Niassa National Reserve (NNR) is located in northern Mozambique on the border with Tanzania. It is one of the largest protected areas in Africa (42 000 km2) and is considered to be one of the “Last of the Wild” and most undeveloped places in Africa (WCS MegaFlyover and Human Footprint Project - Wildlife Conservation Society and Centre for International Earth Science Information Network, 2002).
Despite decades of war and neglect with only recent rehabilitation (2000), this extensive wilderness has survived largely intact (black rhino have disappeared). The protected area supports the largest concentrations of wildlife remaining in Mozambique including viable populations of the African lion, African wild dog, leopard and spotted hyaena. In addition these populations are linked to carnivore populations to the north in Tanzania (Selous Game Reserve) through the Selous – Niassa Wildlife Corridor. Rock art in the area shows that Niassa has always supported a human population and today more than 30 000 local residents live inside the protected area spread across 40 villages. Shifting subsistence agriculture is the primary land use and main economic activity. Cattle are absent due to tsetse fly, the vector for the disease trypanosomiasis, but smaller livestock, primarily goats and chickens, and domestic dogs are present in the larger villages.
The Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) has been working in NNR since 2003 in close collaboration with SRN (The Society for the Development of the Niassa Reserve - the Management Authority of NNR), Niassa communities and tourism operators.
Through the work of the Niassa carnivore project, a population of more than 350 African wild dogs and 800-1000 lions have been identified in Niassa Reserve. As a result both lions and African wild dogs have been identified as a priority for research and conservation by SRN (the Management Authority of the Reserve). In addition NNR has been identified regionally as a priority for both lion and African wild dog conservation in eastern and southern Africa. The lion population is believed to be one of only five lion populations left in Africa that is currently increasing, with Niassa National Reserve a priority area for lion conservation while the Selous-Niassa trans-frontier wild dog population is the second largest wild dog population remaining in Africa. In addition, Niassa Reserve provides the core and source of largely unprotected lion and African wild dog populations extending from the east coast of Mozambique at Pemba to the western boundary with Malawi at Lake Niassa and extending 100 km southwards.
Aside from their conservation importance and status as flagships of Niassa, we believe that if we can secure these carnivore populations in the long term this will have broader biodiversity and social benefits for NNR and will go a long way towards securing NNR as a whole. The conservation of lions in particular touches on many of the major ecological and social challenges facing NNR at present and all these carnivores have the potential to generate significant revenues for communities and management of NNR through tourism initiatives. Grassroots community outreach and extension work will be fundamental to successful conservation efforts as the costs to communities living with large carnivores is significant through the loss of life, livelihoods and livestock. For example in the past eight years alone, 11 people have been killed by lion and 18 injured in the protected area and in 2008, a single male leopard killed 22 goats over a three week period in Mussoma village before being killed by the community. Similarly, there are currently serious threats to the large carnivores from people, including retaliatory killing as a result of human-carnivore conflict, indiscriminate snaring, the sport hunting of underage individuals (lion, leopard) and various disease risks, particularly rabies and canine distemper spread from domestic dogs. Successful sustainable conservation will require a multifaceted, collaborative approach that addresses both human and carnivore needs. The NCP pays particular attention to understanding human-carnivore conflict and developing, testing and finally implementing pragmatic and sustainable solutions in collaboration with Niassa communities. Emphasis on understanding the cultural role these carnivores play in the communities and reaffirming their cultural importance is considered vital. Targeted research and monitoring is essential to inform and monitor effective conservation activities however to ensure that monitoring is sustainable and ongoing and not researcher driven and important part of the project is to train selected NNR/ SRN staff and community scouts in relevant techniques and NNR is provided with detailed survey protocols as well as all the required equipment.
