I READ with interest last week?s Times article about Rob Poppe in the Congo?s Parc National des Virungas. It is noteworthy to record that the Kruger National Park of South Africa began the trend for national parks in Africa. It was President Paul Kruger of the South African Republic (Transvaal) who succeeded in proclaiming the establishment of a ?Government Reserve? in the Transvaal?s eastern Lowveld as early as 1898, thus planting the idea of a national park. Fourteen years earlier, in 1884, Kruger had recognized the beauty and value of this area to be set aside expressly for conservation, at least on the continent of Africa. In 1926, Kruger?s grand-nephew, Piet Grobler, proclaimed the ?Kruger National Park?. P D Williams Sticklepath
