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Into the Wild

Watching elephants in their wilderness is a privilege that has become more accessible from Maputo city, the capital of Mozambique. The recently inaugurated Maputo-Katembe bridge that leads to an asphalt paved road connecting to neighbouring South Africa, has improved access to the Maputo Special Reserve, also known to many as “Elephants Reserve”, and Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve, in the southern part of Mozambique.
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Watching elephants in their wilderness is a privilege that has become more accessible from Maputo city, the capital of Mozambique. The recently inaugurated Maputo-Katembe bridge that leads to an asphalt paved road connecting to neighbouring South Africa, has improved access to the Maputo Special Reserve, also known to many as “Elephants Reserve”, and Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve, in the southern part of Mozambique. 
 
The reserve can be visited en route to Ponta do Ouro Beach, on the border with South Africa. Via the new road infrastructure, it now takes around a one-hour drive to reach the elephant populations, which historically moved freely across the border between KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa and southern Mozambique. The reserve’s elephant population is currently estimated at about 400, according to the last aerial census undertaken in 2016. 
 
“No elephants have been relocated and there has been a healthy increase in numbers over the past years with around 400 elephants being the latest census estimate,” says Miguel Gonçalves, Park Warden of Maputo Special Reserve and Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve, in a written interview with Macau CLOSER.
 
Since 2013, more than 4,200 animals – 4,229 to be precise – have been relocated to Maputo Special Reserve through a multi-year rewilding project led by Peace Parks Foundation in support of Mozambique’s National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC). Species reintroduced over the past eight years include warthog, kudu, nyala and giraffe, as well as a variety of plains game such as impala, waterbuck, blue wildebeest and zebra, each having their own role to play in restoring the Maputo Special Reserve ecosystem.
 
“Further reintroductions will include oribi, buffalo, waterbuck eland, blue wildebeest and zebra. And cheetah. There are already leopard and hyaena in the Reserve,” adds the Park Warden.
 
Maputo Special Reserve was created in 1960 with the primary aim of safeguarding coastal elephants. Its purpose was expanded to include the protection of other species, thanks to the growing recognition of its wider biodiversity importance. Although several years of civil war and severe droughts nearly eradicated all wildlife here, the combined efforts of the governments of Mozambique, South Africa and The Kingdom of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), as well as conservation agencies, have seen the Reserve’s animal populations revitalised. 
 
Aiming at the Big Six
 
Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area includes four distinct transfrontier conservation areas between Mozambique, South Africa and The Kingdom of eSwatini, covering a total area of 10,029 km2. Maputo Special Reserve is part of one of the world’s biologically richest and most endangered terrestrial ecoregions, and is an important component in the protected areas system of Mozambique, combining 1,120 km2 of coastal lakes, wetlands, swamp forests, grasslands and mangrove forests. 
 
The Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve is Africa’s first cross-border marine reserve, which links up with the one across the border in South Africa’s iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a World Heritage Site. It stretches across 678 km2 and is the most important turtle nesting ground along the entire 2,800 km Mozambican coastline, with more than 1,000 turtles coming to nest on these shores every year. Lubombo also reunites the last naturally occurring elephant populations of KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa, and southern Mozambique, which historically moved freely across the border. 
 
For the future, Mozambican authorities aim at joining the conservation areas in a larger national park bringing together the African Big Five – lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino and elephant, the largest of all land mammals – and, because the reserve also has whales, the biggest marine mammal, would be able to offer the Big Six, Miguel Gonçalves reveals to CLOSER. 
 
“We will merge both Reserves, and possibly include Inhaca Island into one National Park. We will introduce cheetah soon. However, reintroduction of rhino and lion will only be discussed in the future to achieve the Big Five. The Reserve also has whales, and dolphins and turtles, to offer the Big Six,” he explains.
 
The waters around Inhaca island are part of the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve. “However the conservation area on the island is not part of it. There are discussions on the integration or not of the Island,” adds Miguel Gonçalves.
 
Speeding, a major threat
 
While the recovery of wildlife through improved protection, combined with the relocation of over 4,000 animals, have enhanced the tourism offering significantly, ease of access to greater animal numbers has also increased the threat and the risk of wildlife poaching and trafficking, according to the ANAC and its partner Peace Parks Foundation.
 
Miguel Gonçalves explains to CLOSER that due to the increase in the number of visitors, who do not respect the speed limit within the protected area (50 kilometers per hour), these conservation areas are already beginning to see cases of local fauna being hit by cars, environmental pollution, litter and even “people getting out of vehicles to take selfies with wild animals,” describes the Park Warden.
 
