In accordance with the agreement between Peace Parks and ANAC with regards to the co-management of Maputo National Park, significant effort has gone into:
- first securing the area with improved security measures,
- then reintroducing wildlife through rewilding,
- while working closely with communities to reduce their dependence on natural resources,
- with the protected areas now geared for tourism development that will result in the reserves being financially self-sustained.
Our support to the park include governance, increased capacity, conservation management, anti-poaching, community engagement, tourism development, as well as assistance with marketing and awareness activities.
Maputo National Park
This 1 700 square kilometer park combines lakes, wetlands, swamp forests, grasslands and mangrove forests with a pristine coastline in southern Mozambique.
Ponta do Ouro Marine Reserve
Nestled adjacent to Maputo Special Reserve, the marine protected area stretches from Ponta do Ouro in the south to the Maputo River Mouth in Maputo Bay in the north.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
In 2005 the Mozambican government appointed Peace Parks Foundation to provide assistance with a community development strategy that would bring about the sustainable economic development of communities living in and around Maputo National Park through nature-based tourism and conservation enterprises. We currently execute this responsibility through two specific collaborative endeavours – the Community Development Facility and the Mozbio Project.
Lubombo Community Development
This programme focuses on bringing about sustainable economic development of and benefit-sharing by communities living in and around conservation areas.
WORLD HERITAGE SITE
The iSimangaliso Wetland Park situated on the South African side of the Ponta do Ouro-Kosi Bay TFCA, was proclaimed a World Heritage Site in November 1999. The site is the largest estuarine system in Africa and includes the southernmost extension of coral reefs on the continent. Efforts are ongoing to extend the existing World Heritage Site northwards to encompass the Mozambican section of the TFCA, which includes the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve.
Did you know?
In 2019, a 294 020 hectare site in the Lubombo Mountain Range, which straddles Mozambique and South Africa, was declared a biosphere reserve by the UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme. This Lubombo Biosphere Reserve is part of the Maputoland-Phondoland-Albany Biodiversity Hotspot and consists of forest, wetland and savannah ecosystems. To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must must have a high percentage of plant life found nowhere else on the planet, and it must have 30% or less of its original natural vegetation remaining. In other words, it is an area of vital biodiversity that is critically threatened. Local flora species in this hotspot include the Lubombo Ironwoods, Lubombo Cycads, the recently-discovered Barleria species and the Jilobi forest. Twenty of the 88 mammals identified in the area are to be found only in the Lubombo region. Notable among these mammals are the white rhino, cape buffalo, roan antelope, tsessebe and the suni, as well as threatened species such as leopard. The biosphere reserve is home to numerous conservation and monitoring projects, as well as commercial enterprises, industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, and forestry.