Image: Samuel Alberto

VISION

A unique wilderness of Niassa

National Reserve where
carnivores continue to persist
and thrive with the full
participation and support of
local communities.

MISSION

To Promote coexistence
between carnivores, wildlife
and people in Niassa National
We operate in Mozambique as Mariri Investimentos with a contract with
Reserve, Mozambique.
ANAC to manage concession L5-South and an MOU with ANAC as Niassa
We work in in collaboration Carnivore Project to conserve carnivores across the whole of Niassa
National Reserve in collaboration with Niassa Reserve Management
with the communities who Authority.
live inside Niassa Reserve, the
The Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) serves to secure and conserve lions
Mozambican Government and other carnivores (leopard, spotted hyaena and African wild dog) in
and the Niassa National Niassa National Reserve, northern Mozambique by promoting
Reserve management coexistence between carnivores and people, and directly mitigating
authority (ANAC & Wildlife threats. We have a 16-year history in Niassa National Reserve.

Conservation Society).
Both Mariri and NCP are supported, administered and financially
managed by the TRT Conservation Foundation (NPC 2017/ 024322/08)
This is a not for profit company, based in South Africa and the majority
shareholder of Mariri Investimentos.
FOREWARD
Niassa National Reserve (NNR) is in northern Mozambique on the border with Tanzania and is one of the largest
protected areas (42,000 km2; 16,000 ml2) in Africa. It is managed by the Government of Mozambique (National
Administration of Conservation Areas(ANAC) in partnership with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The protected
area supports the largest concentrations of wildlife remaining in Mozambique including an estimated 800 - 1000 lions
and more than 350 African wild dogs as well as leopard and spotted hyaena. Free-ranging African lions (Panthera leo)
have declined over the last century to fewer than 20,000 today (Riggio et al., 2012; Bauer et al., 2015). Large
protected areas like Niassa National Reserve that can support more than 1000 lions, are critically important for future
recovery efforts for lion conservation (Lindsey et al., 2017). These types of landscapes are becoming increasingly rare.
NNR remains one of the 10 strongholds for lions and African wild dogs left in Africa today. Of course, it is not just
about the carnivores as they do not live in isolation. The large carnivores really are indicators of ecosystem health.
Recent research has reaffirmed the important role that large carnivores, play in ecosystems (Ripple et al., 2014) and
the cascading negative ecological effects when they are lost. They are also the foundation upon which nature-based
tourism in Southern and East Africa has been built and in many areas are important symbols of national pride with
cultural and spiritual value. Securing these large lion landscapes, like Niassa with their large carnivores, prey and
habitats intact is therefore important for ecological, cultural and economic reasons and is of national and international
importance.

But it is complex and the challenges are immense. In NNR there are an estimated 60,000 people spread across more
than 42 villages living inside the protected area. Some of the poorest people in the world are living here and rely
primarily on subsistence agriculture, fishing, honey gathering as well as illegal trade in natural resources (logging,
bushmeat, lion parts, ivory, skins, rubies and gold). People have low food security and little access to basic health and
social services or education and there are few legal, alternative livelihoods. Major current threats to the lion
population in NNR are habitat transformation from this growing human population who rely on “slash and burn”
subsistence agriculture and alluvial mining of gold and rubies, bushmeat snaring where lions and leopards and their
prey are caught in snares set to catch wild meat for trade and consumption and the increasing trade in lion and
leopard skins, lion bones and trinkets. Unlike other areas, conflict with large carnivores is low, largely due to the
absence of cattle inside Niassa Reserve but still needs to be managed to reduce attacks on livestock.

This means that to secure the large carnivores our work has to be focused primarily on finding alternatives livelihoods
for people, developing models of revenue sharing from conservation and focusing on improving human wellbeing.
These have to be long term approaches. By combining this approach with education and outreach of adults and
children to share ideas about conservation, solutions and the law, and working to reduce the immediate threats
through reducing human carnivore conflict, disease, unsustainable sport hunting, and snaring while the long-term
community programs and revenue sharing start to take effect, the large carnivores will be secured. This is a model of
integrated protected area management that has shown success elsewhere in Africa and there is no reason to doubt
that it would be successful here. But given the size of NNR, it will require excellent collaboration, conservation
leadership from the NNR management team (ANAC with WCS) and the development of partnerships. No single entity
can do this alone. Our part as NCP is to work in partnership with ANAC to work across NNR to monitor status and
threats to carnivores, reduce conflict by carnivores through the 38 MOMS community wildlife guardians spread across
all the districts inside NNR, our programs of environmental education and outreach through Mariri Environmental
Centre with bush visits, educational materials, wildlife clubs, Still Standing basketball for conservation etc and our
alternative livelihoods programs that are now in seven villages reaching more than 200 households (livestock
breeding, beekeeping and beehive fence, crafts and design, conservation agriculture and agroforestry).

In 2012, we became frustrated at the lack of progress to develop revenue sharing with local communities through
community based natural resource management models. We now also directly manage a concession of 58,000
hectares (L5S) in south eastern NNR with 15-year renewable lease. It is here that we built the Mariri Environmental
Centre and have entered into an innovative community conservation partnership with Mbamba Village (2000 people)
to protect this area. This is an ongoing process and a true example of adaptive management and governance as we
find ways to work with the community effectively in a high-risk environment. It has not been easy and many lessons
have been learned. Through this partnership we have negotiated a land use line with an area for agriculture and an
area for conservation tourism and have established a model of revenue sharing and conservation performance
payments where benefits are tightly linked to responsibilities with both partners. In this area we are also responsible
for antipoaching and with our antipoaching team of 50, we have managed to secure the area and reduce snaring,
mining and elephant poaching and game populations have recovered.

As shown in this report our programs are showing success despite ongoing challenges. However, on a reserve wide
level the situation has deteriorated and there are major challenges ahead. Our data show that the Niassa lion
population is starting to decline with some areas inside the protected area becoming increasingly “empty” of
carnivores and prey while in other areas the populations are increasing through good governance from tourism
operators. Data from community wildlife guardians, informers, opportunistic records and targeted surveys in the past
five years are alarming showing that between 2013 and end of 2017 (5 years), a minimum of 65 leopards, 80 lions, 44
hyaenas and 25 wild dogs have been killed illegally with a growing trade in trinkets (teeth and claws). This is likely to be
the tip of the iceberg given that many carnivores die unnoticed in the bush and there is inconsistent coverage and
monitoring of antipoaching scouts across most of NNR. Of eight male lions radio collared with satellite collars to
monitor dispersal from L5 South, only one has been able to successfully set up his own pride in neighbouring Chuilexi
Conservancy. Three have been snared (two inside NNR in neighbouring concessions and one outside near Lichinga), one
has been sport hunted, one has disappeared and two are still alive (one moving in in L7/ L5S and one still in L5S). There
is no doubt that 2017 was a very tough year. We have faced many challenges from increasing lawlessness and
insecurity with a scout killed by an elephant, another scout injured by a poacher, we were shot at in the plane during
an antipoaching poaching patrol and faced increasing threats, accusations and intimidation.

This is all happening alongside the crisis in elephant poaching with more than 10,000 elephants lost in Niassa Reserve
between late 2009 to date and an estimated 2000 elephant remaining (as stated in NCA statement presented to ANAC
in December 2017). There are growing signs of growing lawlessness and a lack of governance in this protected area
with few attempts to effectively share revenue with communities. There is a currently no long-term mechanism for
success in place at NNR level.

THE WAY FORWARD

We remain hopeful due to a) our extremely strong Mozambican team who are committed, skilled and passionate
about conservation and achieve success at achieving NCP objectives b) our community conservation partnership with
Mbamba Village in L5 South, c) our collaboration with our neighbouring operators Chuilexi Conservancy and Luwire
as the Niassa Conservation Alliance where we collaborate to protect 11,000km2 in eastern NNR as private operators
and d) collaboration with partners across Mozambique (Gorongosa Lion Project, Limpopo Transfrontier Predator
Project) and further afield to protect carnivores and share ideas (Pride Lion Conservation Alliance, WCN’s Lion
Recovery Fund, African Lion Working Group, Houston Zoo, Utah’s Hogle Zoo and Wildlife Conservation Network). We
are also encouraged by the response of ANAC at National level to our requests for assistance in December 2017 to
reduce the elephant crisis and improve governance in NNR. In this regard the deployment of the military in NNR in
partnership with NNR and all our scouts in 2018 is welcomed.

16 years of experience in NNR has shown us that conservation is impossible without partnering with local
communities, NNR management authority, District, Provincial and National government, and tourism operators.
Niassa Reserve is too large and too complex to achieve any success alone. The situation on the ground is changing so
rapidly and is so high risk at present that adaptive governance is essential. Good governance has to be built on
effective collaboration, transparency, trust, and communication. This is not the case across NNR at present. We
remain very concerned by the confused governance, poor communication and lack of proper collaboration between
all partners in NNR especially with regards to community programs, and the slow implementation of revenue sharing
in other areas of NNR. We also remain concerned about the lack of implementation of SMART at reserve level to
monitor illegal activities, antipoaching coverage, efforts and incentivise antipoaching.

REPORT FORMAT
Our annual reports are written not only for our donors and partners including the Mozambican government but also to
provide a detailed record for ourselves of where we are, what we have learned along the way and where we are going.
They form a critical part of our own annual assessment of progress and challenges as adaptive management. Only
through putting all data and results together from all the programs together in detail can we and others see how this
all fits together in this holistic approach. We believe that detailed reporting is essential especially for innovative
programs or programs we wish to scale by partnering otherwise there is no record of the process and failures for others
to learn from. A printed copy in Portuguese and English sits on the table in our reception and is well thumbed and read
by our team and visitors during the year. For these reasons, our reports are detailed and long. We hope you will find
the time to look through this report and the progress we have made towards achieving our goals, our successes and
challenges or that you will just dip into the sections that interest you. It

2017 AT A GLANCE
INVESTMENT AND EMPLOYMENT
• We have invested more than US$ 7 million into Niassa Reserve conservation since 2003 with USD$ 1 269 607
spent on conservation activities in 2017. Of the funds spent in 2017, 71% were spent in Mozambique with
29% spent on equipment, services and goods purchased outside of Mozambique.
• Our permanent conservation and support team is made up of 100 Mozambicans with three expats (including
Founders/Directors- Colleen and Keith Begg) who all live onsite. We have four Managers Agostinho Jorge
(Conservation Manager), Andrew Mkanage (Education Manager), Hugo Pereira (Community Manager) and
Tomas Buruwate (Operations Manager).
• Our work has won the Rufford Innovation Award in 2007 and Eusebio Waiti from Mbamba Village won two
international awards in 2016 (Disney Wildlife Conservation Hero; Houston Zoo Wildlife Warrior) for his lion
conservation work.
• In total, 79 of our permanent staff are from the Mecula District, which lies within Niassa Reserve with an
additional 236 men and women from the Mecula District employed seasonally in conservation services (roads,
construction, airstrips etc) in 2017.
• More than USD $320, 000 was paid in cash to people from Mecula District in 2017 through salaries and
payments of goods (thatching grass). This is generating a significant local economy that is conservation
friendly with trickle down effects on shops, markets and local work opportunities.
• The majority of our team come from Mbamba Village which lies inside the concession we directly manage
(L5S) with more than 200 people employed in 2017 from this village alone. We are the major employer in the
village which has approximately 450 households.
• Our construction philosophy is based on the need to generate as much of a local economy as possible with
entirely local teams that have been skills trained in the project and using local thatching grass and bamboo. In
2017, more than $USD20,000 was paid to more than 40 women from Macalange and Mbamba village for the
collection of thatching grass for roofs.
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
• In 2017, 92 km of roads were opened and maintained in L5 South with 58km of new roads opened in eL4. Our
Airstrip is ready for registration with all requirements implemented. We support a fleet of 12 Landrovers, 2
DAF trucks, a tractor and Husky aircraft.
• In the past 6 years we have built the Mariri Environmental Centre, NCP headquarters as well as scout camps.
• The Mariri Headquarters consists of 3 offices, 4 storerooms, fully equipped workshop and vegetable garden.
On site accommodation is provided to our team and it consists of 17 rooms, 4 cottages and 3 Manager
houses. In 2017 an additional three staff rooms were completed with a basketball court, and workshop wash
bay.
• Mariri Environmental Centre is fully operational with 7 guest cottages, refectory, library, showers and toilets
with a craft workshop, honey bottling store and gift shop built in 2017.
• In 2017, contingent on an agreement being signed for management of eastern L4 we built the Namajati scout
camp which has accommodation for 11 scouts, 1 store and one kitchen to provide a permanent scout
presence in this heavily poached area. In January 2018, after two years of effort, we pulled out of eL4 as the
 agreement had not been signed by ANAC and there was no process in place for this to happen. This has been
a major disappointment for both NCP/ Mariri as well as the seven communities we would have been
partnering with. We remain interested in managing this area but cannot do so without a mandate.

