The “Conservation Areas and Elephant Protection in Mozambique” Project contributes to achieve the French commitments in biodiversity preservation, including the fight against environmental crimes and for the development of innovative financing mechanisms, in particular the conservation trustees.

With a 4-year duration, the project is budgeted at 8.36 million Euros, of which 6 millions will be paid by the French Development Agency and 2.36 million Euros by the World Bank, USAID and USFWS.

Objectives of the Project

The project aims to improve the management of Mozambican conservation areas and the protection of their large animals, so that they may play their role in the maintenance of biodiversity and keep providing services in the local and national plans.

Specifically, the project will:

1. Improve the efficacy of the law enforcement and illegal poaching fighting services in the Limpopo National Park and Niassa National Reserve. These two structures cover a total area of 53.230 km2 and gather more than 50% of the elephant population in Mozambique, encompassing the conservation areas most affected by the commercial illegal poaching.
2. Improve the relationships between the conservation areas and the local communities.
3. Strengthen ANAC’s and BioFund’s (Foundation for Biodiversity Conservation in Mozambique) technical and operational capacities.

The project is structured in 3 components:

Component 1: Reinforcement of the Limpopo National Park and Niassa National Reserve, in terms of fighting poaching

In this component, the objective is to reinforce the management, control and poaching fighting capacities in the the Niassa National Reserve and Limpopo National Park.

Component 2: Support to the National Conservation Areas Administration

Give support to ANAC’s activities related to the protection and poaching fighting sectors.

Component 3: BioFund’s Operability

Contribute for BioFund’s operability, through testing and adjustment of BioFund’s operational instruments and increase of administrative and financial management capabilities of the conservation areas and establishment of a monitoring and evaluation system.