SCIF Announces Agreement with Mozambique Wildlife Alliance
Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) is proud to announce a new partnership with and significant funding to Mozambique Wildlife Alliance’s (MWA) elephant conservation initiative. As stated by MWA, the project focuses on landscape-level conservation of critical elephant habitat in southern Mozambique, through human-wildlife conflict mitigation actions in support of communities and district authorities. MWA works as an independent support structure to the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) to help implement their conservation mandate.
Mozambique has huge potential for elephant habitat conservation and wildlife economy development, particularly across vast unfenced areas in and around the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, one of the largest in the world shared by Mozambique with South Africa and Zimbabwe. In order for this conservation work to be successful, however, mitigation of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) and direct community benefits must be prioritized.
The project consists of a phased approach beginning with the identification of HWC hotspots in natural ecological corridors between relevant conservation areas, collaring elephants in these areas, and forming communication lines with community representatives and localized training. Once established, MWA will then create rapid HWC response units, work with communities for natural elephant conflict mitigation solutions or innovative technology integrated approaches and assist with improved agricultural practices. Finally, and where applicable, MWA, in coordination with national authorities aims to support the development of community led partnerships where sustainable utilization models could create further incentives for habitat conservation with direct and tangible financial benefits.
As SCIF prepares for the 20th anniversary African Wildlife Consultative Forum to be held in Maputo, Mozambique, this project will be instrumental in our work towards strengthening community benefits, supporting sustainable use, and ensuring the long-term conservation of protected and unprotected areas. We look forward to a longstanding partnership with MWA and ANAC and the successful development of community-led conservation through sustainable use.
“We are excited to initiate this elephant conflict work with our new Mozambique partners. This project represents one of SCIF’s largest conservation investments in a single project, and we look forward to sharing more updates from the field.”
Joe Goergen, SCIF Conservation Manager.