GOAL 1: Conservation monitoring -threats and status

RESERVE-WIDE
• We started the MOMS community monitoring program in 2006 in collaboration with NNR. Our 34 MOMS
wildlife guardians work in 33 villages across three districts and recorded 4098 human wildlife conflict events
with 40% from baboons and 29% from bush pigs and warthogs and 13% from elephants. 422 domestic
animals were killed, 81% were chickens and largely by small carnivores and eagles.
• There were no attacks on livestock or people by lions in NNR in 2017 that we know of but hyaenas killed 16
goats. One lion was killed in L5 South for teeth and claws (trinket trade) with another killed in other area.
• We collated data on illegally killed carnivores across NNR from MOMS data, informer, operator reports and
focused surveys and these data were shared with NNR authority.
• In past 5 years, a minimum of 65 leopards, 80 lions, 44 hyaenas and 25 wild dogs have been killed illegally with a
growing trade in trinkets (teeth and claws). This is likely to be the tip of the iceberg given that many carnivores
die unnoticed in the bush and there is inconsistent coverage and monitoring of antipoaching scouts across
most of NNR.
• Of eight male lions radio collared with satellite collars to monitor dispersal from L5 South, only one has been
able to successfully set up his own pride in neighboring Chuilexi Conservancy. Three have been snared (two
inside NNR in neighboring concessions and one outside near Lichinga), one has been sport hunted, one has
disappeared and two are still alive (one moving in in L7/ L5S and one still in L5S).
• African Wild dog sightings continue to be widespread across NNR, with an average pack size of 7, varying in
range from 2 to 24 individuals. There are only two town that have not reported seeing wild dogs since 2015,
Mecula and Msawize. Both are growing towns and wild dogs may simply be avoiding the high densities of
people.
INTENSIVE STUDY AREA- L5 SOUTH
• Animal numbers in in L5 South have increased substantially since 2012 through antipoaching and community
partnership, with an increase waterbuck, impala, wart hog and kudu.
• Lion prides have increased from 2 prides to 7 prides and in 2017 males born in L5S successfully dispersed into
Chuilexi Conservancy.
• Cub mortality has declined substantially as adult turnover has been reduced.
• Hippo populations have increased from 76 in 2004 to 191 in 2017.
• We currently have collars on 14 lions (9 females from 7 prides; 5 males). The number of adult and subadult
lions in L5-South has increased from 27 to 32 lions. It is likely there are more unknown lions in the northern
sections of the concession that are harder to reach.
• We have more than 100 camera traps out in L5 South to monitor occupancy of wildlife and the data is being
analysed through citizen science on SNAPSHOT SAFARI platform through Minnesota University. This is a trial
program and if successful and logistically feasible it might be possible to scale up into NCA concessions
(Chuilexi Conservancy and Luwire) to provide long-term monitoring of animal populations and occupancy.
• To monitor and assess our environmental programs we developed a bespoke app through Wild Knowledge
which is used to assess pre, post and long post knowledge and tolerance of children that come through Mariri
environmental programs.
• Our Conservation Manager, Agostinho Jorge is currently completing his PhD on the bushmeat trade and
consumption in NNR and has recently been awarded an International Scholarship from Wildlife Conservation
Network.
• We provide logistical and administrative support for international and national researchers at the Mariri
Environmental Centre. Since 2013, we have been providing support for the Honeyguide/ Honey gatherer
Research Project (Grupo Sego), an international team of researchers and local honey gathers from the
 University of Cape Town and Cambridge University (UK) lead by Prof Claire Spottiswoode. We have also
supported researchers from Princeton University, University of Lisbon as well as Mozambican researchers
completing Honours and Masters programs.

GOAL 2: Directly reduce threats and provide alternative livelihoods

ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOODS
• More than 200 households are involved in our alternative livelihoods programs in 7 villages including small
livestock breeding, beehives, craft and design and conservation agriculture.
• Livestock breeding program has 129 active households in 7 villages and are breeding ducks, rabbits, turkeys
and guineafowl with ducks the most successful.
• Three additional villages have asked for LBG programs and these will be implemented in 2018 – Erevuka,
Ntimbo 2 and Nampequesso.
• Fleas in livestock have been controlled through use of Fendona as well as more frequent visit to assess
hygiene and provide water baths for the ducks. NCP assisted SDAE with vaccination of poultry against
Newcastle’s disease. There is still a need for a reserve wide, consistent program and plan with roles and
responsibilities.
• Our conservation agriculture groups including farmer field school (19 local farmers) tested methods of natural
manure, mixed cropping, and ways to recover fallow fields. With the Mariri garden testing manure, new
crops, agroprocessing, and integrated farming. An indigenous tree nursery was started and knowledge was
shared with all visitors to Mariri Environmental Centre.
• We contracted a soil scientist to complete a soil analysis of active and abandoned fields in Ncuti and Mbamba
Village and bush areas. These results showed that the fields are low in Phosphorus, Potassium and Nitrogen
and that the problems with the parasitic plant, Striga which destroys maize are exacerbated by monoculture,
and unsustainable soil preparation that includes burning, tilling, no crop rotation and no mixed crops
(Mafalacusser, 2017, report available on request. These results have been shared.
• More than 200 beehives have been distributed to Mbamba village and 121 hives to Nkuti Village with a plan t
distribute another 80 hives to Nkuti by June 2018. These are used as beehive fences and as beekeeping to
protect natural habitats. The income derived from honey can be substantial. One farmer harvested 15 jars of
honey which he sold as elephant friendly honey for 5250Mt (USD90). This program continues to be
hampered by lack of maintenance of hives by beekeepers and theft and damage by others of the hives. Sale as
elephant friendly honey allows a major higher price to be charged for honey than local price for honey that is
collected from the bush (honey gathering). Demand still exceeds supply at present.
• Grupo Kushirika the craft and design group of 26 local artisans from Mbamba Village continued to improve
the quality of their products with initial international sales in 2017 totaling US$703 bringing income back into
the program. NCP buys products from the artisans and then sells them on. The 26 artisans earned US$4957 in
2017 for their products. Two international markets have been set up and these will be developed in the next
years as products improve. Additional buyers are visitors to Mariri Environmental Centre and Ecotourism
Camp.
REDUCE BUSHMEAT SNARING AND TRADE IN LION PARTS
• Our SMART Monitoring manager continued to train NNR, Chuilexi Conservancy and Luwire technicians in
implementation of SMART to ensure that accurate data on antipoaching efforts, illegal activities including
snaring and trade in lion parts is collected. Chuilexi and Luwire have made substantial improvements.
• Agostinho Jorge (C0nservation Manager) is on sabbatical writing up his PhD (“The Dynamics of bushmeat
hunting, trade and consumption in Niassa National Reserve”) at the University of Kwazulu Natal. Preliminary
results were shared with NNR management on the level of bushmeat currently moving through the the main
reserve control gate and being transported by taxis across various points of NNR into the urban centre,
Lichinga. We hope that management actions will be taken to provide better control at gates.
• Surveys identified that lions are third on the list of preferred species looked for by hunters at present. This is
linked to growing trade in lion parts and trinkets.
 REDUCE UNSUSTAINABLE SPORT HUNTING
• Annual auditing for the lion and leopard trophies taken as trophies by the sport hunting operators inside NNR
continued according to the NNR rules and regulations and recommendations were provided to ANAC.
• We analysed our data on the Lion Points System to reduce threat of underage sport hunting of lions and a
paper was published. (Begg et al, 2017, Journal of Applied Ecology).
REDUCE HUMAN CARNIVORE CONFLICT
• The Active WhatsApp group of all 35 community wildlife guardians across NNR, NNR community team, Luwire
community officer, Chuilexi Community officer and NCP community team managed by MOMS coordinator,
Horacio to provide real time reporting of human wildlife conflict to allow for quick response.
• We urgently request an agreed NNR problem animal protocol that guides decisions and actions when problem
animals are reported and ensure that all stakeholders- community, farmers, district government, Agriculture,
Guarda Fronteira, Environmental Police, NNR team, concession teams, etc. all understand and follow the same
procedure to prevent confusion and conflict.
• In total, 4098 human wildlife conflict events were reported on by the MOMS guardians from 33 villages, with the
majority of damage by baboons, bush pigs and warthogs to fields with elephant representing 13% of the reports.
The carnivore events across NNR and events in Mbamba Village were responded to by NCP the other conflict
was responded to by other community teams.
• Of the 18,543 animals causing conflict events reported over the past ten years between 2006 and 2016, only 4 %
were by carnivores (753 events). Ten carnivores have been reported to be causing problems across NNR with
Hyaenas, side striped jackal and leopard were the main culprits and were responsible for 56% of the events
reported.
• No-one was injured or killed by a lion, hyaena or leopard in 2017 as far as we are aware.
• No livestock was attacked or killed by lions, however 422 animals were killed largely by small carnivores (jackal,
genet, honey badger), monitor lizards and eagles. 81% of the livestock killed was chickens with the most serious
losses being 16 goats killed by hyaenas.
• In 2017, 17 safe shelters were built with the help of the guardians in 11 villages with an additional 15 effective
corrals built for goats 8 villages. Foxlights were distributed to all guardians to use in their toolkit to reduce
carnivore attacks on livestock.
• No “problem” carnivores were destroyed in 2017 in MOMS wildlife guardian villages as far as we are aware.

GOAL 3: Protected area management and community conservation

partnerships with revenue sharing and benefits based on
responsibilities
Benefit sharing and revenue generation

• A two-year Community Conservation Agreement (MOU) was signed between Mariri and Mbamba village in June 2018
building on previous agreements to partner together to secure concession L5South for conservation and tourism. This
agreement detailed benefits and responsibilities for both parties.
• Through this agreement, between June and December (6 months), 164 children who came to school received a meal a
day, US$ 7 401 was paid into the community conservation fund, and 173 people were hired in seasonal work for
conservation services for a total of 16641 worker days.
• The amount of money earned would have been double this if the agreement had been in place for the full year. In
addition, funds were subtracted for the 9 elephants killed, 18 fresh tusks recovered but elephant unaccounted for,
one dead lion and snares removed as per the performance payments.
• The agreement was temporarily suspended again in January 2018 for further negotiations following a letter of
accusation sent to the District Administrator detailing specific accusations against Mariri by the Traditional Chiefs and
Mbamba Committee. This letter was written immediately following the arrest of three Mbamba residents in
connection with a elephant poaching incident that happened in L7. The Committee and Traditional chiefs have
subsequently admitted in a minuted meeting with Mariri that none of the accusations are true, however they
maintain that they are “not able” to write a letter withdrawing the accusations as they will receive outside pressure.
Alternative solutions are being found so that we can move forward positively.
CONSERVATION TOURISM
• To increase revenue for Mbamba Village from conservation – through bed levies, employment, annual
refurbishment requiring thatching grass and construction works, food, visitor sightings and sale of crafts –
NCP developed and tested a model of conservation tourism in L5 South.
• The camp is built through philanthropic funds and is not investor driven to ensure that all funds generated go
immediately to Mbamba Village over the running costs.
• In 2016 and 2017, the Mpopo Trails Camp was developed and built costing $70,000. It consists of four tented
decks for 8 guests with a central refectory. It is a no cement, no running water, no electricity camp that is
extremely low impact, semi-permanent and built entirely from local materials by local artisans in the spirit of
the local safe shelter or “sanja” that people sleep in during the wet season in the fields. It has been well
received by initial visitors.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
• In L5-South, we have a law enforcement team of 55 people of which 30 are patrol scouts, 17 are control gate
scouts and 7 are in a rapid reaction team.
• In 2017, our scouts completed 212 patrols over 1954-man days covering 17826 km in both L5 South and eL4.
• One scout was tragically killed by an elephant on patrol – Fernando Allasima.
• We arrested 39 miners, 3 bushmeat poachers, recovered 138 rounds of ammunition, 76 snares and 38 elephant
tusks.
• There were 4 elephant poaching events with 9 dead elephants and 9 elephants unaccounted for (from ivory
recovered). In total we have lost 14 elephants in three years in L5 South which is a substantial decline in
elephant poaching since 2012 when we were losing more than 20 a year. At least 350 elephants are
frequently found inside L5 -South.

