Off to new shores – our project in the Zambezi Delta

The opportunity to start a new project in a country doesn’t come along very often. My husband Hugo and I have just been given this opportunity for the second time. In 2006, the then Africa Director of FZS, Dr. Markus Borner, gave us the opportunity to set up a project in the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe. And now, almost 20 years later, we are back at the very beginning. This time in the Marromeu National Reserve in Mozambique. Our experience definitely helps us old hands, but every new project has its own unique challenges.

The 1,500 square kilometer Marromeu National Reserve is located in the Zambezi Delta, at the mouth of one of Africa’s mightiest rivers. Permanently and seasonally flooded grasslands characterize the landscape. The reserve has little to no infrastructure, including roads, which contributes to its inaccessibility — yet this may be its saving grace, helping to protect it. Established in the 1960s, the reserve was established primarily to protect its vast buffalo herds. With close to 50,000 buffalo, it once harbored one of the highest densities of this iconic African mammal on the African continent. However, a 15-year civil war drastically decimated the wild animal population in Marromeu. Since the end of the war in the early 1990s, the populations have been growing. Recently, an animal census revealed that an estimated 29,000 buffalo are living here again today. FZS plans to double the impact of its conservation work. To this end, existing project areas are being expanded, but completely new areas are also being added to the project portfolio. One of these is Marromeu.

Despite this positive trend, the reserve remains severely under-resourced and faces a growing number of threats. Upstream damming and water extraction have altered the hydrology that once nourished this vast delta. Little monitoring or control exists over fishing in the mangrove-fringed rivers and estuaries, which serve as critical breeding grounds for many marine species. Moreover, heavy sands mines established on beaches just across the Reserve’s eastern boundary are also affecting the ecosystem. Although hunting areas in the north and west of Marromeu act as a buffer zone, pressure is increasing and the unsustainable use of natural resources is on the rise. People living within the protected area are practically on their own. Supporting them so that they can live here sustainably will be one of our greatest challenges.

At the moment, we are concentrating on building a local network. We are working closely with the Mozambique Wildlife Authority, jointly developing conservation goals and preparing monitoring to better understand this complex landscape. These are the foundations without which effective protection of Marromeu would not be possible. We are getting to work. There is a lot to do!