U.S. Businessman to Carve out Huge Game Park in Mozambique
12/13/97
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Headline: U.S. Businessman to Carve out Huge Game Park in Mozambique
Sources: CNN and The Associated Press
Date: 12/13/97
Copyright 1997: The Associated Press.
U.S. businessman to carve out huge game park in Mmozambiqu. And not
everyone is happy.
SALAMANGA, Mozambique (AP) -- Few things are
normal about the Matatuine region of southern
Mozambique. The scrub land is untouched. The
beaches are pristine.
Elephants graze in tall reeds. Shy game animals
like red forest duiker and gray reedbuck bounce
through the brush. They are the surprising
survivors of 15 years of civil war and drought
that decimated wildlife in the rest of the
southeast African nation.
The unusual blend of wildlife and rare
environmental features gained the area designation
as one of the world's 200 special biodiversity
sites by the 1992 U.N. Earth Summit.
Now an American businessman wants to build a huge
game park and resort complex in the 580,000-acre
(232,000-hectare) territory complete with a
five-star hotel, floating casinos and bush lodges
with access to the tropical coast and wild
interior.
The government-approved project would bring badly
needed investment and tourism to one of the
world's poorest countries, struggling to recover
from the war that ended in 1992.
But it also would change forever the environmental
balance of the Matatuine area, which begins just
18 miles (30 kilometers) south of Maputo, the
capital. And it probably would displace most of
the 15,000 people living in the region.
Businessman defends his plan
The driving force is John Blanchard III, a New
Orleans millionaire who made his fortune dealing
in gold, including mining in South Africa and
neighboring Botswana.
Among his exploits were arranging to have a
"Legalize Gold" banner flown over Richard Nixon's
presidential inauguration in 1973 and helping
Oliver North support anti-communist rebels in
Nicaragua.
Blanchard, 53, also backed the conservative
Mozambique National Resistance in its civil war
with the then Marxist government. He says that
support somehow earned the government's respect
for his interest in the country.
In a telephone interview, he told how the
government asked him after the country's first
multiparty election in 1994 what further help he
could provide. His answer was the game park, for
which he has promised to raise $800 million from
international business interests.
"I was accused of being a naive environmentalist
and conservationist, and on the other hand a
manipulator working both sides," Blanchard said.
"(But) both business-wise and environmentally,
it's a very beautiful thing."
His passion for the forested dune ridges, rolling
savanna and hippopotamus-strewn lakes filled a
need the government was unable to meet.
"The government does not have the resources to
develop the area itself," said Arlindo Langa,
director of the National Tourism Directorate. "The
project is an excellent opportunity to protect the
environment. ... At the same time, it will
contribute to economic development and benefit
local communities."
Residents worry about adding wild animals
Not everyone agrees.
"Jim is a businessman, and he has nothing to do
with the politics or well-being of this country,"
said Vincent Ululu, a member of Parliament for the
former rebel group once backed by Blanchard. "The
project will benefit the big bosses of
Mozambique."
The resort plan envisions building hotels and
lodges on the beach to lessen impact on the
interior. Tourists would gamble on floating
casinos, snorkel in the coral reefs and view ocean
wildlife that includes whale sharks and dugongs --
sea mammals that prompted mermaid legends. They
would travel inland only on wildlife safaris.
Some environmental groups support the idea,
subject to strict controls and changes in some
plans.
For example, they warn that restocking the
territory with 35,000 game animals, including
lions, could do more harm than good.
"There's a lot of sand, which does not support
great nutritious vegetation," said Jose Alvez of
the international Endangered Wildlife Trust. "If
the grazers do not thrive, the lions may move out
of the area and seek food elsewhere."
While residents are happy about the prospect of
new jobs, they worry that lions -- which have not
lived in the area for at least 50 years -- will
eat them, said Marcus Buezberger of the Swiss
charity Helvetas.
They also worry that fences to be erected to
protect their crops from elephants would deny them
access to broad areas for grazing and watering
their cattle.
Critics say development plan too ambitious
Nelson Banza, who lives in the fishing village of
Mashengulu, said news of the project has yet to
reach most residents in the region. "The
government can't put us off the land," he said.
Officials insist people will not be forced to
move. Instead, they want to persuade people to
move to villages outside the park where they can
benefit from jobs, development and money from the
project, said Antonio Reina, country director for
the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
But Reina, who is on a committee overseeing the
project, considers parts of the plan too
ambitious.
The hotel and lodge plan is not final, but is
expected to include accommodations for 5,000
guests, said Eugene Gouws, a tourism consultant to
Blanchard.
Reina said that would bring as many as 15,000
workers, with their families and accompanying
services, to the fragile land. That would have a
"heavy, heavy social impact," he said.
Others raise concerns about the unusual manner in
which Blanchard got government permission for the
project, despite his support for the former rebels
and his lack of experience in environmental
matters or building game parks.
President Joaquim Chissano's government bypassed a
consultation process that requires comment from
citizens and government ministries before any
development can occur on Mozambique's coast.
"What scares the private sector in Mozambique is
that no national entrepreneur has been given the
opportunity to develop its own proposals for this
area," said Luis Sarmento of Prosul, a local
tourism company.
But Blanchard said enough controls were in place.
"We're doing this in an open and transparent way,"
he said. "We have everyone in the world looking
over our shoulder."