The Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) is a non-profit organisation with a mission to facilitate the establishment of Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) supporting sustainable economic development, the conservation of biodiversity, and regional peace and stability. The foundation is managed by a Board of Directors under the Chairmanship of Dr Anton Rupert; and the Executive Directorship of Prof Willem van Riet, and has seven Honorary Patrons, Nelson Mandela being the Patron Emeritus.

The vision of the PPF is to develop a network of Transfrontier Conservation Areas by unifying fragmented ecological habitats and promoting environmental and political stability in Africa. In order to do this one needs a unique level of international cooperation between the participating countries, particularly on sensitive issues, such as the opening of international boundaries, and cross border management of the parks, thus deeming support from top political levels necessary.

Just as importantly one needs an effective GIS (geographic information systems) to moderate the planning and facilitate the monitoring of each TFCA with its own specific requirements. As a result the Peace Parks Foundation has established an internal GIS laboratory. It is felt that the development and management of Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) without the use of this technology cannot be possible. The TFCA projects (see map 1) which are currently underway are:

* The Kgalagdi Transfrontier Park (which opened on 12 May 2000).

* Gaza/Kruger/Gonarezhou TFCA (the international agreement of development was signed on 10 November 2000).

* Richtersveld/Ai-Ais TFCA; Gariep TFCA; Limpopo/Shashe TFCA; Lubombo TFCA; Outzit TFCA; Maloti/Drakensberg TFCA.

* The Nyassa/Niasa TFCA.

In planning and monitoring of any TFCA it is essential to have up-to-date information of land use, settlement patterns, vegetation, soils, geology infrastructure and population density to name but a few. Satellite imagery is used to effectively derive some of the data, which is required during the planning of each TFCA. In Africa the GIS data resources are updated infrequently and therefore the accuracy, availability and metadata associated with the data are questionable. As a result the most feasible method of attaining data of the quality required is through satellite imagery, heads-up digitising and field surveys.

"Peace Parks Foundation wishes to thank ESRI and GIMS for their inclusion into their Conservation Programme," says Craig Beech of the Foundation. "This programme kindly donated ArcView GIS with extensions 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst and Tracking Analyst, as well as MapObjects. This software is crucial to the analysis and planning of the TFCAs and has already been used to capture and analyse data from Coutada 16 in Mozambique. MapObjects Lt is being used to develop a customised piece of software to allow for the dissemination of spatial data to key role players," he concludes.

Peace Parks Foundation GIS

(021) 887 6188

cbeech@ppf.org.za

Geographic Information Management Systems (GIMS)

(011) 315 0390

sales@gims.com

www.gims.com