GOAL 4: To develop an environmental education and outreach

program for Niassa Reserve residents - Mariri Environmental and
Skills Training Centre
• Our Environmental education program has been in place since 2009. In 2015 the construction of the Mariri
Environmental centre was completed in L5-South to provide a base for our educational activities and allow for
bush visits by Niassa residents – in situ conservation tourism and education.
• More than 100 children and adults from local schools visit Mariri Environmental Centre for 4-day bush visits
and 900 have visited since we opened our doors in 2015.
• In 2017 we hosted and ran more than seven multi day workshops at Mariri which included MOMS wildlife
guardian annual training, fishing, teachers to distribute and learn how to use educational material,
development of wildlife clubs, law enforcement, first aid training, and conservation education workshop for
Mecula Government officials.
• We have developed a variety of educational materials which include the Niassa Conservation storybook, ABC
capulana, “Let’s talk about it” cards”, posters (safe behaviours, rabies and poison poster), documentaries and
short films.
• 19 Lion scholars were supported on secondary school scholarships by Mariri and 6 by Chuilexi Conservancy all
mentored through our education program as part of NCA.
• Three Mbamba students completing Grade 12 in 2017 and started further education in 2018 paid for by NCP.
In 2018, there are 40 Lion scholars jointly sponsored by Mariri and Chuilexi received lion scholarships for
2018.
 • We partnered with Still Standing to bring mini basketball and conservation, health and education messages to
250 children in 3 villages. Through this partnership Still Standing produced the Niassa Dreams Video
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOImQsESyoY&app=desktop) and won a merit award in 2018 for work
in conservation areas by Ministry of Sport and Culture
• Our 9th Annual Lion Fun Days reached 500 adults and children with games and theatre with a conservation
theme.

GOAL 5: Capacity building and awareness

• Our Conservation Manager, Agostinho Jorge is on paid sabbatical completing his PhD in Bushmeat
Consumption.
• SOS international completed a second first aid course for 18 local conservation staff from Mariri, Chuilexi
Conservancy, Luwire and NNR management.
• Monique Fagan trained 26 People in craft design and production.
• All scouts received one month (30 days) Basic and mentorship training from Conservation Outcomes in
November with additional training in the Conservation Law from the Reserve Warden.
• Hugo Pereira, our Community Manager completed a course in Conservation Peacebuilding (HWCC) in
Washington DC, USA.
• Five of our conservation and community team went on a trip to Ruaha Carnivore Project in Tanzania to learn
about their community incentive program, wildlife warriors, and conservation programs (Tomas Buruwate,
Hugo Pereira, Horacio Murico, Eusebio Waiti and Samuel.
• Director Colleen Begg was selected for a transformational, international leadership program, Homeward
Bound which aims to equip 1000 women in STEMM with increased leadership, strategy, visibility and
connections over the next 10 years, so that they can influence policy and action on Climate Change and
biodiversity conservation. She is part of the third cohort of 80 women scientists from across the word.
• The Niassa Lion Project Facebook page was regularly updated to ensure regular communication with donors
and friends of the project and reached more than 20,000 followers.
• We remain members of the African Lion Working group, IUCN Cat Specialist Group and Canid Specialist Group
and are part of the WCN Lion Recovery Fund (ww.lionrecovery.org) and continue as a founder and member of
the innovative Pride: Lion Conservation Alliance (www.pridealliance.org)
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreward ......................................................................................................................................................... 3
2017 At a Glance ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 11
Long term Goals (25 years) ........................................................................................................................... 12
Medium Term Goals (2017 - 2021) ............................................................................................................... 13
Management Structure and Approach ........................................................................................................... 15
Progress towards reaching Objectives and Goals ......................................................................................... 18
Objective 1: To improve and streamline the business and logistical management of NCP and its Mozambican
Entity, mariri investimentos ........................................................................................................................................................... 19
GOAL1: Conservation Monitoring of threats and status ................................................................................ 27
Objective 2: To provide long term monitoring of the status and threats to lions and other carnivores to assess our
effectiveness and allow us to adaptively manage change. ................................................................................................. 27
Objective 3: To involve communities in wildlife monitoring and conservation throughout NNR though MOMS
Community Wildlife Guardian program. ................................................................................................................................. 43
GOAL 2- DIRECTLY REDUCE THREATS AND PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOODS ................................... 53
Objective 4: To develop alternative protein sources to reduce reliance on bushmeat and snaring and provide an
income for household necessities ................................................................................................................................................ 54
Objective 5: To develop ways to increase food security, reduce habitat destruction, and increase alternative
livelihoods (conservation agriculture, beehive fences, conservation tourism and Grupo Kushirika).............................. 64
Objective 6: To reduce bushmeat snaring and other illegal activities and provide alternative employment
opportunities through effective antipoaching. ......................................................................................................................... 77
THREAT 2: RETALIATORY KILLING DUE TO ATTACKS ON PEOPLE OR LIVESTOCK ..................................... 89
Objective 7: To reduce human-carnivore Conflict through living fences, safe shelters and safe behaviours............ 89
THREAT 3: UNSUSTAINABLE SPORT HUNTING ............................................................................................. 94
Objective 8: To ensure sport hunting of lions and leopards in NNR is sustainable and meets conservation objectives.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 94
GOAL 3: PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIPS (L5South
possibly L4) ................................................................................................................................................... 97
Objective 11: Development of community based model of conservation Management IN l5-south .......................... 97
GOAL 4: TO DEVELOP AN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND OUTREACH PROGRAM FOR NIASSA
RESIDENTS – MARIRI ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTRE............................. 108
Objective 10: To develop a community outreach and environmental education program in NNR that increases
tolerance and reduces conflict and provides niassa residents with locally relevant conservation material ............. 108
(Program managed by Andrew Mkanage in collaboration with Chuilexi Conservancy .............................................. 123
GOAL 5- CAPACITY BUILDING, TRIANING AND AWARENESS TO INCREASE SUPPORT FOR CONSERVATION IN
MOZAMBIQUE ............................................................................................................................................ 129
Objective 12: Mentor, guide and train Mozambican conservationists and staff and improve our skills ................ 129
Objective 13: Increase awareness of NCP work and importance of Niassa National Reserve to a broader
audience both nationally and internationally ........................................................................................................................ 130
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................... 132
FINANCIAL REPORT .................................................................................................................................... 134
LONG TERM GOALS (25 YEARS)
All NCP activities are achieved in collaboration with local communities, Niassa Reserve Management Authority and
tourism operators. Our vision is a unique wilderness of Niassa National Reserve where lions and other carnivores
continue to persist with the full participation and support of Niassa’s local people.

Goal 1: To work in parternship with the NNR management team to secure

ecologically stable leopard. spotted hyaena, wild dog and lion population in Niassa
Reserve, with at least 1000-2000 lion with no concomitant increase in carnivore attacks
on livestock and no unprovoked attacks on people from lions or other large carnivores.
This will require reducing all current threats to carnivores in Niassa Reserve-bushmeat
snaring, attacks, trade, disease and underage sport hunting.

Goal 2: To develop and test alternative livelihoods for Niassa's people that create
legal opportunities for income generation, skills training and increase food security with
more than 500 households involved in alternative livelihoods through NCP and models of
colalboration shared with other NNR partners.

Goal 3: To develop a legally binding, sustainable conservation partnership between

the local community and Niassa Carnivore Project to manage the Mariri- L5-South
concession, (580km2) inside Niassa National Reserve as the first community based
conservation area in Niassa Reserve, with stable wildlife populations, decreased illegal
activities and increasing revenue sharing and benefits for the Mbamba Village
community to support conservation friendly development.

Goal 4: To develop a locally relevant, sustainable environmental education and skills

training program for Niassa residents centered around the Mariri Environmental and
Skills Training Centre to promote conservation, health and education and ways to
coexist with large carnivores through bushvisits, widlife clubs, sport, educational
matierials with at least 300 -500 people visiting or attending courses at the Mariri
Environmental Centre per year and a measurable increase in tolerance towards large
carnivores and knowledge of conservation.

Goal 5: To improve the awareness of conservation issues and NCP both nationally
and internationally and actively support the training and mentorship of our team and
other Mozambican conservationships to help to create a conservation culture in
Mozambique
MEDIUM TERM GOALS (2017 - 2021)
For each goal we have identified targets and indicators where possible. It is important to bear in mind that this is a
rapidly changing environment and these are moving targets as more information is collected and priorities change.
For example, three years ago alluvial mining, poisoning and trade in lion parts were not major threats in Niassa
Reserve.

Medium term goals Targets (progress)

Goal 1- Conservation monitoring • Systematic monitoring of lions and hyaenas through call up
survey to monitor trend in population density every 3 years
Provide long term (> 20 years) monitoring of (2005, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2018. 2021). (ONGOING- next survey
the status of lions, leopards, spotted hyaena in 2018)
• MOMS wildlife guardians in place in 80% of villages collecting
and African wild dog and their threats in Niassa
ongoing information on human-wildlife conflict, morality of
Reserve to assess the trend in their populations carnivores, domestic dogs, wild dog pack sizes and provide
and the success of interventions. assistance to communities on ways to reduce conflict
(COMPLETED- ONGOING ACTIVITY)
• Provide ongoing monitoring of illegal mortality of large
canrivores collected from all sources to monitor threats and
ongoing risk (ONGOING, Database maintained by NCP)
• Provide support and training to ensure implementation of
SMART across entire NNR. (ONGOING, model developed and
technicians receiving ongoing training in NNR, Chuilexi, Luwire
by Mariri where it is fully operational)
• Long term permanent camera trapping program in place
across Niassa Reserve in partnership with NNR team to assess
carnivore populations and their prey with effective, ongoing
labelling, data entry and analysis through citizen science
platform, SNAPSHOT SAFARI. (SNAPSHOT MARIRI online for
2016 and 2017 data – ONGOING)
• Monitoring of mortality of lions when dispersing from L5 South
and movements across the Mecula- Mussoma corridor to
integrate into landuse planning and conservation
management of Lion at NNR level (5 dispersing males have
been collared with satellite collars; additional 5 collars
purchased for corridor lions in 2018

• No people killed by lion, leopard or spotted hyaena in Niassa

Reserve in unprovoked attacks (2020) and no increasing trend
Goal 2- Reduce threats & implement alternative in attacks on livestock by training in safe behaviours a safe
livelihoods shelter with fox lights and goat corrals. (ONGOING- education
materials in place, attacks have decreased)
To directly reduce the five major threats to • A rapid response team with a vet with correct training,
lions and other carnivores in NNR (retaliatory equipment and quick response time in place to respond to
killing, snaring, disease and sport hunting of large carnivores caught in bushmeat snares and still alive.
underage individuals) by finding and (Team, Vet, aircraft in place). -
• Protocol in place and training provided to ensure poisoning
implementing practical, sustainable and
events are responded to quickly and effectively in
effective solutions and alternative livelihoods collaboration with NNR team. (To be done)
in collaboration with local communities and • Effective communication network to ensure that all attacks by
Mozambican government and NNR carnivores to livestock and people responded to by wildlife
management authority. guardians, Reserve staff or NCP staff within one week to
empathize, help provide solutions and collect detailed
information (Ongoing- effective MOMS wildlife guardian
 WhatsApp group linked to NNR community team, Chuilexi,
Luwire, and Mariri community team).
• Domestic dog numbers stable in Niassa Reserve with NCP
continuing to motivate and support a zoning and vaccination
plan in place for domestic dogs inside Niassa Reserve with NNR
team (Ongoing- need action for NNR).
• Continued strictly enforced regulations for lion and leopard
sport hunting with offtake of lions and leopards stable or
decreasing with increasing proportion of “old” animals taken
as trophies (Ongoing independent auditing but some
irregularities in 2017 not dealt with by NNR.
• No lions and leopards snared in intensive study area (L5-South)
(2014) and wire snaring reduced across NNR as measured by
SMART. (Ongoing – lion trinket trade is merging threat)
• Increase the number of households involved in alternative
livelihoods programs to > 500 with increasing income
(Elephant friendly honey, small livestock, craft and design -
Grupo Kushirika). (Ongoing, currently 250 households in 5
villages)

Goal 3- Community based mangement and • Ungulate and carnivore populations in L5S stable or increasing.
(Increasing currently)
revenue sharing in L5 South only
• Elephant poaching decreasing compared to 2010 - 2012 levels.
To develop a model of community-based (Decreased to 1-2 a year until 2017 when it increased again,
ongoing work)
management of an area that results in effective
• Human-wildlife conflict continues to decrease. (Decreasing)
protection of wildlife and wild habitats while • Illegal mining stable or decreasing compared to 2016 level.
increasing income and opportunities for (Decreased substantially in 2017)
communities that reside within the area (L5S • Bushmeat snaring decreasing (decreased substantially).
and possibly eastern L4) that will have broader • Mbamba village receives regular and increasing sustainable
applicability across Niassa Reserve and benefits and revenues with clear rights and responsibilities for
elsewhere. both parties through an ongoing legal agreement (Income has
tripled but agreement currently suspended due to false
accusations from village about Mariri).
• Initiate effective ecotourism model in L5S to increase
sustainable income for Mbamba Village and generate ongoing
employment for local people. (Mpopo camp ready to be
opened in 2018, awaiting license after testing of model in
2017)

Goal 4- Environmental education and outreach - • Mariri Environmental Centre and educational outreach
program fully operational with at least 100 children/ year (10
Mariri ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE
schools) attending a bush visit 4 days per year. (Ongoing and
To increase tolerance for conservation and operational)
• At least 3 skills training workshops for adults at Mariri per year
promote coexistence through environmental
as determined by need of NNR community and management
education, outreach and skills training. (as needed etc.). (Ongoing and operational)
• Partnership with Still Standing strengthened to bring
messages of conservation and health to communities inside
NNR through basketball (Ongoing – partnered in 2015, 2017,
2018, assisting with fundraising and messaging)
• Monitoring of effectiveness of environmental programs in
place to assess increase in tolerance and knowledge (App
developed in 2017, in place to monitor effectiveness in 2018).
 • At least 10 Wildlife Clubs operational in at least 10 villages in
Mecula District (3 operational, curriculum and packs
developed) .
• At least 25 Lion scholars - secondary school scholarships
provided to deserving scholars in schools in eastern NNR.
(Total of 40 children on Lion scholar program in 2018 with
Chuilexi sponsoring half; two students who completed Grade
12 are receiving additional support for University and other
courses).

