DEVELOPMENT - Integrated Development Planning

The core of the Integrated Development Plan revolves around the zonation of the reserve and identifying environmentally sustainable developments based on their scale, location and possible impacts. These development opportunities are currently being explored with some in implementation phases.

Above map indicates the zonation of Mountainlands and refers to the following categories of developments that were identified:

• Specialist interpretive day trips and overnight tours based on geology, archaeology, history, birding, game, small mammals, plants amp butterflies.
  
  
• Core tourism developments inside the reserve.

The zonation and sheer size of the reserve minimizes the impact of the different facilities on each other. For example, the likelihood of game viewers from the different facilities encroaching on each other during game drives is very remote. Privacy is further ensured by classifying access roads to development sites as private roads for the exclusive use of the owners or guests of a particular site.

Management plan under review

Nature reserve management plans are dynamic and are typically reviewed every five years. The current management plan of Mountainlands Nature Reserve is being reviewed and a new Integrated Management Plan (IMP) is being compiled by leading specialists in protected area management.  

V&L Landscape Architects are widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on protected area management in southern Africa and were also responsible for some of the management plans for Transfrontier Parks in southern Africa. The IMP will comply with the new legislation governing nature reserves and their management and is being undertaken in close cooperation with the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency.  The new IMP will include recommendations for the future management and tourism development of the reserve. The result will be a top notch plan which is at the cutting edge of protected area management.

Expected completion date of the review is November 2011.