalent and recurrent points of
contention. Zimbabwe's colonial history is comparatively short but it is one of the crucial
events shaping modem day Zimbabwe. John Cecil Rhodes, a British mercantile trader
representing the British South Africa Company, claimed much of southern Africa for the
crown and began selling tribal lands to white colonists for nominal sums. Large tracts
of land, inhabited by indigenous people, were sold to white settlers. All proceeds from
the land sales went to the British government, and the displaced Africans were not
compensated for the land. Rhodesia (now current day Zimbabwe) was claimed as a
97CIA, "CIA World Fact Book: Zimbabwe" http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/ factbook/geos/zi.html. (accessed 15 May 2008).
98 Craig Timberg,"Zimbabwe's Bustle, Business Evaporate with Fuel Shortage," The Washington Post. July 25, 2005, Al5. 45
British colony in the 1890's and became a self-governing colony in 1923. While indigenous people had been stripped of their land for 30 years at that point, self governance institutionalized the process. Reservations were created, generally on less valuable marginal land, and all tribal people who were not working for white farms were forced onto these communal lands, where many of them live today. Over the years the overused communal farming lands have been bilked of any sustenance. Subsistence
farmers do not have enough land to rotate crops, and most do not have access to
fertilizers or irrigation systems. So the plots, asked to feed the farmers' families each
growing season, are becoming increasingly degraded.
Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980 after waging a guerrilla war against
Ian Smith's apartheid government for over a decade. When Robert Mugabe was
appointed as prime minister in 1980, he promised to return the land to black
Zimbabweans, but in over two decades in office he has been unable to make much
progress on the issue. Mugabe proved to be an effective leader until the last decade, and
Zimbabwe developed a strong agricultural sector and a growing tourism industry.
However, as Mugabe attempts to maintain power, he is sacrificing his country in the
struggle. Instability has snowballed since the initiation of fast-tracked land reform. In
2002 veterans of Zimbabwe's war for independence were given permission to claim the
land of white farmers. Often the family had either owned these farms for generations or,
in some cases, the farm was purchased since liberation under Mugabe's rule. The white
farmers paid taxes to Mugabe's government each year and remained tacitly apolitical.
The farmers felt they were legitimate owners of legally gained land who provided jobs to 46
the local community and contributed significantly to food security and the country's economy.
This land policy has effectively driven off the majority of the white landowners.
In 2000 there were 4,500 white farmers and in 2002 less than 400 remained.99 And while it has been harmful and even ruinous for the farmers and their families, the devastating impact that the policy has had on the Zimbabwean people has been even more far- reaching. Commercial farming has screeched to a halt in Zimbabwe , and coupled with a drought has resulted in widespread food shortages across the country. With the closure of commercial farming has come the loss of thousands of jobs in a country with already extremely unemployment.
The instability has heavily impacted Zimbabwe's capacity to participate within the GLTP. Gonarezhou National Park struggles with illegal settlers, poaching and a lack of funding. Once recognized for its successful conservation programs, Zimbabwe's protected areas are languishing. This is unfortunate for many reasons, but particularly because Zimbabwe has practiced some successful Community Based Natural Resource
Management programs, largely lead by non-profit organizations such as CAMPFIRE (the
Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources). Long before the
Makuleke land claim CAMPFIRE helped the Shangaan people evicted from Gonarezhou
gain land rights and establish an ecotourist lodge on the outskirts of Gonarezhou.100
99 Christian Frasier, "Black Zimbabweans Suffer in Land Reform", BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2414713.stm (accessed 10 April 2008).
00 ' Honey. 47
Additionally, Zimbabwe possesses a significant history in parks and natural resource management.
Gonarezhou National Park was originally established as a hunting preserve in
1934 but not made a National Park until 197 5. Displacement of local people occurred in
1975 and land restitution remains an issue with Gonarezhou. With the recent climate of lawlessness in Zimbabwe there have been attempts to settle portions of the park, but those attempts were either curtailed or limited to areas deemed non essential (generally the periphery).101 Since the inception of the project, reports have arisen that Zimbabwe was going to be dropped due to its inability to meet treaty goals, but it has managed to stay involved in the project. Although many state that Zimbabwe is a participant on paper only, tourists are now able to cross from Mozambique into Gonarezhou and a recent account from a tourist describes Gonarezhou as vacant and beautiful, with a well-formed infrastructure that is deteriorating due to lack of funding. 102
In addition, to Gonarezhou National Park the Sengwe Corridor, Malipati Safari
Area, and Manjinji Pan Sanctuary constitute Zimbabwe's contribution to the GLTP. The
Sengwe Corridor is perhaps the most crucial as it separates Gonarezhou from Kruger.
The citizens of the Sengwe Corridor have been in negotiations with park officials and are
interested in developing amenities for tourists. 103 However, tourism in Zimbabwe is now
101 Republic of South Africa National Assembly, Internal Question Paper No. 7 of 2006, 2006. Vol. Question No. 306.
102 Pierre de Wet, Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe - 20 to 24 September 2007 (September 2007).
103 CESVI, (accessed 10 April 2008). 48
almost non-existent due to the political instability of the country. While talked about, there are no plans to drop any segment of the fence between Kruger and Zimbabwe and park officials and researchers worry about the escalation of strife within the country. 104
Recently South Africa has sent soldiers to patrol the border in an effort to curtail the flow of refugees from Zimbabwe.105
The three countries face very different current realities but they have similar needs when it comes to sustainable development and poverty alleviation. In addition to states, international institutions have played major roles in the creation of the Great
Limpopo Transfrontier Park, serving as mediators, assessors, funders, and facilitators.
Institutional Involvement
Although the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park has the potential to be held up as a
shining example of global governance or environmental governance, the vast majority of
actions are performed by individual state. Each park (Kruger, LNP, Gonarezhou) has its
own governing structure, which is involved in the governance of the GLTP. An executive
director oversees the GLTP. Per the treaty establishing the park, referred to as the GLTP
Treaty, this position rotated between the three countries every two years and was replaced
by a permanent secretariat in 2008. Dr Nthabiseng Motete was appointed the new GL TP
Project Coordinator in 2008 and oversees the secretariat, which reports to the Ministerial
Board (the Ministers of Environment for each of the three countries). Composing the
104 Anonymous, Survey Response, 21May2008.
105 The New York Times, "Human Wave Flees Violence in Zimbabwe," The New York Times, April 21, 2008. 49
secretariat is a total of nine to twelve senior staff member derived senior staff from each
of the three national parks. Four working committees report to the secretariat. These
committees address the following areas of focus: conservation, safety and security, human resources and legislation, and tourism. Decisions are made via consensus by the
ministerial board and the secretariat. The management committees are responsible for the
implementation of action plans and do not possess decision-making power. See Appendix
C for a diagram of the management structure of the park.
Decisions that have joint implications are considered the responsibility of the GLTP
while respective state park governances handle internal decisions. Article 5 of the GLTP
Treaty, supports this structure establishing that the sovereign rights of each party shall be
respected, and no party shall impose decisions on another. Government documents
detailing an interchange involving the South African Minister of the Environment
provide an excellent example of the parsing of responsibilities. When asked about fences
in need ofrepair between Kruger National Park and Zimbabwean border of the park, the
Minister responded that the fences fall under the jurisdiction of the GL TP and would be
repaired by the GLTP (presumeably Kruger National Park personnel using GLTP
funds). 106 When asked about Gonarezhou facilities development, the minister responded
this fell under the jurisdiction of Gonarezhou park officials.107 Furthermore when asked
in a separate exchange about whether the South African minister "would attempt to
persuade" Zimbabwean officials to address issues of illegal park settlement the Minister
106 Republic of South Africa National Assembly, Internal Question Paper No. 22 o/2005, 2005. QUESTION NO. 1079.
107 Ibid. 50
replied "No" and explained that the GLTP ministerial board addressed concerns
collectively and that the Zimbabwean officials had developed procedures to address the
issues. 108 States are expected to adhere to goals established in the 2002 treaty, and
outside of that treaty operate individually. For instance in May 2008 Kruger National
Park experienced long delays at several South African entry points, possibly related to a
labor strike. After waiting over an hour many tourists were turned away at the gate due
to the Kruger National Park being over-capacity. 109 This is interpreted as a Kruger
National Park problem and not a GLTP problem. Just as in Mozambique, the six year
discussion of relocating communities within the Limpopo National Park is a LNP
problem, and in Gonarezhou, continued rumors of illegal settlement and poaching within
Gonarezhou are Zimbabwe's problems. Until these problems begin to undeniably
threaten the treaty goals, they will remain compartmentalized problems for that state to
handle.
Critics have stated that the heavy dominance of states in TFCA projects is a
Southern African phenomenon that may impede the park's realization of goals if it cannot
accept a structure with more global governance. Buscher argues that the state-oriented
top-down management style with which park planning has taken place is reminiscent of
108 Republic of South Africa National Assembly, Internal Question Paper No. 7 o/2006.
109 kruger2canyons.com, "Exercise Caution: Kruger Reportedly "Full"" http://www.kruger2canyons.com/news/2007 /07 I exercise-caution-kruger-reportedl y full.html (accessed 15 May 2008). 51
border-reliant fortress conservation tactics of the 1960s and 70s. 110 The exclusion and attempted relocation of impacted communities is cited as examples of not only "back-to- borders" conservation but also of the emphasis of the project being largely focused on conservation over sustainable development. 111 This form of governance, if unchanged, will likely continue to foster negative relations with locals, jeopardizing the project and ultimately reaping negative sentiment internationally. Rosaleen Duffy points out that while global governance may seem to supercede community or state governance when thinking about transboundary parks hypothetically, in reality the three levels of governance are mextnca. . bl y mtertwme. . d . 112
The co-mingling of state, local and international governance illustrates the influence of external international organizations over the dominating state regimes.
International Organizations involved include the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development), Peace Parks
Foundation (PPF), The World Conservation Union (IUCN), the World Bank, German
Bank for Development (KfW), USAID, and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) among others. While the SADC and NEPAD's involvement have been fairly limited, international organizations such as the Peace Parks Foundation and the World Bank have played a major role in the creation of the GLTP. 113 Local involvement, stated in planning
110 Buscher and Dietz.
Ill Ibid.
112 Duffy.
113 The SADC'S Wildlife Policy and Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement provide the framework for the development of TFCA's in Southern Africa. 52
and evaluations as critical, has been the most deficient. This makes sense, as the infrastructure related to local governance was the least developed, if it existed at all.
When tackling a difficult project, it is natural to tap into existing resources. And incorporating local governance, or creating the infrastructure where there was none, can be a highly involved and resource-intensive process, made more complicated by the individual needs of each community.
Anna Spenceley, "Tourism in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park" Development Southern Africa 23, no. 5 (2006). CHAPTERS
RESEARCH DESIGN
Statement of Probable Value
The findings from this study have the potential to be useful to the following groups: • Organizations, both governmental and non-governmental officials interested
in conflict resolution, development, and conservation efforts for developing
countries with ecotourism prospects
• The governments of countries hosting peace parks, as they refine
development goals and strive to attain the Millennium Development Goals,
as well as obtain funding for this project and similar ones from organizations
like the World Bank
• Conservationists
• Park Officials
• Local Advocacy Groups
• Academics and NGO's focusing on peace and conflict resolution
Research Proposal
While exploring whether peace parks are building stability, the research attempts to reveal indications of governmental and organizational support for the park or elements that may undermine its success as a peacebuilding and development effort. This project
53 54
is a case study that utilizes documents, papers and survey responses to determine the
impact on the community and the perception of the park by the community and
government. An additional component of this project is policy evaluation utilizing
evaluative indicators derived from literature.
Overview of the Research Methodology
Each of the three states comprising the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park are
evaluated. These parts include:
• Mozambique: Limpopo National Park (LNP)
• South Africa: Kruger National Park (KNP)
• Zimbabwe: Gonarezhou National Park (GNP)
Additional factors considered when evaluating the park include the park's role in the
lives of the local people; the nature of the historical and current regional instability; and
how the park is governed.
Whether or not a park is successful as a peacebuilding tool is determined by the
following criteria:
• Conflict has abated since the establishment of the park. This includes the
physical manifestation of conflict in the realm of military operations and
guerrilla activities as well as political tensions between the two countries.
