Maputo National Park receives international funding for nature based climate change adaptation

As first appeared in Prestigio Magazine in Mozambique, here. Written by Refinaldo Chilengue.

February 20 2023

Park with mosaic of diverse ecosystems has massive carbon sequestration potential

Maputo National Park, part of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resources Area (ACFT-Libombos), is one of the most biologically diverse and endangered ecoregions on earth. Image by Deborah Varrie.

Marine and coastal protection in Mozambique’s Maputo Environmental Protection Area received a significant boost with a €5.9 million (£5.24 million) grant awarded to the Peace Parks Foundation and ADRA Germany by the Blue Action Fund through funding from the Green Climate Fund.

The initiative will be implemented in light of an ecosystem-based climate adaptation program focused on conserving and building the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities against the impacts of climate change and will be led by a consortium of partners together with the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC).

In 2019, the Government of Mozambique proclaimed the establishment of the Maputo Environmental Protection Area, centralising various land management formats and substantially increasing the protection of this part of southern Mozambique.

Two years later, the conservation areas that form part of this Environmental Protection Area – Maputo Special Reserve and Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve – were officially combined and declared a Maputo National Park, raising their level of protection.

The park, co-managed by ANAC and the Peace Parks Foundation, is part of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resources Area (ACFT-Libombos) and is one of the most biologically diverse and endangered ecoregions on earth. It hosts unique carbon-sequestering land and marine habitats, connecting inland water systems, swamp forests and grasslands with mangrove forests, healthy seagrass beds and a kaleidoscope of coral reefs .

The pristine coastline of more than 100 kilometres and an oceanic protection zone of 18 nautical miles provide a safe haven for a wide variety of marine life, which includes many endangered species such as migratory whale species and dugongs.

The park is also considered a nesting ground for critically endangered species such as loggerhead and leatherback turtles in Mozambique and the South West Indian Ocean.

Approximately 80% of the populations of these species that visit the 2,470 kilometres of the coast of Mozambique each year come to nest in Maputo National Park.

On land, an extensive long-term restoration initiative led by ANAC and Peace Parks , with funding from Mozbio , has translocated around 5,000 animals from 11 species of land mammals to the 1,700 square kilometre park since 2010, proliferating to a wildlife population of just over 12,000.

“There are not many places where the largest marine animal, the whale, can see the largest land animal, the elephant. It's a place where ecosystems come together to create a world-class otherworldliness,” says Antony Alexander, Peace Parks Foundation Program Manager for ACTFR-Libombos.

The Blue Action Fund, founded in 2016, has become one of the world's largest public funders promoting marine conservation and sustainable livelihoods in coastal communities. The financial support enables the implementation of an unprecedented program that considers all landscape elements holistically over a five-year period.

It basically aims to address the challenges of coexistence across the coastal zone, where 23 vulnerable communities are heavily dependent on natural resources. The unsustainable use of natural resources is increasingly dangerous, and in order to address issues such as deforestation on land, overfishing on the coast, and pollution in both habitats, requires an approach that is sensitive to the needs of communities and an understanding of current and future impacts and risks.

In Mozambique, Peace Parks is the long-term co-management partner in the rehabilitation and management of four protected areas covering over 27,000 square kilometres.

This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organisation Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Written articles from the Mozambican and Angolan cohorts are translated from Portuguese. Broadcast stories remain in the original language.