Know Your Nature #12 - Wild Kruger 🐆
Know Your Nature #12 - Wild Kruger 🐆
Exploring South Africa's National Parks
One of ReWild's favourite and most visited destinations in South Africa. The Iconic Kruger National Park is one of the biggest nature conservation areas in the world! It covers almost 20,000 km². It has developed significantly since it opened as a park in 1927 - yet the history goes far beyond this. When ReWild Africa visits the Kruger, we often stay with our friends - the Nsasani Trust, an educational non-profit organisation that is dedicated to the empowerment of South Africans through holistic education and training programs. This video sums up the Nsasani Trust quite nicely.
Hello and welcome to the twelfth episode of Know Your Nature! A free ReWild Africa newsletter released exploring the National Parks of South Africa (and beyond). Know Your Nature aims to showcase off-the-beaten-track parts of Africa, and to encourage the support of our natural heritage #PreservationBeforeRestoration
The Kruger National Park 🐆
Let's begin by rewinding the clock to the early 19th century. It became apparent that the decline in wildlife numbers was due to the agricultural transformation, industrialisation of the Transvaal and the growing sport of hunting. Paul Kruger Realised that the Lowveld animals needed to be protected, specifically between the areas of the Sabie and Crocodile Rivers. In 1902 Sabie Game Reserve was then established to further preserve the wildlife in the region which was decreasing in population because of excessive hunting. The first warden was James Stevenson-Hamilton, nicknamed “Skukuza'' which means “he who sweeps clean”. James was given this nickname because of the work he did to eliminate poaching in the area. Stevenson Hamilton's battle was not only against hunters and poachers but against sheep farmers and mining entrepreneurs who all perceived that they had a prior claim to the land. His vision of creating a national park that would be sustained by tourism came to life in 1926. That was when the Shingwedzi and Sabie Reserves merged and the 70 privately owned farms between them were purchased by the government to form a consolidated block of land - the Kruger National Park.
Future Kruger 🇲🇿 🇿🇼 🇿🇦
Solving for Ecological islands is a difficult challenge. Scattered conservation areas with isolated species gene pools are not in Natures best interest. The future of the Kruger is exciting, filled with new corridor concepts at an enormous scale.
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park will link up with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, the Kruger National Park in South Africa, the Gonarezhou National Park, the Manjinji Pan Sanctuary and Malipati Safari Area in Zimbabwe, as well as two areas between Kruger and Gonarezhou, namely the Sengwe communal land in Zimbabwe and the Makuleke region in South Africa into one huge conservation area of 35 000 km². How Incredible?
This vision for a wilder Africa requires relations across boundaries. Political collaboration is critical for solving the issue of ecological collapse whilst also finding new economic opportunities that come with conserving and preserving these landscapes. One of ReWilds latest projects is looking at exactly that - watch out for our film releases later this year that looks into the development of Other affected areas in conservation (OECM’s). The conservation area comprises a vast area of the lowland savanna ecosystem, not only in the transfrontier park itself but also in the conservation area that will be reintegrated for joint management. This ecosystem is bisected by the Lebombo Mountains running along the border between South Africa and Mozambique, with five major river systems cross this ecoregion. The dry savannah is maintained due to a relatively low average rainfall of about 550 mm per year. Creating access to these water sources is critical for the preservation of these landscapes. ReWild Africa are excitedly listening - in and participating where we can on the development and complexities that surround this transfrontier park.
Transfer parks are an important step to solving for ecological islands, but it does come with immense political challenges as well as poaching concerns. ReWild believes this is a future worth creating! The development of innovative financing solutions and effective decision-making is critical to enabling these wildlife corridors. Growing these conservation solutions holds the key to a wilder world, and may go as far as assisting South Africa to climb out of significant debt (ever heard of debt-for-nature swaps?). Conserving and growing nature is a strong solution for everyone to pay attention to, as there will be returns - not only financially, but also for our own well-being, and the well-being of our planet.
There is no simple route to finding solutions to ecological restoration and requires us to listen in and follow the unbeaten path.
News from ReWild 🐘
ReWild is proud to announce a new member joining the team - Mattea Webster. Mattea will be taking on business development. ReWild is who we work with, and an important part of what we do is ensuring that we work with the right organizations to make the change we wish to see. Welcome to the team Mattea!
Saturday (the 1st of May) marks the beginning of Meatless May, a campaign to collective reduce our meat and dairy consumption for the month of May. A planet-based diet is the single biggest way to lessen your impact on Planet Earth. Sign up here today
If you’re interested we suggest reading FOOD and its relationship to the wild
We highly recommend adding this park to your bucket list!A big thank you to Drive South Africa, SAN Parks and SA Tourism for making this project a reality.
If this has moved you - please consider supporting the park and/or sharing this article with a loved one.
Watch on and wild regards,
Elvi the Elephant