The merger of three national parks—South Africa's Kruger, Mozambique's Limpopo and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou—into an 89 000 km2 conservation area—the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP)—is supposed to boost tourism, protect biodiversity and promote harmony between neighbouring states in southern Africa (De Villiers, 1999; Hanks, 2000; Rupert, 2001). Not one of the anticipated outcomes will be realized if the position or role of local communities (social dynamics) within this mega-conservation area plays a subordinate role. In most African countries the high failure rate of official conservation programmes and policies in both the colonial and post-colonial periods can be ascribed to a tendency to view environmental problems mainly in ecological, physical and technical terms (Agrawal and Gibson, 1999). The predominantly ecological perspective ignores the necessity of a fair and equitable balance between use and preservation in a world that perpetuates the value of human beings at the expense of other life forms (Fennel, 2003). The social aspects of the environment have been neglected both in analysis and policies (Ghai, 1992). For the sake of ecological integrity, the architects of the GLTP sought to open national frontiers for hoofed crossings (Wolmer, 2001). This paper focuses on the global and continental contexts for transfrontier conservation areas, and demonstrates the link between conservation and tourism in the current environmental geopolitical discourse. It also comments of the resettlement of approximately 6000 people from the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique as a factor that can constrain the successful establishment of the GLTP.