Photo courtesy of C.& K. Begg, Niassa
Carnivore Project
In NNR, there is a unique opportunity to secure these populations and develop mitigation strategies before a crisis develops and support for conservation initiatives is eroded. However, the time for these actions is limited (less than 10 years) and if we do not act now this window of opportunity will close. NNR currently makes a significant contribution to the global conservation of all these carnivores largely due to its extreme size and remoteness, but the critical lack of resources faced by SRN and a rising human population inside the protected area with its associated increase in habitat transformation, human-wildlife conflict and poaching are an ever present threat.
The main goals of the Niassa Carnivore Project are:-
The Niassa Carnivore Project has a five pronged approach:
Sound ecological and social research underpins all our activities, as we believe that only with a good local understanding of the issues can effective conservation be achieved. Intensive ecological research is focused in a specific study area situated along the Lugenda River. Our research activities include:
Ongoing monitoring of the status of the carnivore populations and their threats is critical so that solutions can be implemented and a crisis is averted. However, this needs to be closely linked to mentorship and training to ensure this is not researcher driven but sustainable and an integral part of the management of the Reserve. Our monitoring activities include development of a Community Monitoring System (following the Namibian model of MOMS – Management Orientated Monitoring System) whereby community monitors are identified by traditional leaders in each village, they are trained by NNR staff at an annual meeting, are supported by the NCP and currently collect information on conflict events, sightings of special species (the community information provides the basis of monitoring of wild dog packs) and fishing activities. These community monitors provide an important link between reserve management and communities and are a way for communities to get actively involved in natural resource management. To date (2006-2008), 14 monitors from 13 villages have been trained. A NCP goal is for there to be 80% coverage of Niassa villages by community by end of 2010.
The Niassa Carnivore project works towards understanding the specific threats to the large carnivore populations in Niassa using targeted research and then finding pragmatic, sustainable locally based solutions in collaboration with communities and SRN. The main threats to carnivores in Niassa are listed in the table below:
Threat |
Ranking |
Comments |
Inadvertent Snaring and poisoning |
High |
Snares set for ungulates for meat inadvertently catch carnivores |
Human conflict - retaliatory killing |
Medium |
Loss of life, injury and stock losses |
Sport hunting of underage individuals |
Medium |
Lion and leopard in trophy hunting concession in protected area |
Disease - rabies and canine distemper |
Medium |
Spread from 200-300 domestic dogs resident in protected area |
Targeted snaring for skin trade |
Medium |
Mainly for leopard, some lion |
Road casualties |
Low but increasing |
Particularly wild dog, increasing as roads are upgraded |
Traditional medicine |
Low |
All species |
We are working to mitigate these threats in the following ways:
It is essential that carnivore conservation becomes and integral part of the management of NNR if it is to be sustainable in the long term and that it is not researcher driver .NCP provides training and mentorship to both NNR staff and local villagers. Our activities include providing NNR staff with direct field training on the project, providing NNR field staff with critical equipment where needed so they can work effectively (GPS, computer, binoculars, camera) and identifying and training local villagers as field assistants (GPS use, driving skills, radio tracking, basic car maintenance, trapping etc).
At present environmental education and extension work in Niassa communities is in its infancy. NCP reports information back to communities through local village meetings, posters and the community scouts. However the intention is to initiate more specific environmental education and a dedicated extension worker if funding can be found. NCP also disseminates information from the project to a broader Mozambican and international audience through scientific papers, presentations, assistance with national surveys, film, and popular articles.
Photo courtesy of C.& K. Begg, Niassa
Carnivore Project
The Trustees of The Predator Conservation Trust are pleased to be able to make a grant to the Niassa Carnivore Project in Mozambique. The grant is for £1000 and is intended to fund several things. The main part of the grant is for the work with the local community to reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict and includes Conflict Resolution Posters and Community meetings – conflict mitigation meetings and workshops. Another part of the grant is for Carnivore blood sample disease analysis. The final part of the grant is for general running costs, fuel etc.
