Towards the Rehabilitation and Management of the Maremani Nature Reserve
By Dr. Salomon Joubert.
The new political dispensation in South Africa, ushered in with the first free democratic elections in 1994, has had two major impacts on wildlife conservation. These are:
- the free flow of tourism has confirmed the full potential of South Africa’s natural attributes as major attractions for overseas visitors, and
- the above trend has also implied economic opportunities of very considerable proportions.
Most of the extreme northern and north-eastern regions of South Africa, commonly referred to as Bushveld and Lowveld, are notoriously drought prone and consequently high-risk areas for dryland farming and, at best, marginal for domestic stock farming. Dependable irrigation farming is limited to relatively small, localised areas. On the other hand, the highly diversified range of attractions provided by wildlife – especially in remote wilderness areas – has opened new opportunities of land-use. The natural fauna and flora are adapted to the highly variable and oscillating climatic patterns and in their most pristine state offer the greatest potential in terms of sustainable land-use practises.