Abstract
Over the past three decades, interests in conservation have rapidly rallied around the concept of
transfrontier conservation area (TFCA). The establishment of trans-border conservation have received
massive support from donors, governments and environmental NGOs. Coordinators of TFCAs were
appointed, inter-governmental agreements were signed, and workshops and conferences were convened
in support of transnational forms of management. This model to conservation has come to be seen as
more effective than national level management because of the transboundary nature of environmental
problems. However, the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Areas (GMTFCA) appear to
have lost momentum (stalled) since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. This begs the
question, what are the politics and problems associated with the establishment of GMTFCAs on the
Botswana-South Africa-Zimbabwe borderlands. This paper tries to answer this question with the hope
that the challenges, competing agendas and points of conflict surrounding the creation of GMTFCAs
might emerge.