Photo courtesy of C.& K. Begg, Niassa
Carnivore Project
The Trustees of The Predator Conservation Trust are pleased to be able to make a second grant to the Niassa carnivore project. The grant is to cover the cost of purchasing a shipping container. This will provide wet season storage for project equipment which is currently having to be stored in a mud hut during the rainy season where it is suffering from water damage as well as problems with rats and termites. The container will offer a secure dry environment for the projects equipment.
The grant also covers funding to help allow Colleen Begg to travel to a national workshop in Maputo to develop an action plan for African wild dogs.
Progress towards achieving objectives:
Collaboration – Lion-human conflict workshop & development of toolkit
A regional workshop to share practical solutions for reducing human lion conflict, particularly lion attacks on humans was held in Dar es Salaam. It was attended by 17 researchers and fieldworkers from ten lion projects in Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. The meeting was jointly organised and facilitated by Colleen Begg of the Niassa Carnivore Project, Mozambique and Hadas Kushnir of the Rufigi Man-eater Project, Tanzania. Through funding from the Niassa Carnivore Project (primarily supported by Wildlife Conservation Network, Panthera, Fauna & Flora International, Fair Play Foundation and Wildlife Conservation Society) it became possible to broaden the conversation to include participants from African People and Wildlife Fund, Lion Guardians, Living with Lions, Niassa National Reserve/SRN community program, Panthera, Ruaha Carnivore Project, Selous Niassa Wildlife Corridor, Serengeti Lion Project, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute and the Tarangire Lion Project who are all working on similar issues in the region.
Over two days of intensive discussion, the considerable collective knowledge
and experience of the participants was distilled into a detailed table of 32
possible methods to reduce human-lion conflict, successes and possibly even more
important failures. These were then reduced to 11 practical solutions that
people in the room had direct experience with including fences, trenches, goat
corrals, reinforced cattle bomas, noisemakers, visual deterrents, dogs, and
community scouts/guardian programs etc. For each technique information was
provided on cost, technical input needed, critical elements of success and
specific details of construction etc. This will form the basis of the manual or
toolkit, which will be the main output of the meeting and made available to
everyone working on these issues on the ground. Discussions are currently
underway to include the lion toolkit into the FAO toolkit for HWC that is
currently being implemented across the region. A workshop summary has been
produced and the toolkit is in production.
Intensive collaring of village lions & assessment of snaring
To provide an objective assessment of the snaring of lions, an intensive capture of lions in L5 South around Mbamba and Nkuti villages has been undertaken. All lions are fitted with radio collars with a mortality signal (a special signal is sent when animals have not moved for more than 24 hours). Nine lions have been radiomarked since April (7 males, 2 females) and additional three lions were radiomarked in 2009, two males are currently unaccounted for. A further three lions are known about and will be caught when possible. Ongoing monitoring of the lions is done by Euzebio Waiti, NCP research assistant from Mbamba village. Data will help us assess movement patterns around villages as well as mortality.
Ongoing work in the Mbamba community has revealed that on average 2-3 leopard skins and 4-5 lions skins are sold from the Mbamba village each year. Two leopard collars being returned to us from leopards caught in snares. This year, all three of the collared female leopards have been snared and killed in the intensive study area highlighting our concern over snaring. Lions and leopards are not targeted but are caught inadvertently in snares set for bushmeat. A simple questionnaire survey to assess bush meat (preference for different animals, prices and capture techniques) and snaring has been initiated.
Blood samples from the 10 lions have been sent to Onderstepoort Veterinary lab for disease analysis (canine distemper, canine parvovirus).
Sport hunting
Annual trophy monitoring of the ages and sizes of leopards and lions taken in NNR as trophies by the 9 hunting concessions has begun. To date, two lions and eight leopards have been measured and aged. Trophy monitoring will continue until the end of the season. No trophies may leave the Reserve until they have been aged by us. So far this season 6 lions have been taken as trophies.