• Residents in or around the park have experienced improvements in terms of
their security. This includes the ability to conduct routine daily activities
without encountering conflict related violence; the ability to earn a living; and
the ability to access food and water needed for subsistence. 55
• If the park has not become a stronghold for military agents, or a refuge for
internally displaced people (IDP's), or a corridor for criminal activity
• Collaboration occurs between two nation states who previously had a
historically contentious relationship
• The decline in the physical, structural or cultural violence of the region (see
violence indicators below)
The following tools will be used to evaluate the efficacy of the parks as peacebuilding tools:
(1) Conca and DeBalko's evaluative methods
a. Did the environmental peacemaking effort encourage the evolution of
the relationships of participating states to increase trust and stabilize
the relationship
b. Did the environmental peacemaking effort transform the institutions
involved with national-security
(2) Galtung's violence indicators (described below)
a. Did the environmental peacemaking effort encourage the evolution of
negative peace to positive peace via the reduction/elimination of
direct, structural, and physical violence
(3) Collier's Development Traps
(4) Qualitative Surveys 56
Violence Indicators
This case study evaluates how the peace park impacts the violence indicators in Johan
Galtung's 'violence triangle.' 114 The three violence indicators include:
• Direct Violence- Physical violence that one human inflicts upon another or
oneself includes murder, rape, battery and other forms of physical abuse.
• Structural Violence- Violence inflicted by government, economic, and social
structures. Described as the "bottom nine-tenths of the iceberg," examples of this
violence include apartheid, colonialism but less dramatically this violence is often
embedded in the daily procedures that citizens accept as the inequities of the
system, the realities of daily life.
• Cultural Violence - Violence that is accepted within a culture. While the
violence may be racially based (as the apartheid example above) cultural violence
is more tacit than structural violence. Cultural is not perpetuated by law or decree
but out of custom or practice and pits one culture against another.
In this assessment one factor indicating the success of the park as a peacebuilding tool is
if the park helps reduce the physical, structural or cultural violence of the region.
Collier's Development Traps Additionally, because of the correlation between poverty and conflict, each country is
evaluated to determine if it falls into the four Development Traps outlined in Paul
Collier's The Bottom Billion. The outcomes of these evaluations will be used to call
114 Galtung and others. 57
attention to areas of particular need or vulnerability that may threaten the viability of the project. The traps include:
( 1) Conflict Trap
(2) Natural Resources Trap
(3) Land-locked with Bad Neighbors
(4) Bad Governance in a Small Country
Analysis All analysis is qualitatively based on reports pertaining to the selected parks and countries within which the parks are located, as well as information obtained from surveys of government officials and representatives from non-governmental organizations actively participating in issues pertaining to the parks. The survey utilizes a questionnaire focusing on:
• What type of governance was used and how that impacted the park project
• The policies related to communities in close proximity to the park
• The balance between conservation and development goals
• Types of support park received/receives (governmental, NGO, etc.)
• Commitment to sustained support
• Expectations of the park (revenue, conservation, etc.)
• Ethical considerations
- Land rights 58
- Conservation vs. development
- Displacement
Data will be collected from the following respondent types:
• National government officials
• Individuals from NGO's involved with advocacy on behalf of the communities
• Individuals from NGO's involved with conservation
• Individuals from NGO's involved with development
• Park officials, of various levels
As a case study the research of other individuals and organizations on this topic will be incorporated in addition to information obtained from the questionnaire. Also vital to the project will be records related to the impact of the park on the economy and conservation efforts. CHAPTER6
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Touted as having the greatest diversity of habitats of any park in Africa, Virunga
National Park is located in the mountains of the Democratic Republic of Congo and abuts
Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
Recently, in the Congolese park, controversy has escalated after 10 members of a
silverback gorilla family were killed in 2007. 115 Profiled on 60 minutes, in Newsweek,
and on the BBC, the deaths of the gorillas garnered a great deal attention, including a
United Nations investigation.116 The killings have been labeled "murders" or
"executions" as the gorillas were shot and left in the woods, their deaths clearly not acts
of poaching or self-defense. Complicating the issue is the fact that the parks have been
privatized and the armed rangers are accused of being part of private army established to
protect investments. Additionally, commercial interests continue to deforest the habitat
to create charcoal and are accused of murdering the gorillas as a sign to rangers not to
interfere. Plus the instability of the region has created massive amounts of refugees.
Finally, the park has become such a harbor for lawless militias that rangers were not been
115 African Wildlife Foundation, "Mountain Gorilla Investigation Gathers Pace" http://www.awf.org/content/headline/detail/4086 (accessed 10 April 2008).
116 CNN, "Killings of Mountain Gorillas in Congo Prompt U.N. Probe" http://www.cnn.com/2007 /WORLD/africa/07 /27 /congo.gorillas/index.html (accessed 18 January 2008).
59 60
able to venture in to check on the surviving members of the gorilla family for months. 117
One article, outraged at the attention the gorillas' deaths have received and the sensationalistic portrayal in the western press, laments the fact that little attention has been paid to the 1,000 people who die violent deaths in and around the park daily. 118
It can seem paradoxical to have a large international conservation area in the midst of three countries rife with civil tension and poverty. At times parks appear superfluous in the face of such human suffering and in some cases they can be viewed as contributing to the problem. Is it wrong for Western people to send money to foundations to help endangered wildlife while great human suffering surrounds the animals? For that matter is it wrong for multinational institutions to fund conservation efforts that create a haven for lawlessness? Should those funds be directed towards rectifying human suffering instead? Is it expecting too much of countries to ask them to collaborate on something like an enormous park when they are struggling to maintain stability and civil law?
Although lacking the drama of gorilla assassinations and active military conflict, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park faces similar ethical quandaries. While the park represents an idealistic solution to multiple problems that has generated a great deal of excitement and support, in reality the park has faced complications. In Mozambique, the land the country was contributing to the GLTP was a communal hunting area that was
117 UNESCO reports that approximately 425,000 have been displaced by recent conflict in the DRC. UNESCO, "Renewed fighting threatens mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park," (2007).
118 International Crisis Group, "Democratic Republic of Congo Conflict Report" http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=l 174 (accessed 19 May 2008). 61
being repurposed specifically for the creation of the massive transboundary park. The hunting area, called Coutada 16, was designated the Limpopo National Park in 2001. At that time, approximately 20-30 thousand people lived in or around Coutada 16, with around 6,000 of them actually living in the park. 119 Having people is such close proximity to the park resulted in two major difficulties. First, because so much of the wildlife in the area had been hunted to extinction during Mozambique's civil war, the people living in and around the park were not used to living with large wild animals.
Secondly, despite calls by funders to involve local people in planning and decision making processes, it soon became obvious that very little information was being shared with the effected citizens. The German Development Bank (KfW) threatened to withdraw funding if community representation was not established, which instigated a flurry of activity attempting to create elected community representation within a month. 120 To date, the area continues to struggle with communication, representation, and inclusion in decision-making processes.
In Zimbabwe, not all of the land needed to make the transboundary park contiguous was owned by the state. The Sengwe Wildlife Corridor (commonly referred to as the Sengwe Corridor) lies between the South African and Mozambican borders of
119 Refugee Research Programme, A Park/or the People: Community Consultation in Coutada 16, Mozambique (Limpopo Province, South Africa: University of the Witwatersrand, 2002).; Jacqueline Bice, "GLTP at the World Conservation Congress -People in Parks the case of Mozambique" Great Limpopo Talk of the Transfrontier 2004.
120 Rachel DeMotts, "Participating in Conservation? Governing on the Ground in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park," (2005).; Marja Spierenburg, Conrad Steenkamp, and Harry Wels, Enclosing the Local for the Global Commons: Community Land Rights in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute, 2007). 62
the GLTP and Gonarezhou National Park and is considered "vital" to the inclusion of
Zimbabwe in the project. 121 Additionally, the recent unrest in Zimbabwe has spilled over into Gonarezhou National Park. Robert Mugabe's "Land and Agrarian Reform
Programme" resulted in massive instability as fast-tracked resettlements brought a formerly thriving agricultural sector to a screeching halt. The anger felt by Shangaan tribes evicted from the park in 1975 is still present and in recent years tribes have attempted to settle portions of the park. 122 Both Zimbabwe and South Africa face issues related to the forced expulsion of people from tribal lands to establish Kruger and
Gonarezhou National Parks (demonstrating to Mozambique examples of the importance of handling such resettlements justly). And in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, human populations must learn how to live with wild animals, how to minimize disease spread
(such as foot and mouth disease) to domesticated animals, and are facing food security issues.
South Africa has long been the regional hegemon and suspicions exist related to the revenue disparities between the Kruger National Park and newly established ecotourism areas in Mozambique.123 South Africa has the advantage in that it has the infrastructure already established, including the roads, and the hotels, as well as an
abundance of wildlife. The question is not if tourists will come to the new parks, as
121 Peace Parks Foundation, "GLTP 2004 Highlights" http://www.peaceparks.org/news. php?op=2005&mid=497&pid=161 (accessed 27 March 2008).
122 Ferreira.
123 Buscher and Dietz. 63
tourism is already increasing in Mozambique, but will they come right away and if they don't how long can communities afford to wait?124
Clearly, the concept of transboundary parks presents ethical considerations on several fronts. The issue offers fodder for deliberations regarding environmental ethics, human rights, and international ethics. Why get bogged down in ethics? One might argue that there are enough considerations complicating any international development endeavor. However, having a sound understanding of ethical considerations helps provide a better understanding of the factors surrounding the issue and ultimately positively inform and guide actions. Where international law is concerned the correct course of action is not easily determined, and good intentions without the commitment to fully examine all ethical considerations surrounding a project can be meaningless and even harmful. Too often development projects are hindered by a lack of consideration of the indirect impacts of the effort.
For example, University of Arizona philosophy professor David Schmidtz cites a
drought relief effort in Zambia in 1990s. Agencies wanted to provide assistance but
found monetary contributions problematic, as they often weren't used for the intended
purposes. Food couldn't be sent because the crates became infested with plague carrying
rats. Ultimately the agencies decided to send second hand clothes. This flooded the area
with free clothes decimating the cotton and textiles market, which was a major regional
employer, unemployment skyrocketed and the industry has yet to recover. According to
Schmidtz, "The problem was not faulty execution by particular agencies, but something
more fundamental: failing to appreciate that solutions to problems of developing
124 Spierenburg, Steenkamp, and Wels. 64
countries ultimately lie in their own local economies."125 In this situation the aid offered by the agencies was more harmful than helpful, largely because they didn't stop to consider the full implications of their assistance. Malevolent outcomes to well-intended development efforts occur with such regularity that a full consideration of potential ramifications of the project must be considered for the project not to be ethically questionable.
Transboundary peace parks have the potential to be stabilizing agents that help countries meet international environmental goals. However, failure to consider the ethical implications of displacing people to create a wildlife refuge that attracts wealthy international tourists, or the role and interests of international agencies will result in a major weakness in the project. Questions to ponder include: What is the value of the park? What conflicts or problems is the park attempting to address? How does the park impact people? How does the park impact the environment? In what way is the environment even a consideration? And finally, what are the roles/interests of local, state
and international agencies?
Environmental Ethics
Environmental ethics is replete with discussions of anthropocentric ethics
(human-centered) versus biocentric ethics (nature-centered). This paper by default must
take an anthropocentric position when discussing ethics related to the park. A peace park
is attempting to solve problems that are related to people. The park may have a beneficial
125 David Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willott, Environmental Ethics: What really matters, what really works (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 373. 65
impact on the biotic community as a whole but ultimately the success of the park will hinge on how it impacts people.126 While the parks at first glance may seem most closely aligned with environmental concerns, the incentives that led to the creation of the parks were the lure of tourism dollars and the fulfillment of international conservation goals, such as Millennium Development Goal 7. 127 Additionally, in South Africa, it can be argued that one of the primary motivators was a resolution to the elephant overpopulation problem that avoids the controversy that culling creates. 128 In its approach to the environment, the goals of the park are generally conservation goals rather than preservation goals, which is another hallmark of an anthropocentric approach.129
Interestingly, despite the anthropocentric focus of the GL TP plans the welfare of the people living in and around the GL TP seems to be a secondary concern during
126 "Success" in this instance is defined by meeting project related goals set by the Peace Parks Foundation and Development Agencies.
127 Millennium Development Goal #7 addresses Environmental Sustainability and specifically charges "Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources" http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/; Full text can also be seen in Appendix D.
