You may remember not so long ago we posted this blog regarding the ongoing rumours about a proposed new “conservation corridor” linking Pilanesberg National Park with the nearby Madikwe Game Reserve, allowing a bigger migration space for animals and creating a prime combined eco-tourism and heritage destination. It has been said that this would be a 20-year project culminating in linking up with Limpopo Province and Botswana.

pilanesberg-madikwe-corridorWell, following a prolonged period of relative silence from the actual parties involved (for all the ongoing muttering on public forums), we have been informed by Moreni Lesenjane at the North-West Province Tourism Board that official dialogue is to be resumed on the 29th of July this month, with the Board sitting down to try to hash out some kind of agreement going forward with the mining companies that currently own 15,000 hectares of the land that would be used for the corridor. The proposed Madikwe/Pilanesberg development ran into beareaucratic hurdles related to these mining companies back in 2013. With any luck, by the end of this month these will all have been ironed out and we will be able to bring you more news of the proposed corridor’s developmental itinerary.

In the meantime, the North-West Tourism Board will also be sitting down to continue discussing the  proposed corridor with twelve tradional leaders and various other landowners from the Nort-West Province and Limpopo, with a view to discussing how all sides can ensure that developments are mutually beneficial to the local communities, to livestock owners and so on, and to the tourism authorities themselves. The Minsitry of Agriculture may also be drawn into this conversation in the near future.

Lesejane says that going into this next phase the general feeling is that most of the leaders and landowners already see the proposed corridor as a positive move. Hopefully developments over the next few weeks will only consolidate that feeling and we’ll finally have something concrete to look forward to regarding this potentially incredible project.