Strengthening Banhine National Park

Southern Africa’s vast transnational Limpopo Heartland is perhaps best known for the world-famous Kruger National Park. Yet not far away, in Mozambique, is an equally fascinating park that is virtually unknown: Banhine National Park.

The 7,000 km² (2,700 mi²) Banhine National Park is home to extensive inland wetlands and is a key source of water in the arid lands surrounding it. Yet the park has received little of the attention—or the income—that Kruger enjoys. As a result, it has virtually no capacity for proper wildlife management. The reality is that Banhine is, in essence, a park only on paper—it has little infrastructure or facilities, management or enforcement. To make Banhine an effective protected area for wildlife and wild lands, the park must be rebuilt from scratch.

In October 2004, AWF signed an agreement with Mozambique’s Ministry of Tourism and embarked on a plan to restore the infrastructure of the park. Because baseline data on the biodiversity, geology and hydrology of Banhine National Park simply doesn’t exist, one of the keystones of AWF’s plan is the establishment of an international conservation research center.

AWF has constructed the research center and is marketing it to the international scientific community. Research fees paid by international researchers will be used to staff the center and manage the park. What’s more, AWF is negotiating with the international program of the U.S. Forest Service to provide expert advice for watershed and hydrological assessments.

Today, construction of the center is completed. But the work is not done. The long work of rehabilitating Banhine will involve everything from building infrastructure, acquiring equipment and training staff to redesigning the park’s boundaries to provide a better representation of biomes. With these problems being addressed, Banhine National Park will soon be back on the map—and back on the list of Africa’s “must-see” wildlife destinations.