128 Busc .. h er an d D"ie t z.
129 Conservation and preservation are viewed differently. Conservation is viewed as an anthropocentric term implying that the environment is something that must be managed and conserved for humanity. Preservation is seen as, biocentric, protecting something for its own sake, because of its inherent value. David Schmidtz states "Conservationists care about nature in an anthropocentric way, saying nature should be used wisely. Preservationist care about nature in a biocentric way, saying that, although we (like any living creature cannot avoid using nature, nature nevertheless has moral standing independent of its utility of humans." (Schmidtz & Willott, 418) 66
implementation. 130 While tourism revenue is still a prevalent motivator the impact on local communities has been downplayed and largely overlooked and questions remain about how much revenue local communities will see. Despite initial plans to implement community based natural resource management, the approach within all three countries has been consistently top down. In both the case of the Makuleke Reserve in South
Africa and of people living with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, residents seem to be viewed largely as barriers to be dealt with rather than as partners in the endeavors of the park. Because of that individuals critical of the park have claimed that conservation goals are taking precedent over the people impacted by the park (despite the fact that a majority of the funding was received by development banks and foundations interested in the plan for its sustainable development and poverty alleviation aspects).
Those involved may feel that the land or wildlife involved has an inherent value and deserves to be protected on its own merit. However, the park would not have received the funding and support necessary to make it a reality if its aim was not positively impacting people. David Schmidtz makes a salient point when discussing economics being used to resolve environmental conflict. According to Schmidtz, if the implementers of a preservationist effort do not take into consideration the impact and values of the people involved the effort is doomed to failure no matter how defensible its
130 Draper and Wels, "Super African Dreams: The Mythology of Community Development in Transfrontier Conservation Areas in Southern Africa."; Ferreira.; Wolmer. 67
ethical stance. 131 "Wildlife will survive only if people can afford to share the land. If they cannot share, then they will not share, and the wildlife will die."132 It's possible that the park could be seen as taking a more holistic ecocentric approach to the land, slightly more towards the realm of ecologist Aldo Leopold.
Leopold is best known for his land ethic, which places people as a part of an
ecosystem, rather than as managers of it. Leopold criticized the land practices of his time
observing that "the land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not
obligations."133 One could interpret the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, while driven
by economics, as being driven also by knowledge of the importance of maintaining the
balance of the land. Leopold is arguably most famous for his treatise, "A thing is right
when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is
wrong when it tends otherwise." 134 Again the GLTP project seems in alignment with that
statement. The park is actively attempting to maintain the integrity, stability and beauty
of the land. However, while many of the people who participate in the park may find that
it has an intrinsic value, most of the funders, the heads of state, are supporting the park
because of how it impacts the goals that effect people. Ultimately people are at the top of
the pyramid in terms of park management. In fact one could argue that the nature of
131 David Schmidtz, "Natural Enemies: An Anatomy of Environmental Conflict," in Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works, ed. Elizabeth Willott David Schmidtz (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
132 Ibid., 423.
133 Wolmer.
134 Aldo Leopold and Michael Sewell, A Sand County Almanac: With Essays on Conservation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 224. 68
parks creates a compartmentalized land ethic. Limpopo Province, where Kruger is located, hosts many mines, 4x4's roar through the GLTP park on their way to the coast, and a sugar cane plantation is about to be established outside of the Limpopo National
Park that may utilize the majority of the water from the Limpopo River worrying farmers downstream. An environmental ethic that compartmentalizes conservation or holism, is most certainly an anthropocentric ethic.
Coincidentally, the biocentric/anthropocentric and conservation/preservation arguments reflect major points of conflict related to the park. Those who work with the people impacted by the park feel that people are being marginalized by conservation goals; and conservationists see a world that has shrinking ecosystems where most large undomesticated mammals are endangered species. The beauty of the GLTP is that it the goal is to achieve both: improve the lives of the people in and around the park and achieve conservation goals. Divisiveness within the environmental philosophy factions can be detrimental to conservation/preservation movements, however environmental philosophy is, like other forms of philosophy, integral to giving value to actions. 135
Similarly the tension between humanitarians and conservationists has potential to help achieve a sustainable development goal that would be a global coup: alleviate poverty while simultaneously protecting the environment.
When environmental ethics was formally introduced in the 1970s there was much discussion about overpopulation and the carrying capacity of the environment. Scientist
135 J. Baird Callicott, "Environmental Philosophy is Environmental Activism: The Most Radical and Effective Kind," in Environmental Philosophy and Environmental Activism, ed. D. Marieta and L. Embree (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995). 69
Paul Ehrlich was predicting environmental disaster and mass famine by the 1980s. 136 In the same year, Garrett Hardin wrote his seminal piece, "Tragedy of the Commons," asserting that over-allocation of common resources would end in the collapse of the biotic community, and suffering of mankind, once carrying capacity was exceeded. 137 To avoid this collapse, Hardin advocated the privatization or the controlled public use of communal lands. The worldwide famine predicted by Ehrlich did not happen, but the signs that the environment is stressed are becoming indisputable.138 And nations increasingly struggle to maintain the balance between preserving the commons and development. With a burgeoning population dependent on the earth's resources, high yield factory farming practices, increased meat consumption, and the increasing use of high-energy utilizing practices is taking its toll. Global warming, considered by many a debatable hysterical theory a decade ago, is now recognized by the vast majority of scientists and governments to be an active phenomena with disastrous consequences if it continues to progress unchecked. One may be driven to protect the environment because of its inherent value, to preserve the "integrity, stability and beauty" of the biotic community.139 Or one may support conservation efforts to preserve the biotic community because it is becoming increasingly clear that the viability of the human population (or at
136 Paul R. Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (New York,: Ballantine Books, 1968).
137 Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, no. 162 (1968).
138 Ehrlich attributes technological advances in food production as the reason famine was avoided. Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, One with Nineveh: Politics, consumption, and the human future (Washington: Island Press : Shearwater Books, 2004).
139 Leopold and Sewell. 70
least live as we know it) hinges on a healthy environment. The fact is that within the last
30 years the impact of overpopulation and unfettered energy use on the environment has become glaringly apparent and the biocentric and anthropocentric goals are now an
increasingly common goal, protection of the environment, with disparate values
motivating them.
Cultural Imperialism, Green Colonization, and Community Based Resource Management: The roles of local, state and international actors
Another area for reflection is the roles and motivations of those driving the
creation of the park. Although the concept for a transboundary park was proposed as
early as 1938 when Portuguese biologist Gomes de Sousa suggested the idea to colonial
authorities, it was not until 1990 that serious talks were instigated culminating in the
signing of the international treaty formally establishing the park in 2002. 140 International
reaction to the park was enthusiastic and funding poured in from development and
conservation agencies. Initial disputes prior to ratification pertained to whether the park
2 should be established as the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (35,000 km ) or the larger
2 Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (100,000 km ). The GLTP would
consist of already established parkland in the three countries, focus predominantly on
wildlife conservation and be managed as a single entity via a joint management board.
The GLTFCA, because of its large size, would incorporate many larger towns and
villages and would be, from the outset, a sustainable development effort that focused on
14°Ferreira.; Peace Parks Foundation, "About the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park" http://www.greatlimpopopark.com/ (accessed 3 February 2008). 71
conservation. 141 South Africa was a proponent of the GLTP but Mozambique and the
World Bank (who conducted a 1996 feasibility study) were in favor of the larger
GLTFCA.142 Ultimately the countries reached an agreement that focused primarily on the GLTP but mentioned the GL TFCA as a future goal.
The states were understandably wary of each other. Early on the GLTP was called by some "The Kruger Expansion," which made those in both Mozambique and
Zimbabwe nervous about the intentions of their larger and more powerful neighbor.143
Kruger's history of displacing indigenous people during apartheid contributed to the suspicions of the indigenous people in and around the Limpopo National Park. South
Africa had the advantage of not only being the most economically and politically stable of the three but, with a park established in 1898 and invested in consistently for the last century, of also having the infrastructure already firmly in place. All three states expressed concern about revenue sharing, with Mozambique and Zimbabwe worried that a majority of the revenues would go to South Africa. 144 South Africa's most prevalent
141 Simon Metcalfe, "Impacts of Transboundary Protected Areas on Local Communities in Three Southern African Initiatives " in Transboundary Protected Areas in the Governance Stream Workshop of the 5th World Parks Congress (Durban, South Africa, : 2003).
142 World Bank, Mozambique Transfrontier Conservation Areas Pilot and Institutional Strengthening Project.
143 Godwin.
144 Joy Hecht, "Revenue Sharing Feasibility Study," (2003). 72
concern was about the welfare of its wildlife given the historical problems with poaching
in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.145
Imbalances of power caused Mozambique and Zimbabwe to eye South Africa with suspicion. 146 Neither state wanted to be any less than an equal player in the
endeavor. Because of the porous nature of the border effective collaborative efforts to
control criminal activity would likely be a more effective conservation effort than Kruger
existing on its own, or the three parks existing independently the park. Concerns were
voiced about the border regions of the GLTP becoming a haven for lawlessness but to
date park officials attest that they have been successfully working together to address
poaching problems. 147 In general the park has presented an opportunity for collaborative
environmental governance, which the countries (largely Mozambique and South Africa)
seem to be doing with a steadily growing resume of success. 148
Although early proposals heavily incorporated local community involvement,
states dominate the process, especially in Mozambique, which rushed to make early
deadlines and lacked the knowledge-base or existing infrastructure to support a fast-
tracked community based development endeavor. 149 By most accounts the communities
145 Ferreira.
146 Godwin.
147 Leon Marshall, "Transfrontier Park Poachers Nabbed," Sunday Independent, 26 November 2007.
148 Duffy.
149 Hilscher and Dietz. 73
are all but symbolically cut out of the process in Mozambique. 150 This is a concern largely for three reasons. First, the consistent theme in assessment reports states that success of the project hinges on community buy-in. Secondly, without local involvement or buy-in there are fewer established processes that encourage transparency, which is a concern, as corruption appears to be increasing in Mozambique. 151 And finally, without the empowerment of the community to stand up for their rights there is an increased likelihood that those rights will be infringed upon. Issuto Tankar, a human rights worker assisting the villagers in Limpopo National Park says without the assistance of NGO's
"they would have been driven off their land as others have been elsewhere in the country.
'They would have left by now without compensation. The people would have lost everything. "'152
The project continues to garner much international support and attention from conservation groups to the point that accusations of "Ecological Imperialism" and
"Conservation Colonialism" have been directed towards international conservation groups. 153 In Mozambique in particular the people appear to be secondary to conservation goals. Uniformed about the park until after it was established, villages in
150 Ibid.; Spierenburg, Steenkamp, and Wels.; Wolmer. Anonymous, Survey Response, 1 June 2008.; Anonymous, Survey Response, 19 May 2008.
151 Bertram I. Spector and others, Corruption Assessment: Mozambique (USAID, 2005).
152 Daniel Howden, "Hidden Victims of the Green Revolution", The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/hidden-victims-of-the-green-revolution- 783012.html (accessed 4 May 2008).
153 Peace Parks Foundation, "GLTP 2004 Highlights" (accessed 27 March 2008).; Wolmer.; Anonymous, Personal Communication, 19 May 2008. 74
the Limpopo National Park were originally told they must relocate and then given the choice to relocate after funders threatened to pull out if forced resettlement was implemented. 154 Those that have elected to stay are currently residents in fenced park that is home not only to elephants but also to lions. 155
As a result of the restrictions and increasing conflicts with wildlife, many people living along the Shingwedzi now believe that resettlement is inevitable; as some said: 'They say that the resettlement is not forced, but that is not true. We are forced because we are no longer allowed to live our lives as before, we can no longer cultivate where we want, we can no longer take our cattle out to graze. Yes, we agreed to move, but we did not do so freely' .156
From the state's perspective they are bringing the possibility of jobs and services to an area that is severely lacking in both. From the park's perspective the path to a resolution
has been bumpy but those being relocated will be in improved homes with access to
healthcare and schools, and will have a chance at economic opportunities previously
unavailable to them. 157 While the jobs created so far have been few, some jobs have been
created where there were none and the promise of additional jobs continues to increase
with the development of the Limpopo National Park.
154 DeMotts, "Participating in Conservation? Governing on the Ground in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park."
155 Spierenburg, Steenkamp, and Wels.
156 Ibid.
157 Anonymous, Survey Response, 22 May 2008. 75
The Role of the Environment and Wildlife
On January 7, 2008 over one thousand people from around the world signed an online petition to prevent the scheduled execution of an elephant in the Charara Park in northern Zimbabwe.158 Physically provoked by New Year's revelers, the elephant, named Tusker because he sported only one tusk, damaged several cars. 159 The elephant had received warnings prior to that date after raiding the campsite of visitors who had left lemons in their tent despite warnings that citrus fruits would attract elephants.160 The elephant was a favorite character in the campground, but was developing bad habits that required self-policing behavior from the humans at the park to ensure peaceful co- existence. If additional incidents happened where property was damaged, the elephant would have to be put down. Conservationists in the area worked hard to inform the public of how important it was to obey the rules that helped to keep human-elephant conflicts at bay. But inebriated revelers physically provoked the elephant, until he rampaged, violating park rules and his probationary status. Tusker's execution was scheduled for
January 8, 2008. Park officials would have allowed the relocation of the elephant but at the age of 50 he had conditions that led veterinarians to believe that he would not survive
158 africam.com, "Urgent! Save Tusker the Elephant from being shot on January 7" http://www.africam.com/wildlife/urgent_save_tusker_the_elephant_from_being_ shot_on_? _January (accessed 1 May 2008).
