TUESDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2001: His Royal Highness, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, today bestowed the order of the Golden Ark Award on the Ministers responsible for environment of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The ceremony took place in Skukuza in the Kruger National Park.

The Order of the Golden Ark is an Honorary Order, established in 1971 by His Royal Highness, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Its aim is to recognise individuals dedicated to the conservation of nature. To date the Order of the Golden Ark has been bestowed on only 300 people worldwide and is officially recognised in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The award was made to his Excellency Helder Muteio, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Mozambique, Mr Valli Moosa, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism of South Africa and the Honourable Minister Francis Nhema, Minister of Environment and Tourism of Zimbabwe for their enormous contribution towards the development and establishment of the Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou (GKG) Transfrontier Park and Transfrontier Conservation Area.

A historical international agreement for the development of the GKG Transfrontier Park and Transfrontier Area was signed by these Ministers on 10 November 2000 to pave the way for the establishment of this Transfrontier Park. When fences are eventually removed, the Park will consolidate nearly 100 000 square kilometres of pristine wildlife area to create an animal kingdom stretching across the borders of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is envisaged that the new cross border park will eventually enable the translocation of up to 1 000 elephants from the Kruger National Park. Funding for this initiative still needs to be secured.

It is hoped that this Transfrontier Park will become a tourist mecca creating the necessary jobs in an area where currently unemployment and poverty brought about by years of political unrest and other factors, are high. A tender will be awarded shortly for the drawing up of an integrated regional tourism plan and it is foreseen that within a very short space of time the current 4 000 beds will be increased to 7 000. In order to ensure proper biodiversity management, more than 200 game guards alone will have to be trained in the next year.

Various initiatives are currently in progress with assistance from donor organisations such as the World Bank and USAID Regional Center for Southern Africa. The first phase is the development of Coutada 16, which has been made possible by a grant of over R40 million from the German development agency Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). This regional project will be implemented with the support of the Technical Committee of the Southern African Development Community's Wildlife Sector. KfW, in conjunction with the Mozambique Wildlife Authority and the Peace Parks Foundation, are currently undertaking a project development mission after which project activities such as fencing an area of up to 400km, will commence. The plan to open sections of the park by November 2001 is still on track.