Maputo, April 9, 2026 (Lusa) - Mozambique's agriculture minister, Roberto Albino, has acknowledged the problem of elephant overpopulation in Southern Africa and called for regional action to bring the elephant population under control.
"Because of our regional and international wildlife preservation policy, the elephant population has grown tremendously. That is why we are exchanging elephants with each other. Botswana offers elephants to us and we to them," the minister told journalists on Thursday on the sidelines of a Wildlife Economy conference in Maputo.
The minister said the region must take measures now to control the overpopulation of these wild animals.
"Regional intervention must happen so we can have a balanced elephant population relative to what our conservation areas can sustain," he said.
The secretary of state for Niassa province, in northern Mozambique, said the animal population exceeds the number of humans in that region. He added that this increases human-wildlife conflict.
"Our province has one of the highest levels of conflict between humans and animals, particularly elephants and buffaloes. Our elephant herd, for example, is double the number of inhabitants," he said, noting that Niassa now has about 2.5 million inhabitants and over 3 million elephants.
Lusa previously reported that in 2023, the death toll from wild animal attacks nearly tripled in one year to 159 victims, according to a report by the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE).
Citing the latest available data, the INE report says Mozambique estimated a population of 9,114 elephants and 64,800 buffaloes in 2018, among dozens of large species.
The report states that 205,375 people lived inside Mozambique's protected areas in 2023 across 162 communities. Another 501,737 people lived in 504 communities within the buffer zones of these parks and reserves.
Previous data from the (ANAC), the state agency managing national parks, shows that wild animal attacks destroyed 955 hectares of crops, such as maize and cassava, between 2019 and 2023.
LCE/LYT // AYLS
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