One of the loveliest game sanctuaries in today's South Africa, Madikwe was once sparsely populated farmland for cattle breeding and maize cultivation and scarcely able to feed its few inhabitants. Yet what was once practically worthless land has now, with the robust participation of the surrounding communities and investors, become an exemplary model of nature conservation and future landscape use. Like in the biblical story of Noah's ark, almost all of the wild animal species found in southern Africa that would have had almost no chance of survival elsewhere, including the Big 5 and rare and endangered animals, were resettled here. But has Operation «Phoenix» really contributed to the desired upturn in the local economy or is it just the private investors who are profiting again from an eco-project?