159 Johnny Rodrigues, "Farewell to Tusker" http://rescuewithoutborders.org/ id45.html (accessed 1May2008).
160 Johnny Rodrigues, "Mischievous Tusker", ZimConservation Archives http://www.zimconservation.com/archives7-138.html (accessed 1 May 2008). 76
the trip to possible relocation sites. 161 Despite the public uproar to save the elephant's life, on January 8 the elephant was shot to death by park rangers.
This story presents a vivid example of a common ethical conundrum that most national parks hosting large animals face: how to minimize conflicts between animals and people. In this situation there is a decidedly anthropocentric viewpoint. Parks need
animals to have boundaries when it comes to people. Minimizing direct contact with
tourists and their belongings ensures the safety of both the tourist and the animal.
Animals most endangered are those that learn to associate people with food (or as food).
Because even the friendliest of wild animals is unpredictable, what starts as a property
damaging tent raid for food has the potential to turn into a person being harmed. People
are asked to monitor their behavior, but in the cases where they fail to do so and an
animal invades, it is the animal who learns the bad habit (tents contain food) and it is the
animal that faces the consequence of losing its life if that bad habit cannot be suppressed.
Tusker's case was made more tragic by the fact that he was deliberately teased and
provoked into a self-defensive re-action.
Parks that contain permanent human inhabitants that are not otherwise affiliated
with the park have additional challenges. One cannot tell a subsistence farmer not to
grow sorghum or keep citrus fruits in his home because it might attract elephants. In
Mozambique problems related to elephants and crops are increased because only six
161 Associated Press, "Taunted Elephant Killed after Trashing Cars", MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22544883/ (accessed 2 April 2008). 77
percent of crops in the country are irrigated.162 This means that most farmers must plant their crops in close proximity to water as it is difficult to depend on rainfall in
Mozambique's arid climate. The fertile areas of floodplains adjacent to rivers are
common growing areas, increasing the likelihood of an animal discovering or
inadvertently trampling crops when they come to river for water. 163 Park officials in the
Limpopo National Park admit this is a difficult situation to navigate. 164 It is important for
positive relations to be maintained between people and wildlife to ensure the safety of the
animals. Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) implementers in
other countries have found that if people do not see another recourse they may attempt to
kill the animals to defend their livelihoods or simply because the relationship between
humans and wildlife is so negative that the animal seems more beneficial dead than alive.
165Successful CBNRM programs hinge on people living in proximity to animals learning
that the preservation of those animals is beneficial to their livelihood.166
162 IRIN, "Mozambique: No Lift-off for Biofuels Yet" http://wow.gm/africa/news/topic/biofuel/rss (accessed 2 May 2008).
163 Loki Osborn, Elephant/Human Conflict Around Maputo Elephant Reserve, Mozambique (Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, 1998).; Schmidtz, "Natural Enemies: An Anatomy of Environmental Conflict."
164 Anonymous, Survey Response, 21May2008.; Anonymous, Survey Response, 3 June 2008.
165 DeMotts, "Placing the Local in the Transnational: Communities and Conservation Across Borders in Southern Africa." Schmidtz, D. (2002). Natural Enemies: An Anatomy of Environmental Conflict. Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works. E.W. David Schmidtz. New York, Oxford University Press: 417-424.
166 Raymond Bonner, At the Hand ofMan: Peril and hope for Africa's wildlife, 1st ed. (New York: Knopf, 1993). 78
Another issue related to wildlife is the difficulties surrounding protecting a park's ecosystem when an animal with few natural predators is involved. Prior to 1995 park officials culled the elephant population in Kruger National Park. However, due to public outcry Kruger ceased culling and since then they have struggled with burgeoning elephant population. In the last thirteen years the elephant population has almost doubled in Kruger National Park. 167 Tourists are seeing plenty of elephants but they have are also starting to see obvious environmental damage caused by so many elephants living in the park. 168 Large portions of the park "have been transformed from woodland to grassland as thousands of elephants eat more than 300 pounds of vegetation apiece daily, leaving a trail of flattened trees. Among their targets are centuries-old baobab trees, which they slice open with their tusks and gradually topple."169 Culling had the advantage not only of immediately reducing the population of the herd but also fostering a wariness of human that kept elephants away from crops. Culling is extremely controversial due to human's affinity for elephants and the elephants' complex social structure that suggests that animal families grieve intensely when a family member dies. Animal rights activists have likened elephants to humans, dolphins, and gorillas in terms of complexity of
167 C.C. (Rina) Grant and others, "Controlling the Distribution of Elephant," in Assessment of South African Elephant Management, ed. R ..T. Scholes and K.G. Mennell (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2007).
168 Craig Timberg, "South Africa to Resume Elephant Culling," Washington Post, February 26 2008.
169 Ibid. 79
thought and feeling and suggest that killing them is essentially murder. 170 The outcome of the elephant debate will most likely have ramifications on wildlife policy in the park in general. According to Saliem Fakir, director of IUCN, the issues related to elephant culling are important not only for their impact on elephants but also because of their ramifications in approaching population control in other species. 171
The long-time elephant specialist at Kruger National Park, Ian Whyte, agrees that culling is necessary, although he has very mixed feelings about the practice. He places the blame for the current situation on the fact that they have an increasingly limited habitat that is being encroached upon by people. "There's not too many elephants. There's too many people. "172 Within Kruger, a biocentric approach is being taken-wildlife experts feel they must cull in order to protect the biodiversity of the park. 173 Protecting the biodiversity of the park means ensuring that a habitat for elephants will continue to
exist, as well as helping to preserve the habitat for other wildlife.
People living in proximity to parks present a more complicated point of
consideration. When impoverished people are facing major food security issues due to
crop damage by wildlife, one is forced to consider which is more important and why, if a
170 H.P.P. (Hennie) Lotter and others, "Ethical Considerations in Elephant Management," in Assessment of South African Elephant Management, ed. R.J. Scholes and K.G. Mennell (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2007).
171 Saliem Fakir, Notes on the Ethics ofElephant Culling (South Africa IUCN (World Conservation Union), 2004).
172 Craig Timberg, "As the Elephants Multiply, So Do Game Park's Woes," Washington Post, 8 August 2006.
173 Mark Schulman, "A Numbers Game: Managing Elephants in Southern Africa", Environment News Service http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2006/2006-07-l 9- 03.asp (accessed 3 May 2008). 80
policy for mediating conflict and compensating for food loss are not in place. Are the human lives more important simply because they are human?
Human Rights: How Are People Impacted by the Park?
Human rights play a large role in any ethical discussion related to the park. Much of what has already been discussed relates to human rights either indirectly or directly.
However, in addition to land rights and issues related to human-animal conflict there are also the issues of more common human rights conundrums like human trafficking.
Mozambique is considered an area of concern for human trafficking and is classified as a place of origin, destination, and transit. 174 South Africa is the most common destination.
The majority of people being trafficked are women and children who are either sold into the sex industry, used as labor, or for organ harvesting. Poverty is the largest vulnerability factor. 175 Families sell children to those who promise them a better life or
simply because they feel they have no other options. And women in search of jobs are
often duped into traffickers' traps. "Mozambique is no longer at war but its younger
generation appears just as desperate for opportunity and employment, which leads many young women to take up false offers of employment in South Africa, where they are sold
174 United Nations Educational UNESCO, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Human Trafficking in Mozambique: Root causes and recommendations (Paris, 2006).
175 Jonathan Martens, Maciej 'Mac' Pieczkowski, and Bernadette van Vuuren Smyth, Seduction, Sale and Slavery: Trafficking in Women and Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa (3rd Edition) (Pretoria, South Africa: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for Southern Africa 2003). 81
into sex slavery, primarily as concubines to South African men."176
The concern regarding human trafficking has risen with the increase of known trafficking incidents and concern about a predicted trafficking spike when South Africa hosts the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Until April 2008 Mozambique did not have a law specifically against trafficking. As a result no one in Mozambique has ever been arrested for trafficking despite the fact that it violates international law. 177 Several high profile cases in recent months, including discovery of a busload of Mozambican children being trafficked into South Africa have authorities and human rights workers concerned that trafficking is rising, although statistics are difficult to obtain. 178 The recent law passed by parliament is a good step towards signifying intolerance for trafficking and providing a legal framework to more easily charge criminals.
The park, because if its over 120 km of jointly shared border, is an area of concern. With the dropping of approximately 50 km of the fence to allow the migration of animals, ostensibly passage for human traffickers and smugglers has also been eased.
Policing the border is a major concern for both countries, a task that is made more difficult due to the border's "porous" nature, and the high number ofrefugees coming in from Zimbabwe.179 The border has negative associations for the refugees from
176 Fakir.
177 IRIN, "Mozambique: Scratching the Surface of Child Trafficking" http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportld=77575 (accessed 23 May 2008).
178 Ibid. (accessed 23 May 2008).
179 James Chirwa, Special Report: Fact or Fiction? Examining Zimbabwean Cross-Border Migration into South Africa (Johannesburg Forced Migration Studies 82
Mozambique and Zimbabwe fleeing war and poverty for the economic promise of South
Africa. People, driven by desperation, had to brave the fence and then the wildlife. The fence, electrified with a 3000-volt charge until the end of apartheid, was powerful enough to kill a person on contact. It is difficult to determine how many people fell prey to lions as they attempted to traverse the park, but this threat remains a danger for illegal border crossers.
Another moral consideration is the creation of a tourist facility for wealthy white tourists in the midst of extreme poverty. A promotional video for the Makalali Game
Reserve, a private reserve just west of South Africa's Kruger National Park, promises "an oasis of luxury where passion prevails." 180 Located in South Africa's most impoverished province, Limpopo, where unemployment hovers over 35 percent, Makalali is truly an oasis. 181 Something seems wrong (but not unusual) about having so much recreational wealth adjacent to so much poverty. However, ifthe reserve or Kruger National Park is not contributing to the suffering of the people of Limpopo they cannot be blamed for the province's poverty issues. Or can they? If they are bearing witness to suffering, while making large profits that do not positively impact the local area, then an ethical problem presents itself. If the parks that attract tourists provide jobs, and utilize supplies from the area and manage to positively impact the economy of the region then enterprise can be
Programme & Musina Legal Advice Office 2007).; Martens, Pieczkowski, and Vuuren Smyth.
180 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKtxiA49zjk, 8 February 2008.
181 http://www.southafrica-newyork.net/consulate/provinces/limpopo .htm 8 February 2008. 83
seen as a positive thing. However, if the parks further marginalize people or idly bear witness to their suffering then the endeavors become morally questionable.
Environmental Ethicist Holmes Rolston III states that "The poor are always there, and if we did nothing of value until there were no more poor, we would do nothing else of value at all." 182 But goes on to say, "When we must choose between feeding the hungry and conserving nature, people ought to come first."183 Controversial utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer argues, "If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it."184 So if one subscribes to Rolston's thinking then as long as the parks aren't contributing to the impoverishment of the people then parks are not only non-malevolent bet they have benefits in terms of their conservation efforts and beauty.
Singer takes Rolston' s ethic a step further and says if an individual has the capacity to prevent or ease the suffering of another than that person is ethically obligated to do so. In his view the fact that information and goods are so easily transported has raised the bar in terms of the ethical obligations of the "haves." So the wealthy visiting and funding the park not only have an obligation to those in close proximity but they must also help those elsewhere. In Singer's opinion, with so much wealth in the world there is no reason for anyone to be starving. If one applies that ethic to the park, then minimally the
182 Holmes Rolston III, "Feeding People Versus Saving Nature," in World Hunger & Morality, ed. W. Aiken & H. Lafollette (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977), 2.
183 Ibid., 1.
184 Peter Singer, Writings on an Ethical Life, 1st ed. (New York: Ecco Press, 2000), 107. 84
governments and businesses of a country have an obligation to implement business
practices that benefit the most needy. In the situation of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier
Park, which is surrounded by impoverished people, it can be argued that the park has an
obligation to assist them directly (as opposed to relying on "trickle down") and certainly
to not contribute to the marginalization of the impoverished.
