Lesotho and South Africa Conserve Shared Mountains
© Environment News Service (ENS) 2001
September 18, 2001
WASHINGTON, DC, September 18, 2001 (ENS) - For over 200 miles along the southern, eastern and northern boundaries of the landlocked mountain Kingdom of Lesotho lie the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains. Plants and animals native only to this region share the mountains with rock art cultural sites, but all are increasingly degraded by art vandals and a grazing regime based on communal access and decreased ability to regulate.
A long term collaboration between the governments of South Africa and Lesotho to protect the biodiversity of the Drakensberg and Maloti Mountains received a boost last week when the World Bank approved grant funding worth $15.24 million for the five year Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project.
This grant is the single largest amount approved by the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank in the sub-region. It represents a milestone in collaboration on environment issues between the Kingdom of Lesotho, the South African Government, KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, provincial conservation agencies in the Free State and Eastern Cape, the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank.
The project will focus its conservation, sustainable resource and land use and development planning activities along the eastern boundary of Lesotho with South Africa.
On the South African side, much of the project area has been listed as a World Heritage site, and there is the potential for collaborative work to designate similar protected areas within Lesotho.
The region is an important water catchment area for the people of Lesotho and South Africa. Two of the largest civil engineering projects in southern Africa, the Tugela-Vaal Scheme and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, carry water from the mountains to the economic powerhouse of Africa, the megalopolis of Johannesburg and surrounding cities.
On June 11, the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area was formally established by South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Valli Moosa, and his counterpart in Lesotho, Mathabiso Lepono, Minister of Environment, Gender and Youth Affairs.
"Without the support of the Global Environment Facility the development of the Transfrontier Conservation and Development Area would have remained a pipe dream," said Moosa.
The new funds will support continued collaboration by the two countries in transboundary natural resources management and the development of a strategic partnership between the states, private sector and communities for sustainable conservation and development.
The key objective is conservation of the area's unique biodiversity, and the program will also support the development of small businesses involved in eco-tourism and the job creation that may flow from conservation.
A few months ago, South Africa established a similar transboundary conservation area - the Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou Transfrontier Park - with Mozambique and Zimbabwe.