Niassa Game Reserve in northern Mozambique comprises an area of 42,000 km2 (including buffer zones). That is about twice the size of Kruger Park in South Africa. It contains, by far, the largest concentration of game in Mozambique. The magnificent scenery combined with the size and natural wealth makes Niassa Reserve one of Africa’s last great wildernesses.
Knowing that large mammal surveys are an essential part of the necessary resources inventory and will play a key role in all long term monitoring approaches in the reserve; knowing that large mammals are particularly important as key factors in the ecosystem and can potentially be very useful as indicator and umbrella species to focus conservation and management efforts, SRN used some of its limited resources to address what was considered a priority: to obtain valid information on wildlife, particularly on large mammals.
Management Plan to establish a proper and sound Management Plan has always been a concern for SRN. Initial reconnaissance work developed in 1996-1997, resulted in the preparation of the first Niassa Reserve five year Management Plan. This document is currently being revised and updated, through a series of participatory workshops at national, provincial and district level under the assistance of WWF-SARPO.
Administrative Structures and Institutional
This last frontier of wilderness is under significant threat, as a result of the overexploitation of the natural resources. Commercial poaching of elephant and other wildlife for international trade, as well as illegal subsistence hunting, over-fishing and the use of poisons, indiscriminate setting of fires, inappropriate agriculture, unplanned and uncontrolled settlements, if not urgently addressed will contribute significantly to the reduction of the natural heritage and destruction of one of the largest miombo forest ecosystem in the world.
Niassa Reserve is one of the largest protected miombo forest ecosystems in the world, with a surface of 42,000 km², the Niassa Reserve is the largest conservation area of Mozambique and it contains by far the greatest concentration of wildlife in the country.
