Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe
Coordinates: 23 0 S 31 45 E
Approximate area: 13,514 sq. mi. (35,000 sq. km)
When it comes to political geography, the twenty-first century has so far been especially concerned with issues of national sovereignty and in some circles, a renewed interest in the old maxim that good fences make good neighbors. Theoretically, those with means are free to move about the globe as the please, but in doing so, these individuals often navigate contentious borderlands. It interests me then, that in Southwestern Africa, three countries have worked together for the last seven years to literally remove physical and political barriers with the goal of creating a viable Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.
The management board notes in their stated objectives that “political borders very rarely respect ecological systems, and this transfrontier park will strive to re-establish historical animal migration routes and other ecosystem functions disrupted by fences and incompatible legislation.” Perhaps this idea doesn’t align with the thinking currently en vogue in some legislative bodies around the world, but it would certainly seem to be a more sustainable strategy for protecting the thousands of plants, mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and people occupying this massive swath of dry savannah and woodland.
Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.
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