Limpopo Tourism Agency’s position on the envisaged mining development in the Nylsvlei wetlands.

Although as LTP we support any effort to establish sustainable jobs in our province, we are of the opinion that this development would have would have a huge detrimental impact on the whole wetland which is in the 100 year flood level mark, while the estimated life of the mine is approximately 15 years. This is seen to be inconsistent with sustainable development, which is within our mandate as a tourism agency in the province. The LTP has one of its resorts in this icon reserve, Nylsvlei Birding Lodge.

Not only is the piece of protected area important as far as protecting a specific biome is concerned, but it also has the international recognition of being a RAMSAR site, and should any mining activity occur upstream of the reserve, there is no doubt considering the position of the mine in the wetland and although the developers have indicated that the operations will take all the environmental matters into consideration, the impact will be extremely detrimental to the whole wetland. This will thus also compromise the position the Nylsvlei Nature Reserve holds internationally as this the only inland wetland park in Southern Africa that attracts between 400 and 800 bird spices.

Furthermore in the long term these pieces of protected area will be beneficial in many ways, as tourism creates more sustainable jobs and these may increase exponentially as areas such as this wetland becomes more and more of an attraction to the discerning tourists both nationally and internationally. Limpopo Tourism Agency has a responsibility promote tourism activities in the province including avi tourism (bird watching tourism).