The first leopard sport hunting regulations developed by NCP have been
accepted by SRN and sent to all operators. These include decreases in quotas for
the shooting of subadult or female animals, theft of skins and failure to
provide trophies for trophy monitoring and full information on leopard hunts.
Mitigation of conflict – “living fences”
The experimental fence of Commiphora africana planted in Mbamba village in November has coppiced well and has shown that “living fences” are viable in Niassa. Two Mbamba residents have already asked the owner of the fence Chefe Ngongo for cuttings to start their own fences, suggesting that this will develop its own momentum once sufficient source material is available.
Cuttings of C. africana have been collected in Pemba and one truck load and three land rover loads have been transported into Niassa. Following a community meeting and collaboration with Reserve management, fences have already been planted around two fields in Mbamba village and Mecula village. More fences are currently being planted. It has been suggested to the Mbamba community that groups of neighbouring fields should plant one fence to decrease labour and increase area covered. hese will function as experimental plots and tests of the fences as well as sources of future fencing cuttings.
The critical elements of planting the living fence are to “criss-cross” the cuttings to prevent holes at the base, plant cuttings 20 cm deep to prevent drying out,plant before the rains to prevent rotting, and cutting back of first growth (and replanting) to encourage development of hedge. At this stage two parallel lines of fencing are planted.
Community outreach, education and extension work
The Niassa Story book entitled “Lions, leopards, Mother Nature and one small girl” written and illustrated by Afra Kingdon, has been completed, 40pp. 1000 Portuguese copies have been printed and shipped to Mozambique. In November these will be distributed to all Niassa teachers at the teacher meetings to enable teachers to incorporate them into 2011 lessons. The book has a basic ecological message and more specifically provides specific guidance on ways to protect yourself from carnivore attack (safe shelters, safe behaviours, fences). An associated workbook and conservation ABC cloth capulana (cloth worn by women) are in production.
Illustrations for the safe behaviour’s poster have been completed by Conor Rawson and a poster is being ‘professionally designed to have the most impact. This poster will be designed to be understood by literate and illiterate adults and will reinforce message in the storybook and by extension officers. These will be distributed throughout NNR in 2011.
The two day training workshop for the Community Scout Program was held between 2-4 October. Four new community scouts were trained from the western complex; this brings to 15 the total number of community scouts trained. A MOMs coordinator has been identified that will work exclusively with the MOMS monitors ensuring regular contact, data entry and reporting. NCP provides full financial support for this program. These scouts are essential link between Reserve management and the Niassa communities and valuable information is collected on human- wildlife conflict, domestic dog numbers and sightings of special species that is essential for a sustainable monitoring system. This has proven particularly important for monitoring African wild dog status through pack sizes and pack sightings.
Mentorship and capacity building
A second project vehicle (a secondhand Land-cruiser has been purchased, $23 000). This vehicle is being used for the remainder of this year by Agostinho Jorge who is completing his Masters degree on leopard in NNR under NCP. At the end of the year the vehicle will be modified for more extensive fieldwork. In 2011 it will be used exclusively for extension work in all villages in NNR.
Agostinho Jorge has been in the field full time since the end of July 2010 to complete the fieldwork component of his MSc through Kwazulu Natal. He is fully funded through WCN scholarship, assistance from NCP through WCS and Panthera Kaplan Award. He has set up two camera trapping arrays in Miombo woodland (one hunted, one not hunted) to assess leopard density. For each survey area 15 camera stations (2 cameras at each station) have been set up and will remain in place for 60 days. A further two sampling grids will be completed in L7 hunted area and L5 South (non hunted area) to assess leopard density in miombo and riparian habitats and between hunted and non sport hunted areas as well turnover in a non hunted area that has been monitored in 2008, and 2009. These data will be used to assess sport hunting quotas for leopards in NNR and the effect of snaring on turnover in the leopard population.
