The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo will be calling on the Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET) to invite the EMS Foundation to present its findings and proposed solutions on the alarming state of the province’s nature reserves, as outlined in its recent report.
The DA further demands that LEDET account to the Committee for the governance, management, and conservation failures exposed, and calls for an urgent overhaul of the funding and governance model for Limpopo’s provincial reserves.
Tourism remains a key driver of Limpopo’s economy, but has struggled to grow significantly over the past decade and has yet to recover fully from the pandemic. Revitalising this sector depends in part on restoring the province’s neglected nature reserves.
According to the EMS Foundation’s The State of South Africa’s Provincial Nature Reserves report, Limpopo’s reserves are crippled by systemic failures — including chronic underfunding, poor management, weak accountability, decaying infrastructure, vacant posts, and collapsing community partnerships. Many, such as Hans Merensky and Letaba Ranch, are described as “very poor” or abandoned, leaving them vulnerable to poaching and other illegal activities.
The report describes a province-wide collapse in management and accountability:
- Many reserves operate without staff or security, leaving them open to poaching, illegal grazing, and vandalism.
- Infrastructure has deteriorated severely — roads, fences, and visitor facilities are in disrepair. Tourism access and marketing have all but collapsed, rendering many reserves closed or economically dormant.
- Flagship sites such as Hans Merensky and Letaba Ranch are effectively abandoned, crippled by mismanagement and unresolved land claims.
- Weak community benefit-sharing, underfunding, and unfilled posts have further undermined oversight and conservation efforts.
Collectively, these failures have reduced Limpopo’s once-valuable reserves to “paper parks” — protected in name only — symbolising a profound failure of leadership and accountability within LEDET.
The report attributes this collapse to deep-rooted structural weaknesses. Limpopo’s internal management model — where reserves are administered directly by the department rather than a dedicated conservation agency — has eroded capacity, focus, and accountability. Chronic underfunding, weak monitoring, and poor prioritisation have forced reserves to compete for scarce resources, while transparency gaps and ineffective oversight have allowed the decline to deepen unchecked.
It is evident, as the report confirms, that conservation is not a priority for the ANC-led Limpopo government — despite tourism being one of the bedrocks of the provincial economy. An internal report indicates a maintenance backlog exceeding R2 billion.
However, the EMS Foundation concludes that all is not necessarily lost. With decisive political will, institutional reform, proper funding, genuine community partnerships, and the introduction of public–private partnerships, Limpopo’s reserves could be restored to full functionality and once again contribute meaningfully to conservation, tourism, and rural development.
The DA therefore urges that this report be treated not merely as an indictment, but as a turning point — a call to reform and act urgently to rescue Limpopo’s natural heritage from further decline.
The question that remains is whether the political will exists to do so.