Since the inauguration of the new bridge and road infrastructures, in November 2018, impalas, reedbucks, a zebra, hares and tortoises, among other animals, have already been mortally hit. 
 
“The Reserve is working towards introducing legislation in the short term that will allow enforceable fines for a number of these transgressions,” adds Miguel Gonçalves.
 
Also, because of its rich wildlife resources and proximity to South Africa’s largest rhino stronghold, Kruger National Park, Mozambique has been targeted and infiltrated by criminal syndicates focused on wildlife crime. According to Peace Parks Foundation, these syndicates exploit the country’s port and road networks for the trafficking of wildlife products, like ivory, rhino horn dust and pangolin scales, and Mozambique has become an established export route to consumer countries in Asia. 
 
Despite the challenges, the conservationists believe that tourism can have a positive impact on the preservation of the protected areas. 
 
“If managed correctly, I believe that it is positive. Tourism plays a critical educational role by increasing public awareness of conservation issues and ensuring national pride in local conservation areas. Tourism and its development can be very positive for local communities who benefit directly from increased revenue sources, as well as more opportunities for employment in the tourism sector in and around the Reserve. Without tourists, it is virtually impossible for the Reserve to reach a point where it will be financially self-sustainable,” defends Miguel Gonçalves.
 
Watching elephants
 
At the entrance of the Reserve’s Futi gate, we pay a fee and the rangers guarding the area give indications on the elephant route that the largest land mammal may be following that day. Sometimes, it is mainly by coincidence that elephant watchers bump into a herd to observe their movements.
 
The Reserve is a four-wheel drive destination that challenges experienced off-road drivers. Once we cross the Futi River, we reach the entrance to Elephant Reserve, and once inside the protected area, we choose to drive for hours over tracks of thick sand, winding through thick-leafed coastal forests throughout Machangulo peninsula which stretches up north, to Santa Maria, and Inhaca Island. 
 
It is on the way back to the paved road to Ponta do Ouro that our group is able to see a herd, face-to-face, feeding outside the fenced area, and bringing traffic to halt. Nearly 80 percent of an elephant’s day is spent feeding, on grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. They use their tusks to carve into the tree trunks and tear off strips of bark – they curl their trunks and sweep up the food, while small baby elephants remain close, hiding behind a leg of the mother. 
 
As vehicles start gathering, and passengers are not able to keep silent, the matriarch that leads the herd begins to show distress.  Seeming nervous, she shakes her floppy ears, curls her trunk and starts trumpeting and rumpling to warn the watchers. The animal’s nervousness scares the drivers, and they slowly restart the cars and start moving, either to Ponta do Ouro or back to Maputo.
 
The new bridge project built by the China Roads and Bridges Corporation (CRBC), includes not only the longest suspension bridge in Africa, but also 187 km of paved roads running from Katembe to Ponta do Ouro. The 150-metre tall bridge, begun in June 2014, links the north and south of Maputo Bay which could previously only be crossed by boat. The project was paid for with a loan of US$785 million from the Chinese Exim Bank.  Vehicles crossing the new suspension bridge over the Bay of Maputo pay tolls that vary from 160 to 1,200 meticais (US$2.5 to 19). Mozambique is supposed to start paying back Maputo-Katembe loan this year. 
 
Mandela and Chissano at the origin of the project
 
In 2000, the Mozambique, South African and Swaziland Governments entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise the establishment of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resource Area. The cooperation between the Mozambican Government and Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) started in 2002.
 
PPF was founded in 1997 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, then-President Nelson Mandela and Anton Rupert, then-President of WWF South Africa (World Wide Fund for Nature) in order to facilitate the establishment of peace parks, or transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs), in southern Africa. The discussion about joining protected areas across the two countries’ borders began in 1990, between Anton Rupert, and former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano. On 14 June 2011, the Mozambican Government proclaimed the Futi Corridor as an extension of the Maputo Special Reserve.
 
One of the rehabilitation project highlights  was the introduction of 31 buffalo in 2017. 
 
“Buffalo, one of the iconic Big Five, are a fascinating species. Apart from having strong social connections, evident in the veracious manner in which they protect their very old and young from predators, and having a democratic system to determine which direction the herd travels, as mega-herbivores, African buffalo herds also contribute significantly to restoring unbalanced ecosystems,” explains the Peace Parks website.
 
A number of development activities involving the local communities living within and around this protected area are also being implemented, from water supply, to livelihood projects such as chilli farming, honey production and conservation agriculture and training in various skills. Communities also receive a 20 percent share of Reserve revenues.
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