Protected baobabs and 600,000 trees face are foe coal-driven development, sparking conservation outcry. Image: Hluhluwe Game Reserve.
(The Post News)- The United Nations Educational, Sciencefic, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-designated sanctuary known as the South African Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, which has been renowned for its rich biodiversity, is currently under immediate threat because developers are preparing to clear over 125 000 hectares of indigenous vegetation for the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMMSEZ) project.
The coal-powered industrial development plans to remove protected plants, including over 600,000 trees, sparking strong protests from conservationists and local residents. It has been revealed by environmental records that the MMSEZ project will eradicate 658 protected trees, along with 20 000 baobabs, the iconic tree of life in South Africa.
Living Limpopo, a non-profit group, has uncovered licenses for protected tree clearing at MMSEZ’s North Site, with legal aid from All Rise Attorneys. With this development being partnered with ten planned open-cast mines, it has since led to the denouncement of the project by activists as it is environmentally unsustainable and is directly threatening the country’s climate goals.
Lauren Liebenberg, representing Living Limpopo, has expressed strong opposition to the project’s ecological implications, highlighting habitat loss and broader environmental degradation. She says the cumulative destruction of the region’s fragile ecosystem could set back biodiversity conservation efforts by decades, undermining national and global conservation goals.
It has been further argued by critics that the MMSEZ Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which was authorized in July 2022, has greatly underestimated the number of protected trees at risk. With the 2021 assessment citing 109 034 protected trees on the South Site, it has been suggested by Living Limpopo’s findings that the true number is closer to 658 000, which has raised questions of the EIA process’s integrity.
According to Kirsten Youens, an environmental attorney who represents Living Limpopo, the inconsistencies not only damage biodiversity but also destroy public trust in environmental governance.MMSEZ’s mega-dam on the Limpopo River poses socio-economic and water security risks, potentially diverting 60% of the river’s flow and impacting regional water availability.
The project puts Limpopo’s long-term prospects for a sustainable, biodiversity-driven economy in jeopardy, which many believe offers a more inclusive economic future than extractive industries. MMSEZ’s future hangs in balance as a High Court hearing looms on December 6th. Environmental groups and local stakeholders are still continuing to campaign against and have called on South Africans to protect the unique natural heritage of the Vhembe Biosphere.
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