Private sector lured by St Lucia's 'Big Five'

IN March 2001, elephants will be released into the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park (GSLWP) in KwaZulu Natal as part of a R630m government project to entice the private sector to invest in about 15 development GSLWP concessions. These would include bush camps, mid-market hotels, beach resorts and upmarket boutique lodges totalling some 1 670 beds for the domestic and international markets.
This is according to Andrew Zaloumis, project manager for the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (LSDI) which is driving the whole process.
Initially a breeding group of 24 elephants will be released at Catalina Bay on the eastern shore of Lake St Lucia, the world's biggest marine lake of some 350 square kilometres.
If the move is successful, 30 more elephants will be relocated. St Lucia's shores can optimally carry 100 elephants.
This is the first step in a major restocking programme (50 zebra and 13 baboon have already been released) that will make St Lucia into a Big Five reserve.
The elephant relocation is one of several related landmark events in that region of Northern KwaZulu Natal. They include the future merger of Ndumo Game reserve and Tembe Elephant Park bordering Mozambique and the integration of CCAfrica's 17 000-hectare Phinda Resource Reserve with the 30 000-hectare state-owned Mkuze Reserve. Roads are being realigned to facilitate the process.
More news is that St Lucia has acquired 10 000 hectares of state-owned timber plantation that will be rehabilitated into the wetland ecosystem it once was.
There are cross-border negotiations to drop the fence between Mozambique and Tembe to enable the elephants (about 100) of Maputo Elephant Park to retrace an ancient migratory route to St Lucia (this is linked to the March relocation).
Over the next ten years, the number of beds in the GSLWP region will increase from about 11 200 to 18 700 with a foreign currency earning potential of R850m a year.
The first phase will incorporate 15 sites which will go out to tender in November. They include:
*A hotel-type facility of between 300 and 400 rooms at St Lucia town.
*A five-star 80-bed boutique facility at Lake Bhangazi near Cape Vidal.
*A 5 000-hectare concession at Lake St Lucia's Ndlozi Peninsula with the potential to develop two or three lodges which can compete with the best in Mpumalanga.
*A mid-market bushcamp of about 40 beds at Mpate River between Charters Creek and St Lucia town.
*An area at Perriers Rock that includes three exclusive bays. The concession provides for coastal forest chalets (36 beds) and sea-view stilted chalets (24 beds).
*Three sites at Lake Sibaya including Baya Camp and a lodge and chalet concession at Nine Mile beach not far from the diving mecca of Sodwana Bay.
*Three sites at Kosi Bay including a facility at the second of Kosi's five lakes.
The beach resort concessions include a 500-bed resort at Cape Vidal and smaller one at Nine Mile.
Mozambique is providing investors with an opportunity to build a resort at Ponto do Oro just north of Kosi Bay.
On November 16 details of the development sites will be announced at the Sandton Convention Centre in Gauteng giving potential investors an opportunity to express interest.

(Mark Gray)