vertical-endeavour.com

www.4x4community.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=83665

There is a comment on this thread relating to the inferrence that there will be trouble from EKZN....

"It is outside of Parksboard area"....

Does TnL fall within the proclaimed WHS area?

Anyone know? Intrepid?

Groan...

Thanks for alerting the rest of us. I have just fired off some emails to various people who hopefully will have something to say, and may shed some light on what can be done about this. From the outset I'd like to encourage everyone in the hiking, climbing and conservation community (and all other concerned/affected groups) not to throw stones at the 4x4 community, and avoid nasty and destructive forum conversation as happened on various other sites over the previous issue where 4x4s where driving to the Amphitheatre edge. Not everyone in the 4x4 community is in favour of this kind of thing, and we can rally together with these people to work together for the conservation of our mountains. At the same time I call for zero tolerance of this kind of thing! Something must be done to address this issue once and for all.

SeriousTribe2 wrote:
Unfortunately I dont think it falls under the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site. This does not mean that it is unprotected though, since it falls under the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier area. How much protection this affords is not clear to me, but this potentially carries weight since this is a government-level agreement between South Africa and Lesotho, and we are supposed to work together in protecting the region. It may not be EKZNW land, but these people should not think they can do nothing about it - they can. They liaise with their Lesotho counterparts, and it does ultimately affect the UDP-WHS. I am in the process of informing numerous people at EKZNW, and various other individuals. I think some of the concerned representatives in the 4x4 community should be contacted too.

In the long term, I think one of the things we can rally for is a higher conservation status, if not World Heritage Status, for the greater Maloti-Drakensberg region....

Update: the issue was reported to various people and has now been officially reported to the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Project. Also, I see several people on the 4x4 forum have discouraged the idea which is great.

I am still waiting for a response from my management, but from my perspective, it should be a non-starter, and we will have the same stance on it as we had with the previous 4x4 issue. The top of the Berg is not a place for heavy 4x4 activity, as much as it may be a once off. There is a precedent set, and others will want to encroach on an area which is for foot and horse traffic only. The impacts of only one 4x4 will cause irreparable damage which will take many many years to recover!