Another human rights issue is the topic of land rights and forced resettlement of
indigenous people living on park property or adjacent to park property. The sections of
the GL TP parks in Zimbabwe and South Africa have been established for some time,
leaving them largely uninhabited, but the park in Mozambique was created specifically
for the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. As mentioned above, one complication of the
Limpopo National Park's youth, is the approximately 20-30 thousand citizens living in
and around the park. 185 While by Mozambican law the residents had land rights prior to
the area becoming a national park, those rights were dissolved once Coutada 16 was
legally transformed into the Limpopo National Park.186 This raises two important issues:
In a country with communal property rights (only commercial businesses can own
property) how are people relocated fairly. And secondly, what is being done to promote
positive relations between animals and people. Often in development projects a
preference utilitarian approach is taken, trying to do the action that achieves (or is
projected to achieve) the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This approach
often squashes the rights of those immediately impacted, so that a goal that is supposed to
185 Refugee Research Programme.
186 Simon Munthali, "Transfrontier conservation areas: Integrating biodiversity and poverty alleviation in Southern Africa," Natural Resources Forum 31 (2007). 85
better the lives of many progresses at the expense of those being relocated. This type of relocation for development is most commonly seen with dams, where dams are built and towns vacated and submerged, but it can be seen in smaller forms of development such as the creation of highways. If the region is doing better as a result of the project the thinking is that people will eventually see improved living conditions, in the form of jobs, better roads and other facilities. However, without advocates, the powerless often see little return. In countries with marginal infrastructures that make oversight and transparency difficult, corruption and graft have a greater opportunity to flourish. Even without corruption countries with great need may find that revenues from the project may not make it down to the bottom. The "trickle-down" theory is not just flawed because of possible corruption or failure ofresources to reach the bottom; it's also problematic in
that the project may be hindered without the support of the people impacted. 187
By some accounts, without the intervention of external institutions the
communities would have been relocated without fair compensation.188 According to one
survey respondent,'' This process has been one of colonization through conservation
driven by conservative conservationists ... [T]he GLTP did not take into account the
livelihoods of the communities on both the South African and Mozambican sides. The
motivation seemed more to be to find space for the overpopulation of elephants than
dealing with poverty."189 Park officials seem to have had the communities' best interest
at heart since the parks inception. From early planning stages the desires to have the
187 Bonner.
188 Howden, (accessed 4 May 2008).
189 Anonymous, Survey Response, 19 May 2008. 86
people involved in planning, to provide facilities and build villages to relocate villages to that would significantly improve their standard of living were regularly expressed. But in reality most actions having to do with the local communities have materialized as after thoughts resulting in communities feeling marginalized and powerless.190 Most recently, the to-be-relocated village around the Massingir dam was informed that the land promised to them for resettlement would now be shared with the PROCANA sugar cane plantation and ethanol plant. This development has the potential to be beneficial to the village as the plant will employ area residents but if the citizens don't have land rights to their new properties the likelihood of them being taken advantage of is high. 191
Additionally, by not informing citizens and keeping them involved in the planning processes, there is a greater likelihood that they will be suspicious of park activities and
initially view any kind of change negatively.
While the Mozambican section of the park is the most populated it is not the only
section of the park that is facing land rights issues. South Africa and Zimbabwe actually
have much thornier land rights issues due to the heavy colonialism both of those
countries experienced. Colonizers tended to choose the lands now knows as South Africa
or Zimbabwe over Mozambique due to the tenuous nature of land rights with the
Portuguese, and the better roads in the region which facilitated access and crop export.
South Africa has a legal framework set up and has been working to settle restitution
cases. The Makuleke tribe was one of the first to win a land-restitution and the land that
190 DeMotts, "Placing the Local in the Transnational: Communities and Conservation Across Borders in Southern Africa."
191 Anonymous, Survey Response, 19 May 2008. 87
they were awarded is in the heart of the GLTP where South Africa, Mozambique and
Zimbabwe meet. 192 The Makuleke case is held up as a landmark case for indigenous tribes seeking restitution for land taken during colonial times, but even though the
Makuleke have legal rights to their land, they were omitted from the planning process for the park initially.193 Park plans simply included their lands as part of the GLTP without tribal consultation. The Makuleke protested, and were brought into the fold. With the help of volunteer and non-profit agency advisors the Makuleke were able to fully access all that their land rights entail and not be railroaded into a passive role. This speaks to both the benefit of land rights in terms of providing a legal framework to fall back on when the social climate is not recognizing those rights, and to how park officials in their desire to implement their plans have looked at indigenous rights as a secondary matter.
Zimbabwe has massive land rights issues, exacerbated by the current administration's instability and heavy-handed actions. As a common practice in colonial times, the most fertile lands were sold to white landowners and the indigenous people who lived on the land were forced to move. In the last ten years long-time Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe retracted the land rights of white landowners and gave the land
over to "War Veterans."194 Zimbabwe's current situation is well known: political and
192 Buscher and Dietz.
193 Reid.
194 These are former soldiers considered veterans of Zimbabwe's (then Rhodesia) struggle for independence (known as the Rhodesian Bush War or the Second Chimurenga). These former soldiers are being awarded land ostensibly in return for their service. However, as they have become increasingly commonly associated with frightening land invasions, their actions often put them more in the category of henchmen than honorable veterans. 88
civil instability, unfathomable inflation, and massive food security issues abound. This has directly impacted the park in multiple ways. Regarding land rights, attempts to settle the park have been documented, as have attempts to clear land to farm lots within the
park. 195 Things in the park seem to have improved since 2001, when it was thought
unlikely that Zimbabwe would be able to progress with the GLTP plans. In some ways
the agreement has held the government accountable, and Robert Mugabe's government
was able to redirect settlers to neighboring areas and curtail some of the poachers.
Despite repeated threats to not include the park over the years the park has remained part
of the plan, although one project manager working within the park said that it remains a
part only on paper. None of the fence between the two sections has come down, recent
visitors to the park described it as beautiful and deserted. Tourists have been steering
clear of Zimbabwe and local people cannot afford to travel as a result of Zimbabwe's
astronomical inflation. Poaching of small and medium sized game has remained a
problem, especially in light of rampant food shortages within the country. 196
Additionally, Gonarezhou is facing an elephant over population problem, with recent
reports stating that over 7,000 elephants are estimated to inhabit the park, which has a
carrying capacity of 3,000.197 Park officials do not have the monetary resources to
relocate the elephants and are relying on the maturation of the GLTP to ease the pressure
195 Jenny Sharman, "Zimbabwe's Park of Peace," Mail and Gaurdian 2001.
196 Prega Govender, "Land Grabs put Megapark at Risk," The Sunday Times July 17, 2005.
197 "Elephant Population Gets out of Control", Zim2Day! Zimbabwe's Business News http://zim2day.com/index.php?option=com content&task=view&id=607 <emid=l (accessed 22 May 2008). 89
on the park. However, until Zimbabwe's political situation stabilizes the progress of the
GLTP will most likely be limited to Mozambique and South Africa. 198
Conclusion
Ethical dilemmas abound when approaching a project as complex as the Great
Limpopo Transfrontier Park. A single agreed upon ethic may not be possible but being aware of the issues can help managers avoid thorny situations or at least enable them to more easily traverse them. Most of the matters discussed--human-animal conflict, land rights, human trafficking-- will not go away and will most likely worsen if not carefully addressed. While having animals and people live in close proximity to each other may seem problematic, as population density increases parks actually help decrease human- animal conflict because they have dedicated space for the animals and processes developed to mitigate conflict. 199 It is in areas where the conflict is not addressed that situations become increasingly negative, with individuals feeling like they must resolve the problem on their own.
Transboundary peace parks have the potential to achieve the goals that are trumpeted. Ecotourism is thriving in Africa, it is thriving in Kruger National Park, and it seems logical that it has the potential to thrive in the adjacent countries if political
198 Govender.
199 Schmidtz and Willott, Environmental Ethics: What really matters, what really works. 90
climates remain stable.200 But issues related to community are not just prevalent ethical conditions, repeated analysis over the last seven years indicate that success of the park hinges on good community relations. 201 Aldo Leopold stated that people believed in the fallacy that land use was determined by economics. He argued that land use was actually determined by "an innumerable host of actions and attitudes, comprising perhaps the bulk of all land relations, is determined by the land-users' tastes and relations hinges on investments of time, forethought, skill, and faith . . . As a land-user thinketh so is he. "202
Analogous to the Great Limpoopo Transfrontier Park, recognizing the value of tackling complex ethical issues related to the park will contribute as much or more to the success of the park as the aggressive push forward to meet development goals.
200 Republic of Mozambique: Ministry of Tourism, Strategic Plan for the Tourism Development ofMozambique (2005-20013), 2004.
201 Anna Spenceley, Tourism Investment in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (Transboundary Protected Areas Research Initiative, University of the Witwatersrand, 2005).; Spierenburg, Steenkamp, and Wels.; World Bank, Mozambique Transfrontier Conservation Areas Pilot and Institutional Strengthening Project.
202 Leopold and Sewell, 225. CHAPTER 7
PEACEBUILDING ANALYSIS
This chapter evaluates the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park as a peacebuilding tool utilizing Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko' s evaluative methods and Johan
Galtung' s violence indicators. This section is intended to compliment Chapter 8, which analyzes the three countries' risk of conflict from a development perspective.
Conca and Dabelko's Evaluative Methods
Drawn from Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko' s book "Environmental
Peacemaking," this method evaluates the success of the park as an environmental peacemaking effort. In describing the concept of environmental peacemaking, the authors stress that in order for the efforts to be successful it must foster cooperation between the governments involved and ultimately transform the national security of the
state. 203 If the state is not supportive of sustainable development "rooted in environmental
and social justice," then any cooperative efforts will most likely not transcend their
immediate project and impact state institutions.204 In order for the Great Limpopo
Transfrontier Park to be an agent of environmental peacemaking, it must do more than
open its doors, it must have the support of the respective governments and be an agent of
203 Conca and Dabelko, eds.
204 Ibid.
91 92
state cooperation. With that in mind, the following two questions are asked.
Question One: Did the development of the park encourage the evolution of the relationships of participating states to increase trust and stability?
Relations between Mozambique and South Africa appear to have improved since the park treaty was signed in 2002. This is best exemplified by the removal of large portions of the electrified fence separating Kruger National Park from Mozambique, a
symbol of the divide and contention between the two countries. Additionally, the park
development has facilitated the de-mining of Mozambican sections of the GLTP. Park
officials have successfully carried out the terms of the GL TP treaty, including
collaboration on wildlife relocations, addressing poaching, and the building and opening
of the Giriyondo Access Facility. The access facility connects Kruger National Park and
the Limpopo National Park and allows visitors within the Great Limpopo National Park
to move between the two national parks. To date, governance within the park has been
successfully carried out, with each state overseeing the TFCA governance for two years
until the appointment of the permanent executive chair in 2008.
In terms of local cooperation, several survey respondents mentioned that the local
people were initially unsupportive of the park. One survey respondent mentioned that
initially the local people were mistrustful of the park "because they thought that it would
be the replication of the Kruger Park during the apartheid."205 However, all but one of
the respondents who mentioned the local people's initial distrust of the park stated that
205 Anonymous, Survey Response, 3 June 2008. 93
the park is making strides in improving the relationship, citing the creation of jobs and the hopes for additional jobs.
While almost all of the tangible cooperative efforts exist between Mozambique and South Africa, the park may have deterred some of the more flagrant deterioration when treaty objectives were threatened and discussion of excluding Zimbabwe from the
GLTP made headlines. Viewing South Africa as an arm of British colonialism, Robert
Mugabe's suspicions of his neighbor are well known. Despite those reservations, the government of Zimbabwe chose to participate in the GL TP. Perhaps Zimbabwe's involvement in the TFCA demonstrates that the long-lived spirit of conservation still exists in Zimbabwe, even if the resources and infrastructure to support it are not
available. Or perhaps Mugabe was motivated by an effort to save face and maintain his
involvement in regional efforts.