Goal 5- capacity building and awareness • Provide ongoing on site, off site and exchange training
opportunities for at least 5 of our permanent staff each yea
To increase training of our team and support, (Ongoing -in 2017 5 went to Ruaha Carnivore Project, Capture
mentor and train Mozambican conservationists Course, Peacebuilding Course, Homeward Bound).
and increase awareness of our activities, lion • Engage at National and International Level through
conservation issues and approach both partnerships, presentations and assistance to share
knowledge and experiences (To be initiated in 2018).
Nationally and Internationally.
• Initiate a field, nonpaid internship program for at least 3
Mozambican conservationists/ students per year to provide
experience in field conservation. (To be initiated 2019)
• Support at least two Mozambican students in postgraduate
degrees in conservation (A. Jorge is currently completing his
PhD, additional students to be identified)

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE AND APPROACH

Colleen and Keith Begg founded The Ratel Trust (TRT) a South African not for profit conservation trust in 2004 to
support their conservation work in Africa. TRT is managed by three trustees, Colleen and Keith Begg and Stephen
Clark. In 2017, the not for profit trust was transitioned to a not for profit company, TRT Conservation Foundation for
administrative reasons. The Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) is a project of TRT Conservation Foundation. NCP works
across NNR to secure and monitor large carnivores, implement environmental education program, and provide
independent auditing of the large carnivore trophies that are sport hunted under an MOU with the Reserve
Management team. We also have a 15 year renewable contract with ANAC to directly manage a concession (L5-South
(580km2) in eastern Niassa Reserve. We have set up a Mozambican company, Mariri Investimentos to govern our
conservation work, fulfil all legal requirements and provide long term security for our permanent staff. Our not for
profit is the 75% shareholder in the company with our staff holding the remaining 25% shareholding. Given the costs
of conservation, no overall profits or dividends are expected. The headquarters of NCP and the Mariri Environmental
and Skills training Centre are based in L5-South. This area has also been our long term intensive study area since 2003
and our testing ground for new programs. Annual financial reports for TRT are provided by FSG Consulting. All our
financial systems are overseen by Lisette Gelber from Nomad Consulting who oversees our financial report and
bookkeeping system while mentoring our Mozambican team. SEG Accountants and CVA lawyers based in Lichinga
oversee our human resources, tax, and accounting requirements for Mariri Investimentos.

Our long-term strategy for lion conservation in Niassa Reserve is to develop a holistic model of community
engagement with practical solutions to reduce threats and conflict and increase food security that can be sustainably
implemented across NNR with local partners as well as provide excellent, monitored antipoaching to decrease illegal
offtake. We don’t have a community program, we ARE a community program with local communities involved in
every aspect of our work from antipoaching to conservation education and monitoring. We base our conservation
actions on sound targeted research and monitoring to provide baselines against which actions can be measured and
to find and implement locally based solutions for each threat in turn. We intend to work with the Reserve
Management team and Reserve administrator to scale up successful programs one village at a time across Niassa
Reserve although collaboration has been challenging. Further afield information is disseminated to wider conservation
community through the social and scientific media, African Lion Working Group, Cat specialist Group and Canid
Specialist Group. Colleen Begg is also a founding member of Pride Lion Conservation Alliance (a collaboration of lion
projects in East Africa; www.pridelionalliance.org); on the granting committee of the Lion Recovery Fund, Wildlife
Conservation Network (www.lionrecovery.org) and as part of a growing international scientific leadership initiative,
called Homeward Bound that aims to unite and train 1000 women in science (www.homewardbound.org).
HUMAN RESOURCES AND EMPLOYMENT
We have a permanent conservation team of 103 people of which 3 are expats (Keith and Colleen Begg , the Director/
Founders and Ken Harmen (Workshop trainer and Manager. The rest of our team are Mozambicans. The majority of
our permanent team are from villages within Niassa Reserve (80%) with most from the Mecula District (77%, N=79).
An additional 236 local people (men and women) were hired as seasonal workers in conservation services
(construction, roads, airstrips, gardening) in 2017 all from local communities within the Mecula District. We also pay
stipends to 35 part time community wildlife guardians that are based in their home villages. In 2017, we initiated
work in eastern L4 as agreed with NNR management contingent on MOU being signed for 2018. In this area, there are
seven villages and we provided work to 59 people from these villages to open roads and build the eL4 scout bases.

In L5S alone, as part of our agreement with Mbamba Village we commit to provide seasonal dry season work in
conservation services for at least 80 people for 6 months (14400 work days). In 2017, the Mbamba Comite and Chiefs
of Mbamba asked for work to be provided for 3-month period for two groups of 80 people to increase households
receiving some cash income. In 2017, we provided seasonal work for 177 men and women from Mbamba Village.

In total 206 people from Mbamba village which lies inside L5 South were hired as either permanent or seasonal staff in
2017. There are approximately 420 households in Mbamba. Conservation through Mariri/ NCP is therefore providing a
significant source of employment for this village.

Home villages of Mariri Permanent Staff (n =103) with 79 from Mecula District inside NIassa Reserve
Home villages of Mariri Seasonal staff in 2017 (n =236) all from villages within Mecula District, inside Niassa Reserve.

Employment provides a critical individual benefit from conservation and was a critical need identified by communities.
We are committed to finding work in conservation services as a legal alternative livelihood for local people. For seasonal
staff, men and women are only sourced from the villages within the concessions where the work is taking place to
provide an incentive for conservation and an alternative to illegal livelihoods (poaching, mining, snaring). It is impossible
for us to hire everyone, however this employment creates a local economy with a significant effect on generating
secondary work through salaries being spent in local shops, for local services and markets. This trickledown effect should
not be underestimated.

Table 1: Our team – Niassa Carnivore Project team

Essential staff (minimum) Basic Job Description Permanent employees Seasonal
employees

Expats National Local Local

Managing Director Fiscal management, work plans, overall conservation and 1 (RSA)
community development strategy, mentorship, training, regional
and international collaboration, fundraising and donor
engagement, scientific oversight of monitoring and reporting,
oversight and co-ordination of all programs, particularly
community, conservation monitoring and environmental
education.

Operations Director Pilot, Overall conservation and community development strategy, 1 (RSA)
on site donor development, fundraising, logistics, procurement,
infrastructure, protected area management, with particular focus
on management of antipoaching teams, development of
ecotourism, infrastructure and logistics.

Conservation Manager Monitoring and Research , ensuring that all programs are 1
effectively monitored to feed back through adaptive management,
fire management, SMART monitoring of scouts, camera trapping.
Overall Manager on Charge duties, mentorship and leadership.
Currently on sabbatical writing up PhD.

Community Manager and Overall Manager on Charge duties, mentorship and leadership. 1 3
Vet and his team Implementation of all alternative livelihoods (Except Kushirika)
and community conservation partnerships. Skills development of
Association member, mapping of communities. As a vet –
 assistance with lion collaring, vaccinations of livesctock and
poultry, health of livestock, carnivore conflict.

Operations Manager and his Senior Manager in charge of all programs and Mariri HQ, logistics, 1 25 80 people for 6
team workshop, camps, HR and Administrations, infrastructure, months – 14400
protected area management, ecotourism, leadership and work days
mentorship. Additional roles for biodiversity monitoring around
Mariri, identification of ecotourism sites and biodiversity hotspots
and Mariri market garden and horticulture. .

Education Manager and his Overall Manager on Charge duties, mentorship and leadership. 1 2
team Leads all environmental Education programs including bushvisits
and workshops at Mariri, wildlife clubs, basketball for
conservation, lion fund days, Lion Scholars and development of
educational materials. Collaboration with NNR education team. ,

Workshop Manager and his Head of workshop and all repairs and training of mechanics under 1 (RSA) 4
team Operations Manager

Head of Antipoaching and Security, intelligence mentorship, training, data logging under 1 47
his team Conservation Manager and Operations Director

SMART Monitoring Monitoring – SMART, antipoaching, camera trapping, fire, animal 1 7

Coordinator densities under Conservation Manager and Operations Director

MOMS Wildlife Guardian MOMS wildlife Guardians program which collects data on human 1 1 35 stipends/ part-
Coordinator and his team wildlife conflict, mortality, fishing and sightings as well as reduce time
threats through extension work

HR and Finances HR and Bookkeeping, correspondence, salaries etc. 2

Ecotourism Mpopo trails camp (8 beds, 4 decks) 5

Total 3 7 95 115

PROGRESS TOWARDS REACHING OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

Linked to our medium-term goals we identified specific objectives in our 2017 work plan. Here we present our
progress in 2017, our failures, challenges and successes measured against these objectives and activities. On some
levels we made significant progress on our own objectives but overall, we suffered from the lack of clear governance
of Niassa Reserve and growing lawlessness and insecurity inside NNR and across northern Mozambique. Illegal
poaching of elephants increased, as did the trade in lion parts and trinkets and illegal mining. The lack of clarity over
the governance of Niassa National Reserve and poor collaboration and transparency made implementation of
community partnerships and scaling up complicated. For example, we had to pull out of eastern L4 after initiation of
activities as the MOU was not signed after repeated assurances that it would be. We cannot work in this area without
a mandate. At present it is hard to see a long term mechanism for success in NNR unless governance is improved and
laws are implements. These larger issues are not under our control.
 OBJECTIVE 1: TO IMPROVE AND STREAMLINE THE BUSINESS AND LOGISTICAL MANAGEMENT OF NCP AND
ITS MOZAMBICAN ENTITY, MARIRI INVESTIMENTOS
We believe that long term programs are the most effective, particularly because of the levels of trust and respect that
are needed to work effectively with local communities and local Government, the need to develop the capacity and
skills of our staff and the need to provide ongoing assessment of our actions to minimize unforeseen consequences.
We are committed to building a motivated and capable Mozambican team with the leadership, management and
conservation tools they need to be effective. In addition, while our overall mission is conservation our internal
mission is also to build a team and culture that is ethical, productive and supports our staff with training and
mentorship at all levels.

2017 Activities and outputs

• We continued with daily morning meetings and general staff meetings to create a shared sense of purpose
and identity. In 2017, we continued to focus on mentorship and growth of our middle management team.
• Lisette, Gelber, from Nomad Consulting, continued to join us for a month a year to assist with onsite skills
training for Rachide in accounting / bookkeeping, refine our accounting systems and align our reporting
needs with those of the Lichinga accounting company and to assist with the end of year NCP financial report
which requires us to put together two sets of books (Mariri Investimentos and TRT).
• TRT was completely transitioned into TRT Conservation Foundation with all approvals obtained.
• We hired an Executive Assistant, Sam Worsley for two years to assist with administration and bookkeeping for
TRT CF, ongoing donor database management, procurement of equipment and additional tasks as needed.
This we hope will take the day to day load off the Directors.
• We continue to try and improve collaboration with the reserve team through the GDA alliance (Wildlife
Conservation Society, NCA partners and NNR management) and with other concessions through the Niassa
Conservation Alliance to ensure that ideas are shared and conservation more effective. Collaboration and
communication with the NNR team remains complicated and inconsistent.
• Ken Harmen returned for the second of his two years for 8 months of the year to continue to train our
mechanics and assist with ongoing maintenance,
• Significant progress was made with infrastructure and staff accommodation and all major construction is now
complete (see section below).
Challenges

• Skills in reporting, accounting and human resources continue to be a challenge particularly since our team has
now grown to 100. Additional staff are needed to assist Rachide, particularly with all the contracts for seasonal
staff and it might not be possible to find the level of expertise needed at local level.
• Very few of our local staff are conservationists and understand and believe in conservation; they simply have their
first job. We need to ensure that we provide additional experiences and training in conservation to build a team of
conservationists. This takes time and will be done through on-site training and discussions as well as offsite field
trips to other conservation areas and teams. We believe this is essential for the long term stability and
sustainability of the project and is an ongoing need.
• While we have been successful at attracting slighting more multiple year donations and are managing to maintain
donations required, we still have too few donors over the $100,000 mark or in the $50,000-$100,000. With a
budget of over USD 1, 200,000 it is essential that we find and nurture 2-3 more high end donors who believe in
our mission and activities to stabilize our donor network and make it more sustainable.
• We have three positions that need to be filled in administration, education and monitoring to ensure we can cope
with the level of activities required in these areas. Accommodation will need to be built for them as all staff have
to live on site.
• Collaboration with other partners inside NNR continues to be a major problem as there is a lack of transparency,
and trust.

