28/04/2026
In Reserva Especial do Niassa - REN, people matter. Their safety, income, education, health, dignity, and future matter.
Large carnivores (lions, leopards, spotted hyaenas and African Wild dogs) also matter because they are part of thriving ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems support clean water, clean air, control of pests, forest products, food security, livelihoods, and resilience. They have ecological, cultural and economic value. In Niassa, large carnivores are also part of a landscape people have lived with for generations, and their continued presence helps bring real investment into one of the most remote districts in Mozambique.
This is not about choosing animals over people. It is about making sure that conservation brings practical benefits to the people who live with wildlife every day.
The presence of large carnivores is challenging because they can be dangerous. That is why our work focuses on three things: 1. reducing the loss of large carnivores from snaring, poisoning, and retaliatory killing, so that populations remain stable; 2. reducing the cost of living with large carnivores by working to reduce attacks on people and livestock through safe shelters, safe behaviours, and a rapid response team; and 3. unlocking the value of carnivores for people by supporting education, health, employment, benefit sharing, and income.
Let’s start with unlocking value. The continued presence of lions, leopards, spotted hyaenas, and African wild dogs helps keep Niassa globally significant, and helps bring investment into education, health, employment, community programmes, and local income. At the moment, there are 800 to 1,000 lions and 5,000 to 6,000 hyaenas inside Niassa Special Reserve, alongside 70,000 people across 42,000 km². That in itself is an extraordinary success of coexistence.
Because there are still lions, leopards, spotted hyaenas, and African wild dogs inside Niassa Special Reserve, we through our programs alone can directly support youth, education, work, income generations each year. From our side this looks like:
🌿57 scholarships each year for children and young adults from villages inside NSR, from secondary school to university. A total of 96 scholars have been supported since 2013.
🌿416 people treated annually by Mozmed in Mbamba and Mariri alone. Mozmed also supports Mussoma, Matondevela, Gomba, Naulala, and Erevuka in partnership with Mecula District, Luwire, Chuilexi and Mashambazou with Ambassasor Air and Missao Betesda (2025 people treated)
🌿416 seasonal staff working in construction and conservation services, all from villages inside NSR.
🌿85 permanent staff from Niassa Province, the majority born inside NSR.
🌿53 Community Wildlife Guardians in all villages inside NSR through the MOMS programme.
🌿117 anti-poaching salaries through the Lion Coalition Project across partners.
📖468 children receive lunch every school day.
🐝160 beekeepers earned $18 600 from the sale of honey.
🐐115 families with small livestock for additional income and proten.
🌿12 villages earned $USD 68 000 through the community camera trapping program through performance payments for the presence of wildlife.
🌿24 artisans from Kushirika from Mbamba earned more than USD 7,000 through sale of crafts
Each year, more than USD 1 million flows directly into the Niassa conservation economy as direct cash payments to people who live inside NSR from our organisation.
There is no “they were here first” argument here. People and wildlife have always lived together in Niassa Special Reserve. It is a special reserve because people live inside it. This is about coexistence, tolerance, and balance. When conservation works properly, people living with wildlife must be safer, better supported, and more able to benefit from the wildlife around them.
For us, lions, leopards, hyaenas, and African wild dogs are not separate from people’s well-being. They are part of creating a future for people who, for hundreds of years, have lived with wildlife, protected it, and used it. They are part of a conservation economy that supports families, schools, jobs, and opportunity.
That is the future we and other partners are working for: people and wildlife thriving together in Niassa Special Reserve. Images:Samuel Alberto and Colleen Begg
