FEATURE – South African farmers see new future in game park
Date: 20-Nov-02
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Author: Toby Reynolds
Unless, that is, they can be turned into a money-making opportunity.
That is what landowners around the farming town of Estcourt in the South African province of KwaZulu Natal are hoping to do when they pool their title deeds to form one of the country's biggest game parks.
Their land is becoming increasingly hard to farm. The trend in beef prices is down, and legal disputes over land ownership leave big questions about their business prospects.
Residents in the towns have an even tougher time. A drive through Estcourt at night reveals huddles of homeless people crouched around fires in the streets.
Unemployment is far higher than the official national rate of about 30 percent, and AIDS runs rife through the population.
But farmer Bernard Smith, formerly one of South Africa's top businessmen, thinks he has a plan that will help both groups and rejuvenate the local economy. He wants farmers to give up their beef herds and swap them for elephants, lions and rhinos.
Wildlife experts and business consultants have studied his plans for a 40,000 hectare (98,840 acres) game park that will house all of the hunter's celebrated big five - lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant.
HUGE BIODIVERSITY
They say the planned Gongolo Wildlife Reserve will host biodiversity to match any reserve in the land - no mean feat in a country with more than 25 nationally protected areas, one of which is the size of Israel.
That reserve, the Kruger National Park, is around two million hectares (4.942 million acres), but other parks are far smaller, and Smith said the Gongolo could be the second or third biggest in the country by the time it is finished.
He said the project could help solve many of the region's problems.
"The towns are in an absolute state around here," Smith said. "And the farmers are under pressure...beef prices are appalling and input costs go up every year.
"The concept of lifestyle activity resorts surrounding a game reserve would solve many of these issues."
The park would be a private venture, with high paying landowners and their guests staying in the park, and others accommodated in four leisure areas on the boundaries.
Under the proposals, the provincial wildlife authority, KwaZulu Natal Wildlife, would manage the animals, while the game reserve company would deal with the business side, and also take over the running of the adjacent Weenan Game Reserve, which would become part of the park.
Already 32,000 hectares (79,070 acres) of land, covering an area some 40 km (25 miles) in length, had been committed to the Gongolo company by 24 landowners, Smith said.
Poor local blacks will also benefit from the plans, he added. Many black families do not own land to contribute to the reserve but are pursuing claims to farms under government rules that aim to grant land to long-term tenants or to compensate families evicted under the white rule apartheid era.
Smith said the park and related tourist projects would provide 800 jobs immediately, and could ultimately employ up to 1,700 people. In contrast, he said the farming industry in the area currently employed less than 100 full time staff.
LAND CLAIMS
Those seeking claims to the land in the park would be offered land on its borders by way of recompense, he added.
Hans Grobler, general manager-designate for the reserve and formerly KwaZulu Natal Wildife's deputy chief executive officer, said getting the project to work would require a timely settlement of the outstanding land claims.
"It is a question of time," he said. "If time wasn't a factor I wouldn't see any obstacle...but it does take time to convince people, and the longer we wait, the more it is going to cost."
"Everybody in the area will win," he said. Locals agreed, with both black and white staff in the nearby Butterfly Lodge saying the jobs the project would create could help lift the area out of poverty.
Private game parks have filled a hunter's nic