INFRASTRUCTURE
MARIRI AIRSTRIP
The Mariri airstrip (plans below) was identified and cleared in collaboration with Reserve Headquarters in 2012. It is
currently operational and has been partially surfaced for all weather access. It is situated behind the Mariri
Environmental and Skills training Centre in front of Mangoma Mountain in L5-South, concession.

Progress in 2017:

• In 2016, in a process lead by the NNR management team, technicians from Aviation Authority visited the
airstrip to provided recommendations on what needed to be improved before the airstrip could be registered.
• All the recommended changes were made and “saibru” was laid on the airstrip to make it all weather. Only
local labour was used to provide employment.
• Our aircraft (HuskyA1) was fully operational in 2017 and was used for 5 casevacs in 2017 as wel as surveys,
antipoaching patrols and logistics (bringing in salaries). It has significantly increased the safety of our team.

Challenges
• Despite the airstrip now having met all the requirements, we are still waiting for registration of the airstrip.
This is being coordinated by the Reserve Management team but has been stalled for more than a year. This
was again identified as an urgent issue in December 2017 at a Niassa Reserve Management Committee
Meetings. No reasons have been given for the delays.

Eastern approach = S 12.17037 E 38.09366

Western approach = S 12.17166 E 38.08599
Elevation 253 meters
 Meeting the requirements for registration of the Mariri airstrip in 2017 and final image of the complete airstrip with
markings, hangar, and rapid reaction scout team camp. This airstrip lies directly behind the Mariri Environmental Centre
and is perfectly placed for tourism and for emergency situations.
ROADS
In 2017, we opened 4 new roads and maintained 8 roads in L5 South. We re-opened the Ncuti / Mbamba district road
(12km), wet season road (36 km) and upgraded the existing concession roads, widening and removing stumps (44km)
and putting in mitre drains. Further ring roads along the Msangezi River and inselbergs were completed to allow for
more game drives for environmental centre game drives and initiation of ecotourism in 2017. In addition, 58km of
new access roads in eL4 were opened in 2017. All roads are opened by hand and provide a significant source of
employment.

We were requested to rehabilitate the district road between Mbamba and Macalange by the District Administrator of
Mecula. This was achieved

Road team employed by Mariri / NCP to fix district road on behalf of the District Administrator of Mecula. Both men
and women from local teams work on our roads teams.
MARIRI ENVIRONMENTAL AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTRE AND HEADQUARTERS (2012-2017)
S12.17780; E38.09151

Between 2012 and 2015 we built the Mariri Environmental and Skills training centre (M.E.C) to serve all Niassa
residents. This also serves as the HQ of the Niassa Carnivore Project and Mariri (which manages the concession). The
aim of the Mariri Environmental and Skills Training Centre (M.E. C) is to provide a field venue for bush visits by adults
and children to see animals, visit conservation programs and hold locally relevant community and skills training
workshops. The M.E.C opened in August 2015 and has been fully operational in 2016 to 2018. This centre supports
ongoing overnight visits by children and adults from inside NNR for bush vists and conservation courses as well as
provides logistical support to researchers conducting work inside NIassa National Reserve. The majority of
infrastructure has been completed; further cottages might be required in future given the demand to come and visit.
• The Mariri Environmental and Skills training Centre currently consist of 5 visitor cottages which can sleep 19
people, with an additional two guest cottages for skills trainers (4 beds) a kitchen, scullery, refectory where 50-60
people can eat or meet, library, showers, toilets.
• In 2017 we also completed a craft and design work room (Grupo Kushirika), honey bottling store, and small shop
to sell crafts to visitors.
• The M.E.C also operates as a model conservation farm as we continue to develop an extensive vegetable garden,
set up model goat corral, example of a safe sleeping shelter (Sanja), elephant beehive fence, rabbit hutches etc.
so that all visitors are able to see examples of our alternative livelihoods programs.

MARIRI / NCP HEADQUARTERS is based at the Environmental centre to ensure environmental education and
conservation are tightly linked and not separate activities.

• The Mariri HQ consists of a reception area with office for 8, two antipoaching offices, food storeroom, fully
equipped workshop with three storerooms for ecotourism, fuel and food as well as three containers. There is
an extensive vegetable garden.
• Staff accommodation consists of 5 staff blocks (15 rooms with 36 beds), two rooms at kitchen (4 beds), five
cottages (6 beds) and three manager houses (4 beds) supporting 50 conservation staff.
 • In 2017, an additional three-room block was built for permanent staff with wash basins. A thatch roof was
replaced in senior staff house (after 6 years). Two additional septic tanks were build one for public toilet at
office and the other for junior staff toilet. A toilet was constructed at the workshop. A basketball / volleyball
court was constructed at Mariri Environmental Centre for staff and visiting school groups.
• In 2017, the workshop was extended with a car wash, toilet for staff at the workshop and roofed shed for
storing thatching grass were built.

Development of the Mariri garden continued with a total of 164 indigenous trees grown from seed planted within
Mariri surrounds and an indigenous tree nursery set up near the vegetable garden. All staff and visitors planted a
tree.

Indigenous tree planting

Library and reception

 Refectory Student cottages

GUEST ACCOMMODATION AT MARIRI ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE

Three guest Cottages (6 beds) and one deck with Mozzie dome tent have been completed for visiting trainers,
researchers, filmmakers and overflow from the Environmental centre. Meals are provided in the central refectory with
all our staff. Food and accommodation is charge with a bed night fee of Mt1600 per person per night to the Mbamba
Community Conservation Fund.

MPOPO TRAILS CAMP

We completed construction of four tented decks (8 beds) and central refectory with showers and dry toilets at Mpopo
hippo pool. As laid out in our 5-year business plan (2012-2016) for concession L5 South, in 2016 NCP / Mariri initiated
development of a sustainable nature-based tourism business to direct revenue from tourism to Mbamba Village inside
L5 South and potentially offset some of the community conservation costs. This semi-permanent, locally designed and
crafted camp is made entirely from local materials by local artisans and construction team with no cement, running
water or electricity. (see section on conservation tourism – in Goal 4) .
ANTIPOACHING CAMPS AND CONTROL POSTS
An additional 4 rooms were constructed at the Mariri airstrip for our law enforcement manager and senior scouts as
well as storerooms in 2017. This main scout base can now accommodate 15 scouts, 1 dedicated land rover, aircraft. A
kitchen, mess room, ablutions and boxing fitness training area are also available at this base.

MBAMBA SCOUT POST AND CONTROL GATE (COMPLETED 2015)

The Mbamba River scout post and control gate were completed in 2015 providing permanent accommodation and
shelter for two scouts that are responsible for controlling traffic into the wildlife area.

Mbamba scout post with sleeping quarters for 2 scouts and a boom gate

CHANGAWE SCOUT POST AND CONTROL GATE (COMPLETED 2013)

This was completed in 2013 in partnership with Chuilexi Conservancy. This control post has one scout from Mariri and
one scout from Chuilexi on permanent duty to control traffic into the norther sections of our concessions on our all-
weather roads, with three times daily radio contact.
NAMAJATI SCOUT CAMP AND CONTROL POSTS IN EL4 (2017)
In October 2017, permission was granted for Mariri to initiate activities in eL4 ahead of the signing of a five
year MOU for Mariri/ NCP to manage the area which is currently open and heavily poached and mined. Full
implementation of our business plan was due to start in January 2018.

As part of our commitment a new scout base in the middle of eL4 was built at “Namajati”. Permission to start
construction was delayed by the reserve authority and only started in November after approval was obtained for the
plans. This new base camp provides essential support to the scout teams operating in eL4, particularly those patrols in
the LiSimba / Makotwa area a major poaching area. The base consists of 4 buildings which include 1 kitchen, 1 mess
area, 1 store, 1 operations room and accommodation for 11 scouts. 3 new control posts have been positioned along
the main access routes in L4-E. 53 kilometers of new roads in eL4 have been developed to improve access.

Unfortunately, the signing of the MOU was then delayed in December and again in January and we have had to pull
out of eL4 as we do not have a mandate to be there. After 2.5 years of effort and the initial request coming from the
NNR management team for us to manage this area to get the poaching under control there was no commitment to
sign. We wrote a letter stating that the 25th of January was the deadline for the signing This did not happen so we
pulled out our teams. This wasted our time, efforts and lead to a loss of confidence and morals in our donors and team.
No reasons have bene given for the delays and it seems counter to all conservation advice.

Namajati scout base built in 2017 and handed over to Niassa Reserve management in January 2018.
CONSTRUCTION IN MBAMBA VILLAGE (2012-2017)
As part of our community partnership construction is ongoing. In 2013/2014 we built the Mosque, in 2015/2016
Mbamba Association Office. In 2017 we refurbished the school and dug a well to provide drinking water for the
school and for emergency water supply for community given that two water pumps are not working.
NAKATOPI CAMP
A second simple, grass and tent camp is used by Directors (Colleen and Keith Begg) and lion research team at
Nakatopi. This camp consists of simple small tents with thatched office area, sand floors (no cement). There are no
plans to upgrade this bush camp. It is designed to be very ecologically friendly, low footprint and blend into the bush.
CONSTRUCTION PHILOSOPHY OF MARIRI INVESTIMENTOS
 • Our philosophy is to use local people, local materials and local techniques wherever possible.
• All buildings have been built by local men and women largely from Mbamba Village to provide ongoing
employment and skills training as part of providing employment from conservation services.
• Most men employed did not have prior building skills. They were trained on the job as part of a skills training
course and have been provided with certificates for skills acquired to allow them to find other employment.
Four men trained during the building of the Environmental have been hired as permanent staff for ongoing
maintenance and to lead future construction products. One man trained by Mariri is currently working on
Mbatamila construction program (Madrasse)
• Some Master builders have used their salaries to buy the tools necessary for them to be completely
independent.
• All main buildings for permanent structures (except for Changawe post) have been built using Eco blocks
(locally produced bricks with low amounts of cement).
• Most the buildings are thatched using local grasses to ensure an ongoing livelihood for local women. More
than 400 local women from Mbamba and Macalange Villages have received an income from collecting and
cleaning local grasses. These roofs will need to be replaced on an ongoing basis.
• Large timber requirements have been sourced outside of Niassa Reserve either through planks bought in
Pemba with appropriate permits or furniture constructed at a Mozambican sustainable forestry (all bunkbeds,
tables and couches).
• Wherever possible we use local skills adapted for our needs to support local economy – blinds, benches,
screens, pottery.
• Nakatopi camp and Mpopo ecotourism camp are semi-permanent, no cement camps with dry toilets, no
electricity or sewage built entirely of local materials.

GOAL1: CONSERVATION MONITORING OF THREATS AND STATUS

OBJECTIVE 2: TO PROVIDE LONG TERM MONITORING OF THE STATUS AND THREATS TO LIONS AND OTHER
CARNIVORES TO ASSESS OUR EFFECTIVENESS AND ALLOW US TO ADAPTIVELY MANAGE CHANGE.
Wildlife and socioecological Monitoring is essential to assess threats and monitor effectiveness. We do monitoring at
two scales – across Niassa Reserve and within our community-based conservation concession L5-South. Key indicators
have been identified for threats to the large carnivores (these are summarized in the table below) that are monitored
on an ongoing basis to provide trends. These data are fed into larger datasets for biodiversity conservation that are
collected by the Reserve management team (livelihoods, habitat transformation, prey population through aerial
census etc.).

Indicator Threat How it is measured and scale

Attacks by carnivores on people Retaliatory NNR – monitored by MOMS wildlife guardians,

and livestock killing Reserve team and NCP team.

Mortality of carnivores (snaring, All NNR – collated by NCP from data collected by
poisoning, sport hunting, wildlife guardians, concession operators,
retaliatory) informer network, radiocollared lions

Population trend in lions and All NNR - through call up survey groundtruthed
hyaenas through intensive monitoring in L5-South.

Population trend and All NNR- wildlife guardians, opportunistic sightings

distribution of wild dogs of pack – we use pack size as well as individual
recognition in L5-South.
 Population trend in leopard All Camera trap surveys in key sites with data
analysed though Citizen Science -SNAPSHOT
MARIRI

Sport hunting offtake, age of Sport hunting All of Niassa Reserve through monitoring and
trophies and efforts aging of all lion, leopard, trophies.

