Bridging Borders

by R. Michael Wright, President, AWF

Fifteen-foot crocodiles slithered across the sandbanks and plunged into the river as the vibrations of the South African National Park Service helicopter reached them. We seemed perilously close to the red rock walls of the canyons of the Olifants River, but the dexterity of the pilot was remarkable. Pulling up at the last minute, we swung over the lip of the gorge. To our right lay the wildlife-rich expanse of Kruger National Park, and to the left was the vast empty wilderness of Coutada 16 in Mozambique.

In February I was in southern Africa, looking at two major transfrontier protected areas. Accompanying me as I flew over the unromantically named GKG project (Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou) were two former AWF Charlotte Conservation Fellows. Hector Magome is now director of conservation services for South Africa's 20 national parks, and Elizabeth Chadri, a talented Kenyan, left her family and country to open AWF's Conservation Service Center in the town of White River near Kruger's main gate.

A legacy of conflicting political ideologies, a formidable fence between these two countries cuts this huge ecological system in half. The drive to remove the straight-line fence that divides Kruger from Coutada 16 symbolizes the growing world movement to link protected areas across international borders. Introduced in the 1920s and '30s, international peace parks, or transboundary protected areas, are intended to better manage shared natural resources, especially migratory wildlife.*

One goal of GKG is to double the land available for wildlife, including Kruger's 10,000 elephants. It is hoped that the increased habitat and expanded tourism in GKG will give this growing elephant population a new lease on life and generate jobs and income for the area's two million poor human neighbors.

The other transfrontier area I visited is Four Corners, aptly named for the place where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe come together. Here, man-drawn political lines presume to divide the habitat for Africa's largest population of elephants, now estimated at more than 60,000 animals. Running from the Okavango, that wondrous wetland within a desert, to Victoria Falls (known locally as Mosi-Oa-Tunyaa, smoke that thunders), the tourist circuit of this transfrontier ecosystem is frustrated by border posts and inconsistent policies. Tourism operators, for example, told me that Botswana's decision to zone about six miles along the border for wildlife photography is being undermined by hunters in the Caprivi strip, who bait lions to draw them into Namibia and, in one instance, established a bar directly across from a wilderness camp. For their part, Namibians complain about their neighbors' veterinary fences cutting off migratory corridors for wildlife.

If we build a dialogue based on the ecosystem that unites these countries, not the policies that divide them, these conflicts can be reconciled, leading to greater regionwide tourism investment and improved economic opportunities.

Pondering what I have seen, I can't help feeling exhilarated. During AWS's 40-year history, we have supported some remarkable conservation projects, but none match the scale of these two initiatives involving portions of six countries, with GKG incorporating one of the two largest parks in Africa, and Four Corners including the habitat of the largest herd of elephants in Africa.

Almost 40 percent of Africa's national parks lie on international borders. Working across these borders with different issues, cultures, rules and attitudes requires people who possess traditional scientific skills, the patience to work with local communities, the savvy to negotiate with tourist companies and a considerable dose of diplomatic talent to address sensitive issues of national sovereignty and security.

But if we are going to keep wildlife in Africa forever, we must consider the management of whole water catchments, river basins and ecosystems, in addition to individual species. When it comes to natural systems and migratory wildlife, good fences don't make good neighbors.

*The world's first international peace park linked Glacier National Park in the United States with Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park in 1931.