Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Africana Periodical Literature Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Transfrontier talk, cordon politics: the early history of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Southern Africa, 1925-1940
Authors:Mavhunga, Clapperton
Spierenburg, MarjaISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:35
Issue:3
Pages:715-735
Language:English
Geographic terms:Mozambique
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Subjects:national parks and reserves
environmental policy
international relations
1900-1999
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070903101920
Abstract:This article explores the early history of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP). In 1927, a year after the Kruger National Park was created, authorities from the Union of South Africa approached their Portuguese counterparts to request that a similar reservation be created on the Mozambican side of the border contiguous to Kruger. Similar requests were made to and by Southern Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) authorities. This article describes the tensions and conflicts surrounding these early proposals for transboundary conservation, highlighting differences in perceptions of the benefits and risks associated with transfrontier projects, and continuities with the conflicts characterizing the GLTP today. In Southern Rhodesia, the plans were embraced by businessmen as a wildlife-based tourism initiative and conservation was justified through its revenue-generating potential. Yet influential players in Rhodesia and Mozambique undermined the proposals as they felt the plan was a risky gamble that could jeopardize cattle ranching. Fears of cattle disease spreading through the transboundary wilderness area put a stop to the initiative, until its revival in the late 1990s. The demise of the early plans was also influenced by Portuguese colonial authorities' interpretation of transboundary conservation as a guise for South African territorial expansion. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
Views
Cover