Mozambique: No Elephants Poached in Niassa Reserve

Author(s)

AllAfrica

Date Published
In a statement issued on Monday to mark the ninth anniversary of its creation, the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) stressed not only this victory in elephant conservation, but also the increase in the number of people tried and sentenced for crimes of trafficking in wild life products.

ANAC is celebrating its anniversary under the theme “Our solutions lie in Nature”, calling on all citizens to look at ecosystems as the basis for the survival of the human species.

“Human beings and nature are part of an interconnected system”, said the statement, citing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “Nature provides food, medicines, water, air and many other benefits that allow people to prosper”.

Among recent conservation achievements, said ANAC, are the reduction in poaching in general, and the poaching of elephants in particular, which it attributed to better coordination between Mozambican institutions, the training of magistrates ad other key figures in the legal system on conservation matters, and the establishment of a police dog unit, trained to detect wild life products.

ANAC also pointed to the investment leading to the re-introduction of over 10,400 animals into the conservation areas, either by importing them from other countries, or moving them from one part of Mozambique to another.