First Step towards Dream Jumbo Kruger Park. (16 September, 1996)

Maputo - The dream of a giant nature conservation area straddling the Mozambican and South African border has come a step closer with the Mozambican government's approval of a pilot conservation project.

It could pave the way for the biggest protected wildlife paradise in southern Africa - a territory bigger than many European countries. The scheme calls for three transfrontier conservation areas, including a zone bordering the sprawling Kruger National Park.

A second proposed conservation area south of Maputo borders KwaZulu-Natal and the third is on Mozambique's western border with Zimbabwe. A statement published in Maputo on Thursday said the cabinet had approved the project. The proposal is also backed by a World Bank study which calls for $8,1 million in international finance to support it.

The World Bank report says the project as originally conceived in 1991 foresaw a transfrontier park becoming one of southern Africa's most popular tourist destinations.

The conservation area concept just approved would not simply transform the territory into a vast game reserve, but includes economic development. Reuters. Courtesy of the Saturday Star .