Snares removed; bushmeat Bushmeat SMART for antipoaching developed for whole
poachers apprehended; snaring NNR but currently only operational in L5-South;
bushmeat sales and and partially in Chuilexi Conservancy and Luwire.
consumption Detailed data collected for PhD by A. Jorge on
bushmeat consumption and trade.

Domestic dog population; blood Disease Across NNR through wildlife guardian program;
samples of carnivores; disease blood samples collected from sport hunted
outbreak trophies and animals that are immobilized.

Increase in tolerance and All threats Mecula District -Mariri Environmental Centre
knowledge through targeted app developed to assess activities, tolerance and
Environmental education knowledge before and after visits to Mariri
Environmental Centre

Households involved in All threats Number of households involved; income

alternative livelihoods generated

L5-South community partnership

only

Revenue sharing All threats Number of individual benefits through

employment (income, worker days, households);
community benefits (USD$ income into
Conservation Fund, children fed; what funds
provided from what source); households
involved

Wildlife numbers All threats Road strip transects to count impala, waterbuck,
warthog, kudu, hippo, lion against 2005 baseline
in L5-South; SMART antipoaching records for
sightings; radiocollared lions; individual
recognition, cameratraps in grid format analysed
through Citizen Science – Snapshot Mariri.

The lions in the intensive study area have been monitored since 2005 using individual recognition of individuals (scars,
freckle patterns) and wherever possible radio collars. The aims of radio collaring are to assess density, mortality,
turnover, cub recruitment, movement patterns around people and density. We do not do pure research. These data
are used to ground truth and validate the reserve wide call up survey and to assess whether our community programs
are having a positive effect. It was through these data that we were able to prove that bushmeat snaring is the major
threat to lions in NNR causing direct mortality to lions, rapid turnover in pride males and infanticide in cubs. In this
section we provide information on our wildlife monitoring with other data presented under the wildlife guardian or
antipoaching programs
CONSERVATION MONITORING IN CONCESSION L5-SOUTH GOAL 3- EVIDENCE OF A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY
PARTNESHIP
L5-South holds relatively high wildlife densities particularly along the Lugenda River and the secondary rivers,
Msangezi and Mbamba Rivers. It incorporates the most extensive network of braided channels on the Lugenda River
(with concession L7 on the south bank) – a habitat high in biodiversity. All the plains game found across broader
Niassa Reserve are here, although Niassa wildebeest and reed buck are uncommon. Bushpigs and warthog are
becoming increasingly common. Side striped jackals are being increasingly seen in camera trap pictures.

In 2017, ornithologist Prof. Claire Spottiswoode from Cambridge University, who is conducting research on
honeygatherers and honeyguides in NNR based at Mariri Environmental Centre, located the Critically Endangered
Taita Falcon breeding on Mariri Mountain behind Mariri Environmental centre in L5-South.

Team that found the Taita Falcon on Mariri mountain- Tomas Critically Endangered Taita Falcon
Buruwate, Hugo Pereira, Mussagi Muemedi, Claire Spottiswoode

Lion, leopard, spotted hyaena and African Wild Dog are present and relatively common. Cheetah and caracal do not
occur in Niassa Reserve. Of the smaller carnivores’ African civet, Miombo genet, common genet, slender mongoose,
banded mongoose, bushytailed mongoose, water mongoose, side striped jackal and water mongoose are common.
Honey badger, large spotted genet, African wild cat, African clawless otter, white tailed mongoose, dwarf mongoose,
African polecat and serval are present. Antbear (aardvark) and porcupine are relatively common while pangolin is
present but not often seen.

Our goal is to conserve this wilderness areas with all its biodiversity and habitats. The value of birds, fish, reptiles, and
amphibians as well as the even smaller beetles, spiders etc. are all part of the Niassa Reserve ecosystem and
negatively affected by habitat destruction through agriculture and mining and use of mercury and uncontrolled fire.
There are many treasures here that are important for conservation efforts, biodiversity, medicinal and cultural uses
and ecotourism. Through the Mariri Environmental Centre we are beginning to document the biodiversity in the area
under the leadership of Tomas Buruwate (our Camp and Logistics Manager). In particular he is documenting the
Gladioli, Orchids and Reptiles and Amphibians of the area. At present more than 50 species of amphibians have been
recorded at Mariri Environmental Centre alone.

We monitor wildlife populations through opportunistic sightings of scouts, staff, researchers and specific surveys
(fishing survey, ungulate survey, lion and leopard survey) as well as through remote camera traps.

Some pictures of wildlife sightings taken in 2017 are provided below.

Honey badger Leopard

Antbear / Aardvark Hippo and spotted Hyaena

Porcupine Hyrax

Bushpigs Elephants

At least 3 packs of African wild dogs are present and

breeding within L5South. They are individually
recognized by their colour patterns
 Pufadder eating a rat Seven lion prides inside L5-South

Herds of Eland are increasing with many calves Sable antelope in woodland

Crocodiles and Hippo at Mashaa pool on the Lugenda River

Ungulates (Impala, waterbuck. Kudu and warthog). Herbivores are counted along a repeated road transect (25 km)
driven through the study area within 10 km of the river in the open grassed woodland. The transect count is done in a
vehicle in September / October by two observers between 05.30 and 08.00. This road is driven 3-5 times and the
largest number of individuals seen of each species is used. This has been done since 2004 along the same road in the
same way. The intention is not to provide a density of these species inside the study area within different habitats but
to use a simple repeated method to monitor the trend in impala, waterbuck, and kudu and warthog numbers in this
section of the concession. Results are then converted to the number of animals / km driven and compared.

Hippo:

A regular count of hippo in the Lugenda River between the Mbamba River confluences and the Msangezi River
confluence (26 km) has been done between 2004 and 2017. The count is done on foot and by canoe. In 2017, these
on the ground counts were assessed through an aerial count. The hippo population has steadily increased from 76
hippos in 2004 to 191 hippos in 2017. A survey of eL4 River section from Mussoma bridge to Nkuti River has an
additional 100+ hippo.

Increase in hippo numbers over time with an image of the largest pod near Mpopo Trails Ecotourism.

Buffalo: In L5-South there are three main herds that are regularly seen – Mbamba (80), Mpopo (40) and Msangezi
(250) with some solitary bulls with an estimated total of 450-500 animals. Buffalo are the most common animal
snared.

Fishing Survey

In October 2017 a one-month survey was done at our Mbamba Control gate of the amount and number of fish
moving to Mbamba Village. In this month alone, we have the names of 98 individual fishermen that moved through
the control gate at the peak of the fishing period from 19 main fishing camps with 111 baskets/ cangarra of fish
representing 5144 kg of fish. This fishing was not restricted, simply monitored.

Total kilograms of dried fish transported through the Mbamba Control gate from individual fishing camps in October in 2017 (N= 111
baskets; N=98 fishermen)
African Skimmer – These river birds are of interest given their “Globally near Threatened” status and the
recommendation by Vincent Parker (Niassa Reserve Bird Survey -Parker 2004) that Niassa Reserve breeding areas
needed to be identified and the population assessed and protected. They are indicators of the status of the river.

African Skimmer are easily counted from the air during aerial patrols and a major drawcard for visitors
CONSERVATION MONITORING – LION, HYAENA, LEOPARD AND WILD DOG
As the Niassa Carnivore Project we monitor lions across NNR and in an intensive
study area in L5 South. L5 South has been the intensive study area for NCP since
2003.
Mortality of lions
The fate of lions in NNR is tightly linked to the trade and consumption of
bushmeat and increasingly to the trade in lion parts (teeth and claws). Unlike and leopards in
East Africa, it is snaring and bushmeat that are the main threats to lions not
conflict with livestock. There are no cattle inside NNR and while lions, leopard NNR
and hyaena do kill hyaenas, both livestock and attacks on livestock are relatively
rare. While attacks by lions on people and livestock were relatively high There is a quiet crisis for lions
between 2003-2008, they have decreased markedly due to information on safe occurring in Niassa Reserve
behaviours and building of effective goat corrals (see section on human alongside the elephant poaching
carnivore conflict). that needs attention. We have
passed on this information to NNR
Lions are killed both directly for parts and inadvertently in snares set for large
management in various forms.
wild animals for meat (buffalo and eland snares). Increasing evidence shows
that bushmeat consumption and trade is increasing exponentially both due to In the past five years 2013 -2017)
the rapid increase in towns like Mecula and Mavago but increasing demands lone we have collated data to show
from illegal miners that are based in camps across NNR and need food. Data that 65 leopards, 80 lions, 44
show that poachers also find refuge in these mines. Illegal goldmining is spotted hyaenas and 25 wild dogs
therefore not simply about the illegal mining and its direct environmental have been killed illegally in NNR.
effects through siltation of river, habitat degradation and use of mercury; it is This does not include the animals
also resulting in the erosion of local governance structure in villages, increased killed legally by sport hunters. We
social problems reported by traditional leaders (alcohol abuse, child know this is a gross underestimate
prostitution, HIV), negative effects on the health of people, increased banditry, as carnivores can easily be killed in
increased wildlife trade and increased poaching. It does however also support the bush with poison or snares and
local livelihoods providing a ready source of cash income and has stimulated the no one would know. This also does
local economy. not include the lion parts found in
Pemba, Lichinga and outside NNR
Density across Niassa Reserve that could have come from NNR
Niassa Carnivore Project conducts a lion and hyaena call-up survey across Niassa animals. There are many areas in
Reserve at regular intervals according to our MOU with Reserve Management. It NNR without effective
has been conducted in 2005, 2008, 2012, 2015 and will be done again in August antipoaching.
/ September of 2018. The most recent Reserve wide data suggest that the lion
population is stable at between 800-1000 lions but showing a slight decrease
with some areas of concern (sinks) where no carnivores (lion, leopard, hyaena,
wild dog) presence were observed during the call-up. The next survey in 2018 is
critical to assess whether this population continues to decline. We also collate
on data on carnivore mortality collected from scouts, NNR management,
community guardians, operators etc. There is not even coverage of NNR by
antipoaching scouts or tourism operators and these data are therefore
underestimates. We predict that the lion population is now declining with
increasing sinks from poison and targeted lion killing for trade.

L5 South concession

This area was chosen as our intensive study area in 2003, it has a variety of
habitats, a large resident community in Mbamba Village (~420 households; 2000
people) and is surrounded on all sides by protected area. It used to have very
high levels of snaring (3-5 lions were killed a year between 2008 and 2010).
These long-term datasets in a relatively small area with a large community inside
the area are invaluable for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of our community based conservation
program and conservation based incentive scheme (see NCP technical report produced in 2012 for previous detailed
data collected on lions).

There has been a marked recovery in lions in this concession in the past 5 years with only two lions killed that we
know of in past 5 years (one in 2016 through a snare and then spear & one in 2017 for teeth/ claws), an increase from
2 to 7 prides and increase in cub survival from 22% to more than 70%. We are currently monitoring the dispersal of
lions out of this source population. These results confirm that with significant investment into community
development and antipoaching it is possible to support both conservation and development. However, the level of
conservation management required is expensive and in the region of USD$800- $1000 / km2. This increases as the
threats increase.

Hugo Pereira – Mariri Community Manager and NCP Vet has obtained further certification through passing the course on the
“Chemical and Physical Restraint of Wild Animals conducted by the Zimbabwe Veterinary Association Wildlife Group in February
2017.

We currently collar female lions with VHF collars to monitor population density, pride sizes with a focus on mortality
of females and cub recruitment. We monitor male lions wherever possible with satellite and GPS collars to monitor
movement patterns and particularly the dispersal of young male lions away from their natal area. Where do they go
and how safe are they in Niassa National Reserve? With permission from NNR, we also plan to collar and monitor the
movement patterns of lions across the Mecula- Mussoma corridor in 2018 to help determine wildlife corridors,
landuse planning across this critical area where there is a road that threatens to divide Niassa into East and West
conservation areas.

Since 2003, we have collared 46 lions in L5 South (19 females and 27 males). 15 of these lions are still alive, 4 died
naturally, and 3 had their collars removed (N=22), while 15 were killed illegally and the outcome of 7 is unknown and
they are presumed dead. In 2017, for the first time we had a collared lioness killed for teeth and claws in L5 South.
The trade in lion bones has been an emerging threat in NNR and more widely across the region in the past two years
and is of growing concern in NNR (see section on antipoaching).
Status of lions collared between 2005 and 2017 in L5-South showing causes of mortality.