When evaluating the physical evidence, beyond involvement in the treaty,
institutional cooperation with the other countries appears to be minimal. The country
accomplished the de-mining of the Sengwe Corridor in 2006, but negotiations defining the terms of the tract of land in the GL TP are ongoing. Zimbabwe chaired the GL TP joint management board for the two years specified by the treaty. But the political
situation in Zimbabwe has vaporized the tourism industry and deterred most development
assistance. Most international NGO's have pulled out of Zimbabwe. Conflicting reports
swirl around Gonarezhou. According to some reports the park has an elephant
overpopulation problem, while others claim there is almost no wildlife at all. Earlier in
this paper, it was mentioned that official reports indicate that settlers are only on the
periphery of the park, yet a Zimbabwe-based conservation NGO reports almost a third of 94
the park has fallen subject to illegal settlement. Poaching, fueled by food insecurity, is rampant, to the point that some conservationists in Zimbabwe discourage the removal of any fencing between Kruger and Zimbabwe under the current conditions.206 And most recently South Africa has bolstered their Zimbabwean border with soldiers in an attempt to stem the influx of refugees. Survey responses have reinforced these negative perceptions of national security transformation. One mentioned that Zimbabwe was only a participant on paper; another that the country's instability could evolve into war which would seriously threaten the success of the park. While supportive of the park in general and supportive of Zimbabwe's inclusion in the TFCA with the inception of the park, a
Zimbabwean survey respondent said that he could not support the GL TP under the current governmental regime due to the government's inability to responsibly play their role. 207
South Africa and Mozambique have made strides in building institutional trust and have worked together throughout the GLTP project to achieve major milestones. This indicates a new stability in their relations with each other. Zimbabwe has cooperated to the best of its ability, but simply has not had the capacity to fully participate in the GL TP effort. While the instability in Zimbabwe has not alienated its neighbors to the point of formal exclusion from the GL TP project, those involved with the project are viewing
Zimbabwe with wariness. Until the crisis in Zimbabwe abates trust and stability will elude Zimbabwe's international relations.
206 Anonymous, Survey Response, 15 June 2008.
207 Ibid. 95
Question Two: Did the environmental peacemaking effort transform the institutions involved with national security?
Based on the removal of the gate and joint policing efforts to curtail poaching within the GLTP, it appears that significant strides toward transforming institutions involved with national security in Mozambique and South Africa have been made. Some cross-border policing issues, such as poaching, are being approached jointly, and one survey respondent stated that the extra resources attached to the park have helped to reduce cross border criminal activities. On the other hand, another respondent stated that he felt the park facilitated human trafficking and smuggling because of the inability to police the border.
Of concern is Mozambique's dependence on external sources of funding to maintain the LNP infrastructure. One additional respondent involved with the TFCA governance stated that, "If the donors stop their financing the Park may collapse as government funds will not be able to maintain the current level of management."208 While institutionally the park may have positively influenced the transformation of national security relations between the two countries and encouraged cooperation, the continued success is reliant on external funding for the extended future. However, the two survey respondents working with TFCA governance in Mozambique both stated their institution had a long-term commitment to the project. Regarding Zimbabwe, the park appears to have had no positive impact on institutions related to national security, due to Zimbabwe's internal political instability, which is consistent with Conca's assertion that a condition for environmental peacemaking is the absence of conflict. While Zimbabwe is not currently
208 Anonymous, Survey Response, 3 June 2008. 96
experiencing militarized conflict, the population is currently experiencing high levels of direct (physical), institutional and cultural violence. This is further discussed in the analysis utilizing Galtung's violence indicators below.
Galtung's Violence Indicators
Johan Galtung is known as one of the founders of modem peace and conflict
studies. According to Galtung, peace is the absence of violence and violence is
categorized in three ways: direct, structural, and cultural.209 In the absence of war,
physical violence may decrease but cultural and structural violence can still destabilize a
country (see Chapter 5 for further details on the three types of violence). In this section, I
build on the peace building analysis above by evaluating if the Great Limpopo
Transfrontier Park has helped develop positive peace by reducing direct, structural and
cultural violence.
Did the environmental peacemaking effort encourage the evolution of negative peace to positive peace via the reduction/elimination of direct, structural, and physical violence?
Mozambique has seen a significant reduction of direct, structural, and cultural
violence since its civil war ended in 1992. In this sense, overt institutionalized physical
conflict ceased to be. The rebel group RENAMO has dissolved its military forces and
now exists as a political party, and the government dedicates a very small percentage of
209 Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen, "Peace: The Goal and the Way," in Searching for Peace: The Road to Transcend (London ; Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2002).; Johan Galtung, "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research," Journal ofPeace Research 6, no. 3 (1969). 97
its budget to its military (less than 1.5 percent of the annual GDP in the last decade, compared to the United States' 10-year low of 3.0 percent). 210 All three countries signed the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban on December 3, 1997, requiring the countries, among other things, to have removed all mines by March 1, 2009. Mozambique completed de-mining of the Limpopo National Park in 2004 and while there is concern that reduced de-mining funding threatens the 2009 goal, a significant number of the estimated two million mines
in Mozambique have been removed.211
In the post-war period Mozambique entered a phase of negative peace (absence
of direct violence) and strives towards positive peace (social justice ).212 Positive peace is
somewhat more elusive, as the country struggles with gender inequality and income
inequality, both of which contribute to structural violence and cultural violence. Poverty
impacts a significant portion of the population making them vulnerable. Women and
children are particularly at risk as the least powerful. The country is moving forward by
creating laws addressing land rights, corruption, and human trafficking while wooing
foreign investors to develop economic opportunities that would create jobs.
Regarding structural and cultural violence, the GLTP has been somewhat of a
mixed bag for Mozambique, largely because of the resettlement of the villages living in
and around the park. Park efforts seem well-intentioned; resettled families were moved
210 Social Watch, "Development Indicators", SocialWatch.org http://www.socialwatch.org (accessed 3 June 2008).
211 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique, "Mozambique may Miss Demining Target" http://www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news/newsletter/aim328.html#storyl0 (accessed 25 April 2008).
212 Galtung, "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research." 98
into homes designed to be improvements on their previous homes, of comparable size, made from better materials and with improved facilities. 213 However, the lack of inclusion of the indigenous families in decision-making processes related to the park, hobbled the relationship early on and contributed to both structural violence and cultural violence. People were apprehensive about the park in general, and much of the original park activity took place without involving the people living in and around the park. This included the relocation of wildlife into the Limpopo National Park and in proximity to residents without informing them let alone involving them in the process. Development organizations insisted that forced resettlement not take place and that residents should be involved in resettlement processes. This has proven difficult to implement, partially due to the lack of infrastructure and human resources in Mozambique and partially due to the aggressive park development schedule, which did not allocate enough time to adequately develop the infrastructure that would facilitate community involvement.
Survey respondents mentioned that the relationship with local people had been bumpy. Most said that it was improving, with two sounding hopeful about a formal resettlement plan scheduled for implementation in 2008/2009. Several cited the ongoing problem of human animal conflict, largely in relation to crop raiding. Crop raiding, the
consumption or destruction of crops by wildlife, is a common problem when animals and
subsistence farmers live in close proximity to each other. Because of the impact on food
security, finding a resolution to this problem is necessary to avoid structural violence.
Contributing also to structural violence is the lack of involvement of residents in various
213 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique, "Resettling Residents of the Limpopo National Park" http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jun23 _ 2004.html#link9 (accessed 2 May 2008). 99
aspects of the park. A certain amount of the initial malfeasance can be attributed to the
forging into uncharted territories; but if, with the current knowledge base, the government
fails to address involvement and land rights of the impacted, the people will remain powerless and dominated and the park will be contributing directly to structural violence.
South Africa faced similar issues related to indigenous people and land rights. As
a nation, the country has been actively working to make restitution to those forced off
ancestral land either by colonialism or apartheid. The process has directly impacted
Kruger National Park, when the Makuleke tribe legally reclaimed a tract of the land
within the park. At that time, an agreement was worked out with the tribe allowing the
park to continue to use the land for conservation purposes while the Makuleke agreed to
use the land for ecotourism purposes rather than settling it. This portion of the park's
involvement with the Makuleke has been lionized as an example of social justice.
However, the Kruger National Park struggled with inclusion of the Makuleke, straining
the fragile relationship. In the early stages of the GLTP, South Africa committed to
including the Makuleke Contractual Area, which is at the heart of the GLTP, without
consulting the Makuleke. This caused considerable consternation and called into
question the spirit of the settlement with the Makuleke. The Friends of the Makuleke, a
volunteer panel of experts, provided significant assistance in navigating the Makuleke
Land Claim and with helping the Makuleke gain inclusion in the GLTP planning process.
While the relationship with the Makuleke floundered early on it seems to be improving.
However, the largest barrier South Africa seems to face is the legacy of structural
violence perpetuated by decades of colonialism and apartheid rule, so any lack of
inclusion seems to open old wounds. 100
Beyond the relationship with the Makuleke, the Kruger National Park (and soon
Mozambique) faces issues related to income inequality. The park, located in one of South
Africa's poorest provinces, and adjoined to parklands involving two of the poorest countries in the world (Mozambique and Zimbabwe), is most frequented by wealthy white tourists. Galtung cites income inequality as a manifestation of structural violence and in the case of the park there is a vast disparity between the wealthy vacationers visiting the park and the subsistence farmers surrounding it. Additionally, the income inequality between the planners (government official, consultants, researchers) and those the park is supposed to positively impact calls for awareness by the institutions involved in order to actively avoid any additional structural violence. Ideally the park will provide enough jobs for local people that it will become an agent of positive peace, but in the meantime those associated with the park must work diligently not only to avoid trampling the rights oflocal people but to champion those rights. Ultimately, the GLTP has been
successful in building working relationships between Kruger National Park and the
Makuleke, which have the potential to foster positive peace.
Zimbabwe is in a completely different situation. Lately it has been facing direct violence as Mugabe attempts to secure the election through a campaign of fear and
violence. Arrests, attacks, and murders have increased over the last few months and
compounded with the lack of food and dismal economy has Zimbabweans fleeing the
country in tens of thousands, with most heading to South Africa and Botswana. This has
impacted the park largely around the border, as South Africa has deployed soldiers to
police its border with Zimbabwe. Additionally, South Africa has historically been
concerned about KNP animals being poached either because they cross over to 101
Zimbabwe or because poachers are crossing the border to hunt. The food insecurity situation increases the concern related to poaching as starvation pushes people to take desperate actions for survival.
Conclusion
Although there has been some marginalization of indigenous people, ultimately the park has helped increase positive peace and appears to be a successful environmental peacemaking effort in South Africa and Mozambique. This is exemplified by the removal of sections of the border fence between Kruger National Park and Limpopo
National Park; the de-mining of Limpopo National Parks; the relocation of wildlife into the park; the sustained regional commitment of the two countries to the projects; and their ability to meet the goals specified in the treaty. To date, the number of additional jobs has been fairly minimal; however, park has begun to supply some jobs, mostly in the
Limpopo National Park, and interviewed respondents were optimistic about additional jobs materializing. The continued success of the park as an instrument of positive peace and as an environmental peacemaking tool hinges on insuring that the park protects the rights of indigenous people and that external funders continue to invest in the park. A consistent theme in the literature and evaluations of the park is that involving the people living in and around the park as participants is key to the success of the park.
It is possible that involvement in the park may have helped to stem some of the deterioration in Zimbabwe, but that is difficult to say. The park does not appear to have contributed to exacerbating relations between Zimbabwe and its neighbors; however, the 102
political situation in Zimbabwe has essentially precluded Zimbabwe from full involvement in the park. To date the park has not helped to foster positive peace in
Zimbabwe, and until Zimbabwe stabilizes, it is unlikely that the park will impact the people of Zimbabwe. CHAPTERS
DEVELOPMENT ANALYSIS
According to economist Paul Collier poverty and conflict are strongly tied.
Conflict begets poverty and poverty is one of the primary causes of conflict. 214
Extricating a country from the debilitating cycle is a nearly impossible task. In this
chapter, representing the final step of the four-part analysis, the development of the
country is assessed using statistics derived from the UNDP's Human Development
Indicators; the World Bank's CPIA Economic Policy Rating System and World
Development Indicators; and Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index.
Previous analysis focused on ethical considerations, Conca and Dabelko' s environmental
peacemaking evaluative methods, and Johann Gal tung' s violence indicators.
Collier asserts that there are four development traps: the conflict trap, reliance on
natural resources, being land-locked with unstable neighbors, and bad governance. These
"traps" seriously impede development, which increases the risk of conflict. Conflict risks
decrease as the growth-rate increases, and as a result are positively impacted by
beneficial economic policies, government transparency, and the diversification of
industry beyond reliance on primary commodities. Because poverty is an indicator of
conflict risk, statistics related to poverty are evaluated: including GDP, percentage of
214 Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it.
103 104
population living on less than $2 a day, percentage of population living with AIDS, access to sanitized water, literacy, and educational data.