Main Activities remaining for 2011
We thank the Mozambican Government and SRN for permission to work in Niassa National Reserve. The Niassa Carnivore Project is substantially funded by Panthera, the Fair Play Foundation, Fauna & Flora International, Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Conservation Network and Rufford Innovation Award. We also particularly thank the Predator Conservation Trust, Rob and Val Barnett-Harris, Cathryn Hilker and the Angel Fund from Cincinnati Zoo, Florence and Steven Goldby, Mary Boardman, Flint Chapter of Safari Club International and all our individual sponsors who all help to keep the project going.
We are finally back in Cape Town after 8 months in Niassa, nearly got stuck in some heavy down-pours but just managed to slip and slide our way out. Now for a couple of months of fixing equipment, writing reports and fund raising with some good food, and family. It has been a tiring year and we look forward to a little bit of a change of pace.
It has been a tough season with more than 100 elephants poached in Niassa, one lion being snared and one old female dying of old age and constant battle to stem the tide and build political will for conservation. But the year ended on a positive note with the Lion Fun days (see below for details) and the Mbamba school buildings have now got new roofs, shutters, doors and a new coat of paint all ready for the wet season. We managed to collar two new male lions right next to camp in the last month, bringing to ten the lions collared this year, we think they are the new pride males in the area. One of the females we have known from birth in 2006 has just had her first litter of two cubs.
We had a meeting with 34 school teachers from the district to present them all with the new story-book and provide some guidance on how it can be used. Everyone has been very positive and we are hopeful that we are successfully spreading information on how to keep safe from carnivore at-tacks. With the help of the teachers we have developed a questionnaire which we will be using to test whether the children and teachers are hearing the messages in the books, extension work and posters and will be monitoring the number of people using safe shelters and building goat corrals. Agostinho has finished his season of fieldwork for his Masters degree and over the next few months will be writing up his thesis; these are such exciting times for him. One of our field assistants, Batista Amadi is in Lichinga getting his driver's license this wet season so lots of learning and growing while the rain falls.
On the mornings of the 3rd and 4th November 2010, the central square in front of the Mbamba village school was taken over by herds of elephant and waterbuck, pods of hippo, prides of lion, leopards and much laughter and excitement. It was time for the end of year Lion Fun Days.
Last year we initiated the two mornings of fun and games with a conservation message to help us test the children’s abilities to make sure we pitched the educational materials at the right level. We also wanted to start to change the perception that conservation was only about saying “No!” and to spread important conservation messages on safe behaviours. It was a great success. This year the Mbamba community was adamant. They wanted the fun days back.
So the entire Niassa Lion project team got to work planning activities, making masks, animal rosettes, and puzzles. We were again ably assisted by Paula Ferro. Paula’s day job is manager of Luwire a concession inside the Niassa National Reserve but lucky for us, she also provides us with ongoing help with educational activities. With a Masters degree in anthropology, Paula is an extremely creative person with an engaging and natural talent with children. She is an essential part of these fun days. Making animal masks from paper plates is not something you learn at University so we needed help. Everyone descended on Nkuli camp two days before to practise activities and get all the material prepared in time. We were also helped by Nilton (the SRN community officer), and Romina, a visiting architect based in Pemba designing local schools. Even Ella, at 3 years old helped with gluing, painting and tracing. Finn at one and a half just added to the chaos.
We arrived in Mbamba at 7 am, bright and early to try and avoid the end of dry season heat. The teachers were ready and sent a gaggle of kids with a drum to run through the village like the Pied Piper to call the children to the main square. First off was a new running game designed by Paula that brought home the importance of strong fences and never walking alone in the bush and got rid of some of the pent up energy and excitement. The highlight of the first day was undoubtedly decorating the animal masks. At first the children were a little intimidated; this was something completely new and foreign. But with the help of the team to show them how to paint with their fingers, the creativity flowed and soon every child was absolutely engrossed. Initially we had planned prizes for the best masks, but it proved impossible to choose. Everyone was a winner taking home the mask at the end of the day. Mothers too were delighted as the piece of elastic could later be used to fix clothes.
