Maputo, Aug. 19, 2024 (Lusa) - Gilé National Park, in northern Mozambique, has received the first 48 buffalo out of a total of 200 from the Marromeu National Reserve, in Sofala, the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) announced on Monday.
"This is a process that forms part of the rehabilitation programme at the level of the national network of ecosystem conservation areas," explained the director general of ANAC, Pejul Calenga, who said that the buffalo had arrived on Saturday.
In the case of Gilé National Park, in Zambezia province, ANAC started this process in 2012 and has already relocated buffalo, zebras and oxen from other areas.
"Due to the constraints we've had in the context of Covid-19 and cyclones, we've had to slow down this translocation process and at the moment we want to ensure that the 200 buffalo can reproduce and increase their population and restore the ecosystems and ecological functions by bringing in the animals that at one time already lived here in Gilé National Park," Calenga added.
The 48 buffalo already relocated to Gilé are part of a group of 200 with which ANAC intends to repopulate the park.
"Gilé National Park once had rhinos and we also want in the distant future, and I believe we're going to create these conditions to restore and put here, the coveted "big five", that is buffalo, leopards, lions, elephants and rhinos," explained Calenga. "Our aim is to create a set of attractions that can appeal to our investors so that we have opportunities to generate income and, based on this, also create some capacity on the part of the communities to be able to take full advantage of this value chain of the wildlife economy."
He also said that at national level, in the context of the rehabilitation of conservation areas, more than 8,500 animals have already been involved in these processes: "The fact that we consider remarkable at the moment is that these animal translocation processes are taking place within a national park to another park or reserve."
Gilé National Park is located in the districts of Pebane and Gilé, in Zambézia province, and was first proclaimed a Partial Game Reserve in 1932.
It has forests, plains and riverside vegetation, and is home to hundreds of species of birds, reptiles and amphibians. It is located close to Pebane and Moebasse beaches, Gurué and Mozambique Island.
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