TABLE I. CONFLICT TRAP EVALUATION
Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe Conflict Trap = x = Natural Resources = x = Land-locked x x Yes Bad Governance = x Yes
Key: some concern X little concern or not applicable Yes applicable
Of the three countries, Mozambique is the country in the most tenuous position- not the worst position, but with the most hanging in the balance. Collier's research finds that a history ofrecent civil war greatly increases a country's chances of succumbing to conflict. Mozambique's recent history includes a protracted civil war, although with each passing year the risk of a conflict reoccurring decreases. And while Mozambique does not possess significant stores of oil or diamonds, its economy is heavily dependent on primary commodities. The heavy dependence on primary commodities increases
Mozambique's risk of conflict indirectly as "on average" dependence on primary commodities increases risk of bad governance, rebellion and poor economic performance.215 Mozambique's government is stable and has made improving the country's economy and reducing poverty primary objectives. However, corruption is rampant and the government has few checks and balances making it more susceptible to debilitating corruption. On the positive side, Mozambique is not landlocked and has an
215 Ibid. 105
extensive coastline with several ports that are being developed providing hope of economic development and a move away from the dependence on natural commodities.
Zimbabwe is certainly in the direst situation. It does not have the most to lose because it has already lost it. Within a decade the country has plummeted from being a mid-level developing country to one of the bottom few on most development scales. This is not to say things cannot get worse. Currently, opposition to Zimbabwe's president,
Robert Mugabe, has been civil rather than militarized, so the risk of civil war is not immediate, but it increases with the deterioration of the state. Even if Zimbabwe does not succumb to civil war it takes much longer to rebuild an economy than to destroy one.
Collier calculates that the average length of time it takes a country to extract itself from failing state status is fifty-nine years.216 Zimbabwe also faces the challenges of being land-locked, which can debilitate development because of the imposed dependence on neighbors.
Unsurprisingly, South Africa presents as being the least vulnerable of the three states. While it has some governmental corruption, the country has substantial anti- corruption laws that are being actively enforced. The state has a diversified economy, although it exports natural resources and remains heavily dependent on the export of minerals.217 South Africa's thriving tourism industry offers hope to Mozambique.
Studies have shown that tourists tend to look at Southern Africa as a regional tourist
216 Ibid.
217 Seeraj Mohamed, "SA's new industrial policy", Creamer Media http://www.polity.org.za/article.php?a_id=107348 (accessed 1June2008).; Larry A. Swatuk, "Environmental Cooperation for Regional Peace and Security in Southern Africa," in Environmental Peacemaking, ed. Ken Conca (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2002). 106
21 destination rather than just visiting a single country. R South Africa has a vested interest in the GLTP's success as a development effort for its neighbors as the South African economy stands to benefit from the stability of Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Economic Growth
Collier states that a country's risk of conflict decreases with every point that GDP growth rate increases. Conversely, conflict increases with every point the GDP growth rate declines. The GDP growth rate and GDP per capita income reflect a stable South
Africa, a strongly growing Mozambique and a floundering Zimbabwe.
TABLE 2. GDP GROWTH RATE Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe 2000 1.1% 4.2 -7.9 2005 8.4% 5.1% -5.3 2006 8.0% 5.0% n/a
Source: World Bank World Development Indicator Reports 2001, 2006, 2007.
Source: World Bank World Development Indicator Reports 1999, 20006.
218 World Tourism Organization, "Tourism Highlights 2007," (2007). 107
Poverty Statistics
While Mozambique is making strides with its economy, it still struggles with a massive poverty problem. The UNDP reports that in 2005 over a third of the population was living on less than $1 a day and over 74 percent of the population was living on less than $2 a day. Both of these statistics are improvements on early data. The good news is that the poverty rate is falling in Mozambique but the bad news is that it is happening slowly. The country is seeing improved access to sanitized water, literacy and education rates but it is fighting an unrelenting battle with AIDS. With over 16 percent of the population recorded as HIV positive, the disease is having a direct impact on the economy.
South Africa and Zimbabwe face similar struggles. South Africa, despite being the fourth largest economy in Africa, still counts over a third of the population as living
on less than $2 a day and has an escalating HIV infection rate. However, while South
Africa's poverty statistics are slowly improving, Zimbabwe's have taken a heartbreaking
plummet with the disintegration of its economy over the last decade. Zimbabwe's last recorded poverty data is from 1996, prior to the decline of Zimbabwean economy. At that time the vast majority, 83 percent, of Zimbabwe's population was living on less than $2 a
day and over half of the country was living on less than $1 a day. Given the decline in the
GDP growth rate, and the increase of inflation in Zimbabwe, there is no doubt that
Zimbabwe's economic downturn has worsened the living conditions of its citizens.219
219 In January of 2008 the IMF estimated Zimbabwe's inflation rate at 150,000 percent. Shakeman Mugari, "Zimbabwe: IMF Estimates Inflation At 150 000 Percent", allAfrica.com http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180772.html (accessed 10 June 2008). 108
TABLE 4. PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION LIVING ON LESS THAN $1 A DAY
Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe 1991 -- -- 54.4% 1993 -- 10.0% -- 1995 -- 6.3% -- 1996 -- -- 56.1% 1997 37.8% -- -- 1998 ------2000 -- 10.7% -- 2002 36.2% -- -- - 1.70% +0.70% +2.3%
Source: Social Watch, http://www.socialwatch.org (accessed 22 April, 2008). Additional statistics from the UNDP's Human Development Indicator Reports 2007/8 and 2000 are available in Appendix E.
TABLE 5. PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION LIVING ON LESS THAN $2 A DAY
Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe 1991 -- -- 78.0% 1993 -- 34.2% -- 1995 -- 32.2% -- 1996 -- -- 83% 1997 78.4% -- --
2000 -- 34.1% --
2002 74.1% -- -- 2005 -- n/a n/a Total increase/decrease -3.9 % +0.1% +0.5%
Source: Social Watch, http://www.socialwatch.org (accessed 22 April, 2008).
TABLE 6. PERCENT AGE OF ADULT POPULATION INFECTED WITH HIV
Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe 2000 14.17% 12.3% 25.84% 2005 16.1 % 18.8% 20.1% Total increase/decrease +2.07% +6.5% -5.74%
Source: UNDP Human Development Report 109
Governance
In the analysis of these three countries, governance appears to be the key to a strong economy. Factors such as disease and natural disaster impact a good economy, but a strong government leads a country through these challenges. Alternatively, bad governance can add to the devastating effects of natural disaster and knock the knees out
from under an economy even when it is not under duress. This is exemplified by
Zimbabwe's decline and Mozambique's ability to survive damaging floods and drought
in the last eight years while maintaining its upward development trajectory. Collier
declares that good governance does not directly reduce the risk of conflict but it can do so
indirectly in that policies that benefit the economy will help reduce the risk of conflict.220
In the case of Zimbabwe, poor governance has unhinged a rising nation. In Mozambique,
poor governance could derail the progress made over the last 15 years; and international
support and millions of dollars in aid can be quickly undermined by corruption.
Corruption is difficult to monitor because of the inaccessibility of hard data.
Tables 7, 8, and 9 display consistent themes from three different governance-monitoring
devices: Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI), The World
Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), and the Global Integrity
Index. Transparency International provides the most consistent historical data, evaluating
the perceived corruption of political officials (see Table 7). The World Bank's Country
Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) Index was recently made public and renamed
the International Development Association's Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) (See
22°Collier, Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil war and development policy. 110
Table 8). Collier recommends this tool as an effective measurement of a country's policies, however critics take issue with the CPIA/IRAI stating that measurements are not true measurements of a country's policies, but rather what the bank uses to determine adherence to World Bank policies.221 The CPIA/IRAI was reviewed in 2004, updated its methodologies, and decided to make public the detailed scores of IDA-eligible countries starting in 2006. The Global Integrity Index is an alternative to the CPIA/IRAI that attempts to measure governance and corruption trends more holistically (and qualitatively) than the CPIA (see Table 9).
All three data sets connote similar trends with Mozambique lingering in the marginal section. Both Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and the Global Integrity Index, report that Mozambique is struggling with endemic corruption. These reports are confirmed by a 2005 USAID report finding that the scale and scope of corruption in Mozambique is a cause for alarm and threaten the success of the new democracy. Of the three data sets, the World Bank's CPIA/IRAI measurement is the most favorable to Mozambique, but still has it ranked in the marginal 3.5 area of the six-point scale.
Transparency lnternational's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) shows Zimbabwe dropping steadily with a little spike in 2005 that reflects some of the more positive findings of the Global Integrity Index, namely that Zimbabwe was actively enforcing anti-corruption laws in 2005. Since 2006, Zimbabwe has hit an 8-year low on the
221 Nancy Alexander, Judge and Jury: The World Bank's scorecard for borrowing governments (Social Watch, 2004). 111
Corruption Perception Index and was also among the lowest ranked countries on the
World Bank's CPIA/IRAI.
South Africa's scores reflect its standard place as one of the most stable countries
in the region. In 2007, South Africa was one of two countries in Africa to score over 5.0
on the CPI and it has maintained a "strong" ranking on the Global Integrity Index.
Because of South Africa's stronger economic status it is not eligible for International
Development Association aid, omitting it from the CPIA/IRAI evaluation of developing
nations.
TABLE 7. CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX DATA
CPI Score Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe 2001 n/a 4.8 2.9 2002 n/a 4.8 2.7 2003 2.7 4.4 2.3 2004 2.8 4.6 2.3 2005 2.8 4.5 2.6 2006 2.8 4.6 2.4 2007 2.8 5.1 2.1 Total increase/decrease +0.1 +0.3 <0.8
The CPI ranks countries on the perceived level of corruption amongst political officials. Countries are ranked from 1 to 10, with 10 being the least corrupt. Source: Transparency International, http://www.transparency.org (accessed 4 May 2008)
TABLE 8. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION'S RESOURCE ALLOCATION INDEX (IRA!) & COUNTRY POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT (CPIA) r;;---iw1oQ11.1s1.11•·llllll,j''"'•n141~m1111111i--i.2005 3.5 n/a 1.8 2006 3.5 n/a 1.8
The lRAI/CPlA scores countries on 16 areas related to policy and governance calculating a final score on a scale of0-6. Source: The World Bank's IRAI and CPIA reports 2006, 2007. 112
TABLE 9. GLOBAL INTEGRITY INDEX
Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe 2004 n/a 81 (of 100) "strong" 53.l (of 100) "very weak" 2006 60(of100) "very 81 (of 100) "strong" 64 (of 100) "weak" Weak" - lack of checks "corruption endemic" and balance within governance structures make state vulnerable to corruption 2007 59(of100) "Very n/a n/a Weak"- citing serious problems with governance and anti- corruption framework
Source: Global Integrity, http://www.globalintegrity.org (accessed 30 April 2008).
Conclusion
These statistics drive home a recurring theme, Mozambique is on a tenuous upward trajectory, South Africa is on a solid upward trajectory and Zimbabwe is a failed state with an escalating risk of internal conflict. All three nations face daunting poverty and HIV-infection rates. Mozambique and South Africa will feel the negative impact of
Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy, as refugees flood in and strain already overloaded public service agencies. Mozambique's rapidly growing economy is threatened by corruption, but if the country can enforce corruption laws it may be able to avoid falling into the development trap that so many of its neighbors have experienced.
This pattern is reflected in the progress of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.
South Africa has the infrastructure and the tourists, its thriving tourism industry growing annually. Mozambique has the least infrastructure of the three, with the steepest development challenges, but has consistently met park goals, successfully creating a new 113
national park, and integrating that park with Kruger since 2001. Zimbabwe, despite having the existing park infrastructure, is integrated with the GL TP only on paper. CHAPTER9
CONCLUSION
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is an incomplete project and its full impact is yet to be determined. However, six years after the treaty establishing the park was signed the development of the GLTP has significantly progressed and continues to receive a great deal of support and funding. The park cannot yet be declared a success as a development or peacebuilding effort but for Mozambique and South Africa it appears to be succeeding.
South Africa and Mozambique have many development goals to achieve, but remain good candidates for development. Mozambique continues to receive significant support from NGO's and its continued stability is attracting the investment of multinational corporations. Mozambique's vast coastline promises to be an important income generator via ports and beach tourism. The GL TP helps Mozambique gain exposure and credibility as a tourist destination by linking it to the established Kruger
National Park and the sharing of institutional knowledge regarding park planning and wildlife management strengthens its chances for success. Despite all of the support it has received, Mozambique, as a young country with formidable development challenges, faces an uphill battle. The GL TP project could easily be derailed if financial aid falls through or if issues related to corruption in governance worsen. Regardless of the
114 115
success of the GLTP, the viability of South Africa's Kruger National Park is unquestionable. However, South Africa has a strong interest in the success of the GLTP.
As a flourishing park, the GL TP will alleviate wildlife population issues that Kruger faces, provide added cache as a tourist draw, and boost the economy of its neighbors thereby stabilizing the region.
