Areas of Operation

An opportunity existed to consolidate and expand the protected area estate around the existing Mountain Zebra National Park and the Camdeboo National Park. Both are large, established national parks run by South African National Parks (SANParks). The Camdeboo National Park covers 19 405 hectares and surrounds the town of Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape. At a distance of 120km to the east, lies the Mountain Zebra National Park, a 28 412 hectare national park. The broader region surrounding the parks is significant for a number of reasons. It contains the recently identified montane floral hotspot, the Sneeuberg Centre of Endemism. As such, it is not only a haven for charismatic threatened mammals, such as mountain zebra and cheetahs but also contains high numbers of endemic plants.

The region forms part of the Maputaland–Pondoland–Albany Hotspot and was identified as a Key Biodiversity Area because of its importance for the movement of species, including the Endangered Cape Mountain zebra. The region was also identified as one of the top three priorities for formal protection of the Grasslands Biome, one of the country’s least conserved biomes. Finally, the area covers an ecotone where the biomes of Thicket, Fynbos, Succulent Karoo, Nama Karoo and Grasslands meet. For this reason, the area is important as a potential corridor for climate change adaptation, through which habitat shifts may occur under climate change.

The Mountain Zebra Wilderness Corridor project focused on a broad area of 530 000 hectares surrounding and linking the two existing reserves. The land is largely privately owned, with a mix of privately run game farms and commercial agriculture. The Wilderness Foundation entered into discussion with these landowners to establish a Protected Environment in the region.

A landowner management committee was set up to manage the Protected Environment with a common vision of creating a conservation corridor. This was combined with an initiative aimed at improving the management effectiveness within the existing national parks to create conditions conducive to developing an effective Mountain Zebra Wilderness Corridor.

The project has resulted in the following achievements:

• A remarkable 69 landowners have been directly involved in the corridor project, an overwhelming endorsement for the project concept.
• The Protected Environment provides a certain level of protection against mining prospecting in areas less suited to extractive land uses.
• Landowners were in favour of a low environmental impact alternative for the region, such as conservation or livestock grazing.
• An area of 268 428 hectares has been included in the proposed Mountain Zebra Camdeboo Protected Environment.
  
  

The regulations for the Protected Environment were gazetted in December 2014, indicating that the declaration is well underway. The formal establishment of a Protected Environment lays the basis for further land parcels to be added in the future. Through the management committee, there is improved collaboration between the two national parks and the surrounding landowners. This improves opportunities for ecotourism expansion and job creation.