Meerkat National Park is a large
National Park in the
Northern Cape, South Africa, that encompasses the
Square Kilometre Array
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKA ...
,
MeerKAT and
HERA telescopes. To ensure long term viability of the Karoo site for the MeerKAT and the SKA, and for other radio astronomy instruments, the South African Parliament passed the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act, in 2007. The act gives the Minister of Science and Technology the authority to protect areas, through regulations, that are of strategic national importance for astronomy and related scientific endeavours.
The park does not allow visitors.
History
The
National Research Foundation purchased privately owned
rangeland
Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, sava ...
, removed livestock from the area and placed it under the protection of
SANParks
South African National Parks (SANParks) is the body responsible for managing South Africa's national parks. SANParks was formed in 1926, and currently manages 19 parks consisting of , over 3% of the total area of South Africa.
Many parks offer ...
.
In 2020, this park was declared in partnership with the National Research Foundation and the Square Kilometre Array project. It added 3.4% to South Africa's national parks. One of the objectives in creating the park was to increase the protection range of three unprotected ecoregions, including the
Nama Karoo
Nama Karoo is a xeric shrubland ecoregion located on the central plateau of South Africa and Namibia. It occupies most of the interior of the western half of South Africa and extends into the southern interior of Namibia.
Climate
The climate t ...
ecoregion from 1.5% to 2%; and in doing so, conserve
quiver tree forests and other threatened species in the region.
Objectives
The park will seek to study large-scale management of the area, and the impact of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
on the local ecosystem.
Ecology
After declaring the park, a number of steps were taken to rehabilitate the land, including the removal of livestock, fences and copses of alien
mesquite
Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas.
They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under gr ...
, this saw an increase in wildlife numbers.
The park has a healthy population of quiver trees.
See also
*
Protected areas of South Africa
The protected areas of South Africa include national parks and marine protected areas managed by the national government, public nature reserves managed by provincial and local governments, and private nature reserves managed by private landow ...
References
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National parks of South Africa
Protected areas of the Northern Cape