Biodiversity and Conservation in Mozambique: Changes on the way as ANAC becomes Public Institute

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Biodiversity and Conservation in Mozambique: Changes on the way as ANAC becomes Public Institute

12:33 CAT | 01 Feb 2018

Photo: ANAC

Mozambique’s National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) is to have the legal status of a public institute [endowed with administrative and financial autonomy], the spokeswoman for the Council of Ministers announced on Tuesday.

“The overall objective of this review is to provide the ANAC with the institutional, technical and human capacity to meet the challenges of the current situation,” Ana Comoana said after this year’s second session of the Council of Ministers.

Founded in 2011, the ANAC was created to promote the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable development of eco-tourism in Mozambique. The new statute changes the entity’s composition to adjust to “the principles and norms that govern public administration in Mozambique,” Comoana added.

The ANAC is responsible for about 25 percent of Mozambican territory, including seven parks and an equal number of reserves, as well as areas for sport hunting and game farms.

The change announced on Tuesday comes at a time when poachers in Mozambique are putting some species under threat. Elephant, for example, is at risk of disappearing altogether from the Niassa National Reserve in Cabo Delgado province.

Mozambique lost 48 percent of its elephant population between 2012 and 2016 and may be banned from international trade in the species’ derivatives due to lack of clarity in animal management, according to a report from the ANAC’s Poaching Surveillance and Combat department released in 2016.

Source: Lusa