Transfrontier Talk, Cordon Politics

The Early History of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Southern Africa, 1925-1940

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4603729
AutoresClapperton Mavhunga, Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, autor de correspondencia), Marja Spierenburg (0000-0003-0128-1900, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Año2009
Volumen35
Número3
Páginas715-735
Fecha de publicación2009-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057070903101920
OpenAlexW2018246068
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8

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 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 characterising 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 jeopardise 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

Archaeology · Colonialism · Demise · Geography · National park · Political science · Politics · Portuguese · Tourism · Tribunal · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · South African History and Culture