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The South Africa Chamber for Agricultural Development in Africa (Sacada) should consider an addition to its name and logo: wildlife.
Originally, the Freedom Front-affiliated group had made boosting Africa’s food security and food production its motto. But some of its people in Niassa salivate when describing the province’s abundant wildlife.
It is only a plan, and at an initial stage, explains Sacada project leader Jan Pelser. But the Sacada-sponsored Mosagrius project would like to set up the world’s largest protected area for game: 4,5-million ha across northern Mozambique – from Lake Malawi to the Indian Ocean.
”The government will own it, except for a few concessions, and we will run it,” says the thin, graying South African game rancher.
The crown jewel in the projected empire would be the Niassa game reserve in Mecula district. Tucked into Niassa’s north-east corner, along the Rovuma river and the border with Tanzania, it has 21 000 km2. Left to itself during the war, it is stocked with the big five, including more than 10 000 elephants and a few elusive rhino last sighted in 1993.
There is a snag. Somebody got there first. Since December 1995, Mozambique’s National Department of Forestry and Wildlife has been working on a management plan for the reserve with Grupo Madal, a conglomerate with many economic ties to Mozambique.
Madal owns 50 000 ha of buffalo and cattle ranches and palm plantations in Zambezia province. It has set up the Society for the Management and Development of the Niassa Reserve, whose share-owners are the Mozambican government, Madal, and eventually others, including rural communities.
The Niassa reserve is said to be the pet project of Madal’s owner, Norwegian shipping tycoon Halvar Alstrup, who is keen on wildlife. Not much profit can be expected soon from the reserve: it is so remote that the cost of providing quality tourist services would make it very expensive.
On the other hand, one could put up a few mud-and-straw huts or tents and entice South African hunters. Not much capital is needed, not much revenue generated, and the concession is secured.
Madal is designing a plan that incorporates lessons learnt from tourism in neighbouring countries. The plan foresees a joint partnership between the wildlife department, Madal and local communities. The reserve and its buffer zone, totalling 39 000ha straddling Niassa and Cabo Delgado provinces, would be carved into five or six blocks for different uses.
One block would be managed by local communities – an improved version of Zimbabwe’s Campfire scheme. One improvement, derived from legislation passed last year by Namibia, would vest exploitation rights in local communities, not local government.
”Our concern is that local people are not marginalised and benefit from income derived from their wildlife and natural resources,” says IUCN’s Ebenezario Chonguica. About 10 000 people live in the area.
The place is so big that Madal is reported to have set aside one block for Mosagrius. But Mosagrius wants more. It has presented its own proposal for the game reserve.
The main battle will be fought at the centres of power – Maputo and Pretoria. Madal has close ties to the director of the National Directorate for Forestry and Wildlife, Sergio Chitara. It counts among its top officials a former minister, Antonio Branco.
Sacada is backed by top Frelimo officials and has stepped in forcefully as a big player in Niassa. Although little investment has yet trickled through Sacada, it enjoys political clout. If the power brokers are in the capitals, shock troops are in Lichinga.