Sex Alive Collar Snare Spear Sport Snared Research Unknown Natural
removed for
Hunting
parts

Female 11 1 3 1 0 1 0 1 2

Male 5 2 8 0 2 0 1 6 3

Total 15 3 11 1 2 1 1 7 5

We currently have collars on 14 lions (9 females from 7 prides; 5 males). The number of adult and subadult lions in L5-
South has increased from 27 to 32 lions. It is likely there are more unknown lions in the northern sections of the
concession that are harder to reach. However we are still concerned about the high turnover in adult males and
biased male sex ratio in cubs.
Dispersal and mortality

We are using the data from the satellite collared male lions to examine the
dispersal patterns of young male lions and the movement patters of adult males
around villages. These data will help us and our partners, NNR management Sources and Sinks…
develop and implement effective landuse planning and wildlife corridors
amongst the 40+ villages and increasing human population living inside the The large carnivores, particularly
protected area. This will facilitate coexistence. We will also gain a greater lions need the the full extent of
understanding of the effectiveness of the greater NNR to protect its large Niassa Reserve. Niassa Reserve is
carnivores particularly with the increasing sinks around villages, illegal mining becoming a series of sources and
and logging camps. sinks rather than one fully
protected areas. Dispersing lions
Previous data (see below) between 2011 and 2015 show the positions of four
need large safe areas to disperse
adult male lions that were killed outside of L5 South, three snared and one sport
into. Lions seem to follow similar
hunted. One of those snared left NNR and set up a home range near Lichinga
routes of dispersal over time along
before being killed while the other were killed inside NNR
drainage lines and these could help
us protect them better. To date our
data show that of the eight male
lions we have followed with
satellite radio collars since they
have dispersed, 3 have been killed
by snares, 1 sport hunted, 2 alive, 1
missing and only one has
successfully set up his own home
range for more than a year in
Chuilexi Conservancy. If lion
populations in NNR are to recover
we have to reduce the mortality of
dispersing males. Collars on male
and female lions along the
Marrupa-Mecula corridor will be
essential to help with landuse
planning and development of
Four males with satellite collars dispersed out of L5-South – all four were killed -2011-2015 wildlife corridors.
– three by snares and 1 sport hunted.
Three males dispersing from F-Pride

A success story of 2016-2017, was the dispersal of three males born in L5 South to the F-Pride who dispersed from
their pride in 2017 and after several months of movements set up a stable home range in L5N/L6 in Chuilexi
Conservancy still within Niassa Reserve. Of interest is their avoidance of an area in L5N where there is another
territorial male lion.

LICM23 – showing his dispersal out of L5S to L5N/ L6 in Chuilexi Conservancy. It is interesting to see how he avoided a large area in
L5N where there is another resident male lion.

B-Pride male (LICM24), spent three months as a nomadic young male moving large distances to the north and south of
L5-South in June to August 2017 sometimes rejoining with his pride, before appearing to settle south in L7/ L8
concessions where he was been between August 2017 and March 2018. The movements in July 2017 up to the
villages near Nalama and Erevuka are also of interest and illustrate why young males are frequently snared as they
move large distances coming close to villages and are often alone and hungry and lack the caution of the adult
females. The last position of his collar was sent on the 2 March 2018 near the southern most boundary of Niassa
Reserve in L7/L8 where there are large illegal gold mining camps. In March, Edwin Young caught a number of
bushmeat poachers with snares in this area close to the gold mining camp. It is likely that this male lion has been
killed. This is the same area where a male lion was snared previously.
Movement of the B-Pride male (Benji) between June 2017 when he was collared with his pride and March 2017 when his collar
stopped working showing his large movements until August 2017 when he appeared to settle in L7/ L8. Unfortunately, part of his
movements is close to a very large illegal mining camp where bushmeat snaring is rife.

Adult males Namaluma and Namanya are named after two Traditional Chiefs (one from Mbamba and one from Ncuti
Village). They are sometimes seen together but are more often apart though are clearly a coalition pair. Namaluma
was collared on the road near Ncuti villages and several women from the village named him and were able to see him
when he was immobilized. This connection with individual lions builds tolerance.
 Adult male LICM25 -Namaluma showing his movement around Nkuti and Mbamba villages (red triangle and movements across the
Lugenda River.

Adult male LICM27- Namanya showing similar movements to Male Namaluma but avoidance of the villages.

Adult male LICM25 (Namanya) moves across the Lugenda River in concessions L5S, L4 and L7 in the dry season. In the
wet season he has been forced to stay on the southern side of the Lugenda River due to high water levels. It will be
interesting to see if he comes back to the north bank when the water recedes. He avoids the Mbamba and Ncuti
villages.

Daily monitoring of these lions on the STE / Vulcan app by L7, L5S, and Reserve team means that we can warn the
villages when they are close and keep an eye on them and allows NNR management and NCA partners Chuilexi and
Luwire to monitor the lions in their areas. This same app is used to monitor the collared elephants. Our work to
understand lion movements and causes of mortality continues and adjusts over time to answer new questions. This is
very much an adaptive management approach as the results are fed into our antipoaching and recommendations to
NNR management team.
African Wild Dog: African wild dogs are regularly seen in L5-South and across Niassa Reserve. Four packs are currently
resident. ID cards have been developed for all individuals that can be identified from their coat patterns. In total 45
individuals have already been visually identified from their coat patterns so far. A pack of 10 is regularly seen by visitors
around the Environmental centre

Across Niassa Reserve, indicators for the wild dogs from the MOMS wildlife guardian data has remained remarkably
stable in past three years. Average pack size has remained over 7 individuals.

Table: MOMS wildlife guardian sighting data for African Wild Dogs

Year No. of sighting events Average Pack Size Maximum Pack size

2015 151 7,39 24

2016 171 7,34 3

2017 175 7,34 22

However, when we look at where the sightings are coming from there are 2 of the 35 villages (Mecula Sede, Msawize)
that did not record wild dogs in in past two years. In Namacambale, there were no sightings in 2017 but there were
sightings in 2016.. Msawize and Mecula have grown substantially and are now small towns within the protected areas.

Leopard: Data are available from camera trap surveys completed in 2008, 2009, and 2010 in L5-South. Data from 2016
and 2017 are being analysed through Snapshot Safari. We remain very concerned about leopards in L5-South and
Niassa Reserve as they are illegally killed in snares set specifically for leopards for their skins and are inadvertently
killed in bushmeat snares.

Before L5-South was taken as a concession in 2012 and antipoaching initiated, 8 leopards were radio-marked to assess
movement patterns, home range and mortality in 2009 and 2010. All three females were snared and killed in the first
year of monitoring, and 4 males disappeared, one died naturally and the other collar was removed. Through intensive
antipoaching and community engagement the leopard population is now increasing and leopards are regularly seen and
heard but this illustrates the level of illegal offtake in an open concession.
This highlighted our concern and as a result, Agostinho Jorge investigated the sustainability of leopard sport hunting in
NNR for his Masters degree in Science through University of Kwazulu Natal (Jorge, 2012, Jorge et al 2013). He looked at
the economic viability of leopard hunting, illegal and legal offtake, leopard densities in 4 sites across Niassa Reserve
(hunting vs. non-hunting areas, miombo vs riparian habitats) and turnover between years using camera trapping. Jorge
(2012) found that the intensity from illegal hunting was greater than the intensity of legal leopard hunting in all
concession in all years. In addition, the illegal offtake was above the sustainable limits recommended based on surveys
from other areas. He showed that while Leopard had high value for sport hunters, the economic benefits from the legal
hunting did not in any way off-set the costs from livestock depredation at a community levels and did not compete with
benefits from the illegal hunting which accrued to individuals at the household level. Riparian study sites showed a
decline in leopard population density over the three-year study period, and all leopard photo-captured in 2010 were
new individuals, suggesting high turnover rates in this habitat. Results showed no significant correlation between
leopard density and prey density contrary to other studies where the density of large carnivore populations was
positively correlated with prey abundance in areas with low poaching incidence This may suggest that leopard densities
in NNR are currently constrained by the high levels of poaching off-take rather than prey.

Through questionnaire surveys with 100 local hunters across the reserve (A. Jorge, pers. com, PhD thesis data), an
estimated 0.8 - 4 leopards are illegally killed intentionally or accidentally in each village per year through snares or other
means in NNR. A conservative estimate indicates that a minimum of 40 leopards are killed illegally per year in NNR, if
we consider that there are a minimum of five very active bushmeat hunters in every village of NNR and that one third
of these hunters snare intentionally or accidentally kill one leopard every year.

Through the reports from MOMS wildlife guardians and intelligence we have confirmed that between 2 - 4 leopards
were killed in three villagers where we had information in 2017. In the previous years the same range of leopard
mortality was recorded by MOMS guardians in other villagers which suggests that the problem is widespread across the
NNR and that the range of 2-4 leopards per village is applicable across all of the reserve. This provides validation of our
results.

OBJECTIVE 3: TO INVOLVE COMMUNITIES IN WILDLIFE MONITORING AND CONSERVATION THROUGHOUT

NNR THOUGH MOMS COMMUNITY WILDLIFE GUARDIAN PROGRAM.
The program is managed by Horacio Murico (MOMS Coordinator) and Celestino Dauda( Head Wildlife Guardian)
in collaboration with our community team.

MOMS Wildlife Guardians in 2017 with representatives from SDAE, NNR community team and Mariri team (Horacio,
Tomas and Hugo)
Since 2006, Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) has been managing the MOMS community monitoring and guardian
program, MOMS. While all the data are shared with the communities and NNR community team, Chuilexi community
team and Luwire community team, the program is entirely funded and managed day to day by Mariri/ NCP. The
MOMS coordinator, Horacio Mauricio is hired by Mariri as permanent staff in a middle management position as is
the Head Guardian, Celestino Dauda from Macalange Village. Guardians are paid monthly subsidies for part time
work, provided with caps and T-shirts and all materials needed) as well as provide ongoing mentorship and support,
and we provide skills training for coordinator. The community monitors not only collect information on fishing
activities, human wildlife conflict and special species sightings but they also convey important information to their
communication on rabies, ways to reduce human-wildlife conflict, safe behaviours and conservation.

The data and extension work done by these Wildlife Guardians that represent villages across NIassa Reserve is a
critical part of conservation and adaptive management in NNR. These data are invaluable and the link the guardians
provide between the Reserve and the communities is extremely important. Some of these data will be presented in
section on human wildlife conflict.

The raw data is freely available to NNR management team on a Google Drive database. Additional information is
provided here

We fund, manage and mentor a growing group of 35 Community wildlife Guardians (MOMS guardians) in 33 villages
across Niassa Reserve (in Mecula, Mavago and Negomano districts). This program costs NCP approximately $40,000
a year, has a dedicated coordinator and Head guardian based at Mariri, a vehicle and other resources. At present six
of the guardians are women (17%) while the rest are men and all are residents in their home villages. They collect
information from 33 villages that are located within Niassa Reserve with 4 in Negomano, 11 in Mavago and 20 in
Mecula District. The MOMS community guardians collect information in all 33 villages across NNR including Mbamba
village and transmit information to NNR team and NCP team via WhatsApp to ensure rapid response. The Guardians
also assist their communities with technical advice on how to build safe shelters, corrals, avoid conflict and
communication.

Principal results and activities in 2017:

• Stipends were paid every month to all guardians from Negomano, Mecula and Mavago.
• Seven (7) new guardians were successfully recruited and trained in villages of Mpamanda, Manhur, Nampequesso,
Naulala Nsacalanje, Ntacuja and Chitandi. Among the 7 new guardians four (4) are women and three (3) are men..
• "Foxlights" solar powered scare lights were distributed to all the wildlife guardians as part of their toolkit to reduce
human-carnivore conflict along with the “lion-Human conflict toolkit” book that provides practical ways to reduce
conflict. These lights are used when carnivores such as hyaenas regularly enter a village.
• Twenty-nine (29) phones were provided to wildlife guardians to ensure they are able to keep in contact and rapidly
report human wildlife conflict on WhatsApp to NCP, and NNR teams with monthly credit given.
• A strategic plan has been drawn up for the next three (3) years of 2018 for 2020. This was sent to NNR management
but there has been no response to date. This plan is being implemented.
• The coordinator, Horacio, went to Ruaha Carnivore Project for a site visit as part of a skills training trip to gain
experience from their guardian program.
• All data collected on the paper datasheets was entered into the google drive database and this is available for use
by NNR management. Data are completely up to date and form an extraordinary record from 2006 to 2017 of the
MOMS wildlife guardian program.
• Three (3) regional workshops were successfully held prior to the annual workshop, 1 in Mecula, 1 in Mavago and
1 in Negomano to ensure regular contact with the guardians and deal with any issues that arise.
• The Annual MOMS workshop was held at the Mariri Environmental Center and was attended by the (35) wildlife
guardians as well as 1 technician from SDAE of Mecula, 2 representatives from the community department of RNN
Mbatamila and 2 employees from NCP. The workshop was opened by the Administrator of NNR.
Key issues discussed and achieved during the workshop:

• Collectively analyzed information collected in 2017;

• Raised awareness of the fight against rabies;
• Ways to mitigate the conflict between people and wildlife in communities;
• Ways to reduce the deaths of animals due to poison and traps in the NNR;
• Steps taken to transform the guardians from data collectors into extension officers with a passion for conservation.
• Transformed communication via WhatsApp to ensure it is more cohesive and disciplined.
• Presented and discussed problems, challenges and solutions.
• Distributed prizes (a bicycle, two radios and other household material) as incentives to wildlife guardians and to
recognize excellent work.
• Distributed materials, equipment, t-shirts and caps were distributed to wildlife keepers during the workshop;
• Distributed the Poison posters to all guardians and leaders;
• Shared the 2016 data from guardians from Mecula and Mavago districts with the local communities;
• Discussed the conservation law and ways to share it with their communities.
• Provided opportunities for Guardians to interact in an informal setting to create a peer group and a feeling of
group belonging

MOMS data

The collection and storage of this information takes place on four databases - special species, mortality of animals,
human-wildlife conflict and community fishing. The data on human-wildife conflict is presented separately as part of
Objective

SPECIAL SPECIES SIGHTINGS

In 2017, the MOMS guardians recorded 9694 sightings of special species. Despite an increase in wildlife guardians, the
number of animals seen decreased slightly compared to 2016 (9855). This needs to be monitored to assess whether it
is due to decrease in animals or decrease in monitoring.

