The Birth Of The Greater Mokolo Nature Reserve

Earlier this month, Ka’Ingo private game reserve and Mokolo game reserve, both situated in the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve (registered with UNESCO) in the Limpopo Province, took down shared fences forming the new Greater Mokolo Nature Reserve.

It was the first time fences between reserves have been dropped in the region, and it is an initiative supported by the government and leading conservationist and author Clive Walker.

The enlarged 16,000 hectare private big five reserve will now form a hub for eco tourism and conservation in the area. The present six kilometre Mokolo River corridor will, for the first time in many years, be opened up and the vast numbers of game will be able to roam the river bed and adjacent plains. The process has been meticulously planned and has attracted substantial local media interest.

There are plans to drop more fences on the border of an adjacent provincial nature reserve. This would bring the size of the reserve up to 20,000ha.

After a long period of behind the scene negotiations and establishing of an amicable arrangement Nick Callichy (Ka’Ingo General Manager) and Heidi Baer (Mokolo General Manager) are now ready to share their vision of a nature reserve founded on rolling back the impact of human intervention.

Heidi, an extraordinary German lady and founder of Mokolo, has been living in the Bushveld managing her reserve for 15 years. She has adopted orphaned elephants from the Kruger Park, established the first white rhino in the area and her conservation ethics are testimony of her passion for Africa.

Nick has established the big five group of game animals at Ka’Ingo and has introduced and established a number of credible and sustainable conservation projects over the past six years. Cheetah and leopard re-release sable and ‘clean’ buffalo breeding projects are running successfully whilst a heritage conservation of rock art is actively being managed.

They are two strong but different characters with the same objectives of turning back the impact of human intervention which since settlers first arrived in the region in the1850s has seen virtually all animals in the area wiped out through hunting.

After most of the big 5 game were exterminated the land was used for agriculture and cattle farming for many years but now there has been a huge conservation effort to return the land back to how it was with the re-introduction of indigenous animals.

Source: www.southafrican.co.uk