Africa's first formally declared trans-border conservation area, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, on the border of South Africa and Botswana, was officially launched on May 12, 2000 by then South African President Thabo Mbeki and Botswana President Festus Mogae. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is situated approximately 250 km from Upington in the far Northern Cape, 1000 km from Cape Town and 904 km from Johannesburg.
The combined land area of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is +/-38,000 km² of which 28,400 km² lies in Botswana and 9,600 km² lies in South Africa. Transfrontier parks, border parks or transboundary conservation areas are protected areas that straddle international boundaries. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is such a protected area in the southern Kalahari Desert. The southern Kalahari represents an increasingly rare phenomenon: a large ecosystem relatively free from human interference.
It is the predators that are the park’s biggest attraction. Excellent chances of seeing cheetah, leopard, brown and spotted hyena and the definitive black-maned lion exist.