Bird route takes off

NELSPRUIT - With tourism playing an ever important role in our economy, BirdLife South Africa recently held a workshop to formulate the way forward for the development of birding routes in Mpumalanga.

BirdLife South Africa are the leading organisation in this country for everyone interested in birds and their survival and has been involved in developing birding-based tourism (avi-tourism) across South Africa. To date developments for the Great Limpopo Birding Route, Swaziland, Zululand, Southern KwaZulu-Natal, Maloti Drakensberg and Western Cape birding routes are well underway.

They have long considered Mpumalanga as being one of the country’s prime areas for the development of a similar project and various stakeholders and interested parties were invited to gather information and support for this exiting project.

Ms Nikki McCartney, the coordinator of the Mpumalanga Birding Route said, "One of the major outcomes was the formation of a steering committee to establish the necessary structures to develop the Mpumalanga Birding Route. This includes site identification, sourcing local guides, branding and marketing and membership."

She also stated that birding routes had proved to be highly successful tools for integrating socioeconomic development and positive conservation action across South Africa.

Mpumalanga is one of the few provinces that has yet to establish an avi-tourism sector and develop a birding route.