The cooperative effort has helped to foster positive peace between the two countries, despite the rocky start both Kruger National Park and the Limpopo National
Park have faced due to failures to adequately involve indigenous people. South Africa appears to be committed to land restitution as evidenced by the award of the tract of land within Kruger National Park to the Makuleke tribe. And although there is almost no formal involvement of the Makuleke in the TFCA governance, Kruger appears to be making efforts to avoid the gross lack of communication seen in the beginning of the project and the Makuleke appear to be empowered and interested in enforcing their rights. Because their land is in the heart of the GL TP, they have much to gain from the success of the transboundary park. Compared to the situation at Kruger National Park, relations with indigenous people in the Limpopo National Park are more fragile and the people involved are more vulnerable because they do not have land rights. However, those working with the Mozambican portion of the GL TP appear to be very conscious of the need to find positive resolution to issues related to resettlement and human-animal conflict. This is evidenced by the ongoing efforts to resolve resettlement issues. The
Resettlement Consultative Council is the most recent iteration of a string of resettlement efforts with the goal of mitigating the resettlement of communities. Additionally, the
World Bank's Community Environment Fund will begin awarding grants to community 116
members for small projects related to the park in 2008/2009. The out comes of both of these efforts will most likely determine how successful the GL TP is as a development effort and peacebuilding tool.
Despite these complications the GLTP is considered successful to date because it is facilitating the collaboration of groups of people who have previously had highly conflicted relationships. The Makuleke in South Africa, the indigenous people in and around the Limpopo National Park, and the government of Mozambique, have histories of being oppressed by the government of South Africa. Together they have worked beyond their history to create the beginnings of the largest transboundary conservation area in the world. In Mozambique and South Africa, the fence is being dismantled, animals successfully relocated to Mozambique and tourists are crossing the border from
Kruger National Park to Limpopo National Park. These are all signs of a succeeding cooperative effort. If the Limpopo National Park can navigate the resettlement and successfully develop its infrastructure to where it strengthens the land rights oflocal people while generating incomes for them then it will certainly have succeeded.
There are many threats to the success of the project and the instability Zimbabwe is amongst the largest. Practically, without Zimbabwe the project is limited in scope, because the elephant migration range cannot be extended beyond Mozambique and South
Africa. More urgently, as Zimbabwe's political structure heaves with instability the country appears to be on the verge of collapse. Even in the best-case scenario, recovery will be a long process. In the worst-case scenario, war, the borders of Mozambique and
South Africa will most likely be either menacing barriers or part of the conflict. As things exist in Zimbabwe currently, neither people nor wildlife is safe. 117
Because of the individualized nature of international relations, conflicts, and regional development, there is no recipe for success for transboundary peace parks.
However, there are lessons one can take away from the Great Limpopo Transfrontier
Park that can be applied to other parks. Foremost would be the need to allocate a significant amount of time and financial resources to administration and planning in the beginning of the project in order to adequately engage local communities in the process.
The less developed relationships and communication infrastructures existing are at the inception of the park, the more time and resources need to be invested in the foundation of community relations and involvement. Additionally, when the park involves more than two countries, there is the importance of creating a treaty that allows two of the countries to move forward without the other. The importance of this failsafe increases with the vulnerability of the country. South Africa and Mozambique have done a commendable job of moving forward without alienating Zimbabwe, leaving Zimbabwe formally involved and easing potential re-engagement with the plan when the situation in
Zimbabwe settles.
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is a project that offers great hope to
Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The endeavor has the potential to provide a significant source of income to a very impoverished region and is already a source of cooperation between previously contentious neighbors. The progress so far has not been without failings, but on the whole, the park appears to be progressing positively. If the park can avoid being tripped up by the common snares of corruption and poor relations with indigenous people the project has the promise to be not just a success but a model 118
for other parks in the region as a source of positive peace, successful environmental peacemaking and a profitable sustainable development effort. APPENDIX A
MAP OF PARK
GREAT LIMPOPO TRANSFRONTIER PARK
- Great Limpopo Tronsfrontier Pork D Other Porks lnternotionol Boundories Rivers a Border Posts 0
119 APPENDIXB
TIMELINE
• 1898 Sabi Reserve established in what is now South Africa by Paul Kruger. Between 1898 and 1926 additional reserves would be created in proximity and in 1926 the entire area would be proclaimed Kruger National Park
• 1895 Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) established as a British territory
• 1910 The British republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State are joined with the British colonies of The Cape and Natal forming the Union of South Africa, a self-governing British territory
• 1926 Kruger National Park established as South Africa's first protected area
• 1934 Gonarezhou Game Reserve established in what is now know as Zimbabwe (but not made a National Park until 1975)
• 1961 South Africa granted independence from the United Kingdom
• 1965 Prime Minister Ian Smith issues a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom
• 1969 Coutada 16 established as a communal hunting area in Mozambique
• 1975 Gonarezhou upgraded to a National Park (communities were evicted from park at this time)
• 1980 (April 18) Zimbabwe gains independence and Robert Mugabe is elected Prime Minister
• 1986 Rupert Foundation initiates a Transfrontier Peace Park proposal with the Mozambique government offering funding and facilitation for the development of TFCA' s
• 1990 (May 7) Anton Rupert then President ofWWF South Africa (then called the Southern African Nature Foundation) approaches Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano about concept
120 121
• 1991 WWF South Africa conducts feasibility study and submits to Mozambican government Mozambican government request funding from WB's GEF for independent feasibility study, $5 million grant award and results of the study were published in a 1996 World Bank feasibility study
• 1992 Mozambique's civil war ends
• 1994 Apartheid ends in South Africa with the first democratic elections
• 1996 Negotiating process begins, Rupert requests second meeting to discuss transfrontier park concept with President Chissano
• 1996 The World Bank published report of findings from GEF feasibility study 'Transfrontier Conservation Area Pilot and Institutional Strengthening Project", with the objective to 'test new approaches to exploit the synergies between conservation and community' noting that southern Africa was becoming an eco-tourist destination and that need for coordination of TFCA development was needed, WWF SA suggests the creation of an independent organization (which would ultimately be PPF) 222
• 1997 Peace Parks Foundation Formed
• 1999 Interim Agreement reached for 99,000 km2 area (GLTCA)
• 1999 (October 23) Respective ministers for environment meet in Maputo and establish an International Technical Committee (ITC). Significant because no, none-state actors were included despite the established intent to include the Sengwe Corridor, the Makuleke Contractual Lands, and the villages within Coutada 16.
• 1999-2000 Negotiations continue, with Mozambique pushing for the larger GL TFCA concept which would include the communities living in the area and South Africa pushing for the smaller GLTP
• 2000-2001 Southern Mozambique devastated by floods
• 2000 Memorandum of Understanding signed
• 2001 Coutada 16 is proclaimed Limpopo National Park
• 2001 (October 4) Wildlife relocation program launched with a fence cutting ceremony
222 Buscher and Dietz. 122
• 2002 1,130 animals translocated from Kruger into LNP
• 2002 (December 9) Treaty signed
• 2005 Giriyondo Access Facility unofficially opens, allowing visitors between LNP and KNP to cross borders within the park
• 2006 (August 16) Official opening of the Giriyondo Access Facility
• 2008 Dr. Nthabiseng Motete assumes role of permanent GLTP Secretariat APPENDIXC
DIAGRAM OF PARK MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
Ministerial Committee (Ministers of the environment from each of the 3 countries)
GLTP Joint Secretariat Management Dr. Board Nthabiseng (Composed of 9 to 12 Motete members)
Conservation Tourism Safety and Finances, Committee Committee Security Human Committee Relations, and Legislation Committee
123 APPENDIXD
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL #7
[Text obtained from the UDP Millennium Development Goals Website: http://www. undp. orglmdglgoal7.shtml}
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Target 7a: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
Target 7b: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
* 7 .1 Proportion of land area covered by forest
* 7.2 C02 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
* 7.3 Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
* 7.4 Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
* 7 .5 Proportion of total water resources used
* 7 .6 Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
* 7. 7 Proportion of species threatened with extinction
Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
124 125
* 7. 8 Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
7.9 Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility
Target 7d: Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers, by 2020
* 7 .10 Proportion of urban population living in slums APPENDIXE
ADDITIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATOR STATISTICS FOR MOZAMBIQUE, SOUTH AFRICA, AND ZIMBABWE
TABLE 10. SELECTED HDI INDICATORS FOR MOZAMBIQUE, SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE (2000)
Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe HDI (of I 74) #168 #103 #130 GDI (of 143) #139 #85 #106 HPI (of85) #79 #33 #52 Life expectancy (I 998) 43.8% 53.2% 43.5% Literacy 42.3% 84.6% 87.2% Combined Gross 25% 95% 68% enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary ed GDP (1998) 782 8,488 2,669 HIV (1997) 14.17% 12.3% 25.84% People without access to 54% 13% 21% an improved water source (1998) Population living below 37.9% 11.5% 36% $1 day (1998)
Source: United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Indicator Report, 2000.
126 127
TABLE 11. SELECTED HDI INDICATORS FOR MOZAMBIQUE, SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE (2007/8)
#129
Develo ment Index HP! (of 108) #101 #55 #91 Life Ex ectancy (2005 42.8% 50.8% 40.9% Literac 38.7% 82.4% 89.4% Combined Gross 52.9% 77% 52.4% enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertia ed GDP (2005) 1,242 11,110 2,038 HIV (2005) 16.1% 18.8% 20.1% Population 44% NA 47% undernourished People without access to 57% 12% 19% an improved water source (2004) Population living below 36.2% 10.7% NA $1 da 2005 Population living below 74.1% 34.1% NA $2 da (2005
Source: The United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Indicator Report, 2007/8. APPENDIXF
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park Questionnaire
Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire and for permission to use the information in my study. The questions below pertain to the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park and the extent to which the creation of the park might have impacted regional stability. I am grateful that you can help me learn more about this important question.
Please note that the information you provide in the questionnaire is confidential, in that no individual will be identified by name.
If you have any questions please contact me:
Julie Darnell + 1-202-306-0424 [email protected]
*Confidentiality Statement: D I understand that all information submitted in this survey is confidential, in that no individual will be identified by name.
*Permission Request: D I understand that information gathered from this survey may be made part of the final research project, but under no circumstances will my name or identifying characteristics be included.
*l. Name:
*2. Please list the organization(s) you are affiliated with (related to the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park).
128 129
3. What is the role of the organization listed above in the creation or management of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park?
4. To the best of your knowledge, how long does this organization plan to be involved with the park?
5. To what extent were you in favor of the creation of the park? D Strongly in favor D Somewhat in favor D Neither for or against the creation of the Park D Somewhat against the creation of the park D Strongly against the creation of the park
Please explain:
6. To what extent were your expectations met? D My expectations have been exceeded D My expectations have been met D My expectations have been somewhat met D My expectations have not been met D Other: Other Value
Please explain:
7. To what extent are you still supportive of the park? D Highly supportive D Somewhat supportive D Not supportive or unsupportive D Somewhat unsupportive D Very unsupportive
Please explain:
8. How would you describe the relationship between local people and the park?
9. In what way does the organization you represent interact with members of local communities?
9a. Please give an example of a successful cooperative effort between the organization and members of the local communities:
9b. Please give an example of a cooperative effort between the organization and the local communities that did not go so well: 130
10. In what way does your organization (or organizations) interact with Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations in each of the three countries?
11. In your view, what benefit or benefits does the park bring to the region?
12. And what might be the drawbacks of the park in your view?
13. To what extent did the creation of the park affect hunting? D Hunting has greatly improved D Hunting has somewhat improved D Neither improved or negatively impacted D Hunting has been somewhat negatively impacted D Hunting has been very negatively impacted D Other: Other Value
Please explain:
14. To what extent has the park affected farming? D Farming has greatly improved D Farming has somewhat improved D Neither improved or negatively impacted D Farming has been somewhat negatively impacted D Farming has been very negatively impacted D Other: Other Value
Please explain:
15. Did the creation of the park impact local livelihoods? D Livelihoods greatly improved D Livelihoods somewhat improved D Livelihoods neither improved or negatively impacted D Livelihoods have been somewhat negatively impacted D Livelihoods have been very negatively impacted D Other: Other Value
In what ways have local livelihoods positively or negatively impacted?
16. Has the park brought additional jobs? 0Yes 0No D Please explain:
17. Do you feel the park will bring additional jobs? 0Yes 0No 131
D Please explain:
18. Do you feel the park has made it more difficult for people who live near the park to feed their families? 0Yes 0No D Please explain:
19. I appreciate you taking the time to complete the questionnaire. Do you have anything else you would like to add? WORKS CITED
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