Mozambique: Nyusi challenges citizens to strengthen protection of environment

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Mozambique: Nyusi challenges citizens to strengthen protection of environment

4:27 CAT | 14 Dec 2022

Photo: Presidente Filipe Nyusi / Facebook

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi stressed on Monday the need for the involvement of all citizens in protection of the environment, improving the way it is preserved in other to save endangered species.

The President expressed these thoughts in Washington, during a working meeting held with representatives of the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, an institution dedicated to protecting the environment.

Nyusi is in Washington at the invitation of his US counterpart, Joe Biden, and will participate in the Second US – Africa Leaders’ Summit, beginning on Tuesday.

He noted that 25 percent of Mozambican territory already has the status of protected area. But, despite the advances, Nyusi added, many obstacles still persist, such as poaching, illegal fishing, deforestation, and a high rate of population growth.

“As a sign of our commitment to nature we are in the process of expanding to marine areas within the framework of our policy of sustainable management of natural resources and capitalization of the Blue Economy value chain”, Nyusi said, quoted by Radio Mozambique.

He stressed that the government has improved the legal framework, policies, and normative instruments for land and maritime spatial planning, as well as on forest environments and biodiversity conservation.

The government has also created specific institutions and improved existing capacity for the management and supervision of natural resources and the environment.

The list includes the rehabilitation of ecosystems and restocking of emblematic species in conservation areas, including importing animals from neighbouring countries.

“For example, this year we moved 26 rhinos to the Zinave National Park, which is now the only place in Mozambique where all of the Big Five – elephants, leopard, lion, rhinos, and buffalo – can be seen,” said Nyusi

Over the last six years Mozambique has recorded no elephants killed in its national parks and reserves, thanks to the systems set up to control the herds.

This success is also related to the reduction in poaching and the illegal trade in wildlife trophies, and at the same time the strengthening of criminal accountability associated to high prison sentences for poachers of up to 16 years.

Source: AIM