Last year we learned that elephant, lion, leopard, and hippo are only seen in a negative light or as a source of skins. Waterbuck are simply meat. This year Agostinho spent some time telling the children a few strange facts about the animals. Facts to make them laugh, make them think, to amaze them or simply let them identify with the animal a bit more. Did you know that lions may sleep for 18 hours a day, that each leopard has a different coat pattern so you can identify different individuals, and that hippos can’t swim but walk on the bottom of the river?
The Nkuli (Niassa Lion Project) field team put on a play about collaring a lion that gets snared but the hunter then gives the collar back to the project. Euzebio, Pedro, Oscar and Joaquin are all natural actors and the play was an instant success. In a simple, humorous way it told why and how we collar lions and the problem of snares set for bush-meat killing the lions. It reinforced our message to the community that we need the collars of snared animals to be returned to the project so that we can understand what is going on. Snaring is the biggest threats to lions and other large carnivores in Niassa at present. We are working hard to understand how many lions are being inadvertently killed and to find solutions. This year alone the community returned three leopard and one lion collar to the project.
Next on the agenda was a relay race between the different animal teams carrying an important message as a baton. But just as the teams were ready to go, the kids suddenly scattered in all directions. A small group of people in white coats was striding towards the village square. It took a moment for us to figure out what was happening. The medics at the village clinic had seen all the children collected in one place and decided this was a great opportunity to give them all their de-worming medicine and vaccinations! Predictably, the children took one look and ran off at top speed. Adults had unfortunately been spreading the message that these vaccinations and medicine made you sick. This brought home to us again the essential need for not only environmental but health education of children and adults. There was no way we were going to get the children to return any time soon and so we decided to call it a day.
Day two started with the relay race, a new concept. It took 3 tries before everyone understood how it was meant to work and then they were off racing between the mango trees. At first no-one wanted to be an elephant as they are so disliked by local communities due to human-elephant conflict. But they won the race and for one day at least, elephants were celebrated. The majority of people in Niassa believe their lives would be better without lions, elephants and leopards. We wanted to spark some thoughts on what the consequences might be if these animals were all to disappear from Niassa. Would it matter if all the lions or elephants were gone? We divided the children into two teams for a ‘tug of war” using our tow rope with each child representing different elements of the ecosystem – lions, leopards, elephants, honey badgers, eagles, bees, trees, grass flowers, fish, sunlight, rain etc. One side was the reserve and the other an unprotected area. Initially the tug of war was equal but as more and more elements disappeared, some connected to each other resulting in a cascade of effects, the unprotected team started to fall apart while the Reserve team was still strong and pulling together. The message was clear.
To wind down the day, the younger children made rosettes with animal pictures on them. This was an activity from last year that they really enjoyed and asked to do again. This time we didn’t need to teach them how to use scissors and glue. Some children made three or four. The mother’s watching the activities were keen to get involved and it finally dawned on us that they loved this activity because of the safety pins on the back of the rosettes that they got to keep after the day is over.
To end the day with energy, there were races and finally the prize giving. All the children who took part in specific activities received a pencil with first, second and third prizes of school materials and bags of salt for their family. A tradition has been started. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Lion conservation days could take place in November across the reserve in all 40 villages in the future. Mbamba village and its dynamic teachers will become a role model.
Thanks to all the Mbamba teachers , Mbamba community, Paula, Nilton, Romina, and the Nkuli team for making the day such a success. Thank you to SRN and the Government of Mozambique for permission to work in Niassa National Reserve. Thanks to all our individual donors and the Fair Play Foundation, Fauna and Flora International, Panthera, Predator Conservation Trust, Wildlife Conservation Network, and Wildlife Conservation Society for their ongoing support. We are most grateful.
September 2008 , May 2009 , September 2009 ,
© Predator Conservation Trust.