• Buffalo were most commonly seen (4088 of the sightings) corresponding to 42% of the special species
sightings.

• Hippo corresponded to 19% of the sightings with African wild dog the next most common of the species with
1285 individuals sighted (175 events) throughout the year.

• Tortoise and leopard sightings remain rare with less than 2% of the sightings. Tortoise are included as a special
species as they are an important indicator of fire. It is hoped that if a fire management plan is put in place,
then these sightings will increase. Tortoises were only seen on 179 occasions across all the villages across the
whole year.
 Relative number of special species sightings (individuals not events) in 2017

• Lichengue, Mbamba, Matondovela, Erevuka and Nkalapa sighted 46% of the total number of buffalo seen
across NNR in 2017.
• Mbamba, Mucoria, Nkalapa, Ntimbo and Cuchiranga were the villages that had the highest numbers of lions
with about 46% of the total number of sightings of lions;
• Mucoria, Chilolo, Nahavara of Negomano, Lipembo, Mbamba and Nahavara of Mecula are the villages that
had the highest wild dog records with 62% of the total number of wild dog sightings;
• Mucoria, Mbamba, Nkalapa, Chilolo, Iringa and Ibo are the villages that had the highest numbers of Leopards
with 47% of the sightings of leopards during the year;
• Mucoria, Macalange, Mbamba, Msawise, Maolela, Chilolo and Ntimbo are the villages that had the highest
numbers of hyenas with 55%

It is clear that Mbamba (L5South) and Mucoria (L7) are in high wildlife areas as they had high numbers of all key species.

All districts are still seeing all the special species, however the relative number of sightings of hyaenas and hippo were
lower in Negomano (the east of Niassa Reserve) than either Mecula (central) or Mavago (west) district, while the
relative sightings of Niassa wildebeest were higher in the east than in the west.

Table: Relative frequency of sightings of key species in the three main areas of NNR (Mecula District- central, Mavago-
west and Negomano-East)

Wildebees
District
Buffalo Hippo Wild Dog Lion Hyaena Croc t Leopard
Mecula 0,49 0,19 0,10 0,07 0,05 0,03 0,05 0,02
Mavago 0,29 0,25 0,17 0,07 0,08 0,08 0,02 0,04
Negomano 0,43 0,08 0,22 0,05 0,02 0,07 0,11 0,02

Comparison over past 5 years

It is of concern that the total number of sightings of species declined again slightly in 2017 compared to 2016 and
2015 despite seven more guardians representing more villages. The number of sightings steadily increasing since
2013 until 2015 with nearly 11,000 sightings of the individuals of key species with only 26 guardians. There was an
obvious decline in sightings in 2016. While it is important not to read too much into this, it does suggest we should
pay attention as animal populations do not seem to be increasing and maybe be declining. The lion and hyaena call-
up survey showed a similar pattern. It would be interesting to see if the aerial survey results of 2018 show a similar
pattern as this has also been done repeatedly over time. While none of these datasets are without problems and
assumptions, if all are suggesting the same pattern then we can be certain the trend is one of declining animal
populations in NNR.

The decline in species sightings over time 2013 and 2017 despite an increase in guardians.

MORTALITY OF ANIMALS
In 2017, 173 special species were recorded dead by the Wildlife Guardians. According to the information collected by
the MOMS, mortalities increased 17% in 2017 compared to 2016 but this is most likely to simply reflect more
guardians.

• Buffalo was the species with high mortality with 59% of the total mortality registered in 2017; then crocodile (16%);
with and finally, tortoises with 24 deaths which represents 14% of the total number. More investigation needs to be
done to determine how these tortoises died – were they eaten or killed in fire.Carnivore mortalities correspond to
about 8.7% of total mortality recorded last year, with 47% of these deaths of leopards, followed by hyaena (33%). Wild
dogs are seldom found dead or killed.
 Number of key species recorded dead by wildlife guardians in 2017 showing wildebeest, buffalo, tortoise, wild dog,
crocodile, hyaena, hippo, lion and leopards.

• Namacamabale, Lichengue, Chitandi, Mecula sede and Negomano are the villages with the highest number of buffalo
mortalities with 61.8% of total buffalo mortality; Gomba and Ninga are the villages that recorded the two mortalities
of lions; Ninga is the only village that recorded wild dog mortality; Barrio Guebuza, Ibo and Msawise are the villages
that recorded the deaths of the leopards; and Macalange, Nahavara of Negomano and Negomano that registered the
deaths of hyenas.

COMMUNITY FISHING
During 2017, 38635 kg of fish were measured by the wildlife guardians. During the rainy season, this activity is more
frequently done in the small rivers (even though this is illegal)while during the dry season the fishermen extend their
activities to the bigger rivers including the Ruvuma and Lugenda. Fishing is not legally allowed between December
and March as it is the breeding season of the fish.

Fishing Camps and techniques

In 2017, 307 fishing camps were registered by the MOMS Guardians with 6649 individual fishing records. The
majority of fishing is now done with nets (45%), followed by traps (42% with a small amount caught on line. The
most fishing was done in Chilolo, Mbamba, Mussoma, Gomba, Nsacalange villages and these 5 villages were
responsible for 44% of the fish catches measured by the guardians. Lichengue, Mucoria, Bairro Guebuza and
Negomano-Nahavara are the villages that had the lowest quantities of fish measured probably because the guardians
are based at the village and these villages are relatively far away from a main river.

Lipata (traps), Jalife (nets), Chikukwele (large nets) and Insevila (fine mesh traps) are the gear that captured the
largest amounts of fish during the year 2017 with 68.5% of the all fish caught using this technique. Poison was
recorded as a fishing technique but only infrequently.
The quantity of fish caught using different fishing techniques in 2017 with the majority of fish caught in traps/ barrier,
then fishing nets followed by the large Chikukwele fishing nets (see our 2005 fishing report for a detailed description of
each fishing type, www.niassalion.org).

The use of poison was recorded on about 11 occasions, and about 84 kgs. of fish were caught by this method (0.2%
of the total amount of fish caught in 2017). Poison is likely to be under recorded as people know it is illegal. The
poison was used in the villages of Macalange, Mecula-sede and Nahavara-Negomano. It is the rivers of the Chuilexi,
Mbunga and Nandanda that were the sites for use of the poison.

Over the past five years, the fish catches measured have increased steadily as the number of guardians has increased
however the fish catches declined in 2017 compared to 2016 and this needs to be monitored. The Lugenda River
provides a critical source of income and protein for NNR residents.

Annual MOMS workshop at Mariri Prize giving at Mariri

Annual MOMS workshop . Visiting Mpopo Ecotourism camp – revenue sharing

Community meetings MOMS community meetings -talking about safe shelter

Dauda distributing and demonstrating Fox lights Distribution of raincoats

Safe shelter Gomba Secure goat corral Lichengue

Secret goat corral Lichengue Raincoats

Secure corral – Mussoma Safe shelter being constructed Mucoria

Distributing telephones Visit to Tanzania

Dauda talking to a community about the danger of poison

MOMS prize winners 2017

 _______________________________________________________________________________________

GOAL 2- DIRECTLY REDUCE THREATS AND PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE

LIVELIHOODS
THREAT 1: BUSHMEAT SNARING
Snares are used to kill wild animals for meat and non-target species like carnivores are killed inadvertently. It is the
major threat to lions, leopards, spotted hyaenas and African wild dogs in Niassa Reserve as it kills both their prey and
them directly. The mortality of lions in the intensive study area in 2008-2010 was 28% when natural mortality in
other well protected areas was only 6 % of adults. Snaring causes rapid turnover in adult male lions and infanticide of
cubs. Turnover in leopards is also high with no leopards camera trapped in 2009 being camera trapped in 2010 which
suggests very high turnover (Jorge et al. 2013). Agostinho Jorge, our conservation manager is writing up his PhD on
bushmeat consumption and trade and these data will be available in the next 18 months to assist us with
understanding this threat better.

Research has shown that the majority of meat protein eaten in Niassa Reserve is currently being provided by
bushmeat (meat of wild species). The main reasons for not keeping domestic livestock are a large die off of chickens
due to disease and lack of money to buy initial stock. In addition, domestic livestock are kept as a savings account for
emergencies and with small numbers are seldom eaten. There is little knowledge of animal husbandry and no
veterinary care. In 2012 the majority of Niassa Residents were eating bushmeat at least 1-2 times a week (n = 1229
across; 34 villages). The wire snares set to catch wild animals for meat not only kill the carnivores directly but also kill
their prey reducing all wildlife densities. The bushmeat trade not only provides meat but the sale of ivory, meat, and
skins provide a lucrative source of income for local hunters who have limited skills and job opportunities.

The increasing snaring and poaching in Niassa are therefore exacerbated by food insecurity, lack of alternative
livelihoods and low skills levels of local people inside Niassa Reserve. Indications from the 2014 aerial censes
suggests several ungulates are declining (Grossman et al, 2014). A major challenge in NNR at present is that illegal
activities provide significantly more opportunities and income that any legal, commercial activities. Bushmeat
snaring, elephant poaching, mining, logging is all illegal but widespread and lucrative. Until the opportunity costs for
these activities are increased through prosecutions (fines and jail time), few Niassa residents will chose to do
alternative activities. Antipoaching and implementation of the law must be effective to “encourage” people to switch
to legal alternatives. NCP aims to address snaring and habitat destruction through a holistic approach of providing
alternative income generating opportunities through skills training and employment of local people, providing an
alternative protein source through small livestock breeding, increasing food security and developing effective anti-
poaching that involves resident communities. The continued need for community involvement is critical as we do not
believe that antipoaching alone will solve the problem in Niassa given size of the area protected and high levels of
movement of people inside the protected area.

We believe that equal amounts of funding should be spent on the guns and boots and community based natural
resource management approaches (revenue sharing, benefits). Conservation of wildlife in areas where people are
residents needs to be an informed choice not a forced activity. However, without effective antipoaching and
prosecutions to discourage illegal activities, we think that most programs to provide alternative livelihoods are
doomed to failure. Some of the poorest people in Africa are living with wildlife and substantial income can be earned
through illegal use. Who will want to breed rabbits when it is easier, less effort and provides bigger returns to go and
put out poison or snares? Who will wait for crops to grow and weed and tend them when gold mining offers an
immediate cash benefit. Alternative livelihoods programs without law enforcement will not work and law
enforcement without alternative livelihoods and development programs will result in higher levels of poverty and
food insecurity and increasing animosity. Neither scenario will result in conservation success.

We expend equal amounts of money, time and effort into antipoaching and community programs. We continue to
test and refine programs to provide income, food security and improved agriculture production for people inside L5
South and our results are reported below. We hope we can share the lessons we are learning and challenges we face
with other community programs in NNR and can likewise learn from their experiences. However, this level of
collaboration and sharing of information has proven difficult to do effectively. Solutions are not simple and context
is important and diversity of option is important. At present our alternative livelihoods and agriculture programs
reach more than 200 households (1200-2000 people depending on household size) in 5 villages. All these programs
are voluntary with technical support and materials provided by Mariri/ NCP. They are grass roots programs that
include small livestock breeding, conservation agriculture, sale of the honey from elephant beehive fences, and a
crafts and artisan group

OBJECTIVE 4: TO DEVELOP ALTERNATIVE PROTEIN SOURCES TO REDUCE RELIANCE ON BUSHMEAT AND

SNARING AND PROVIDE AN INCOME FOR HOUSEHOLD NECESSITIES
LIVESTOCK BREEDING GROUPS
Started by Agostinho Jorge, currently lead and managed by Hugo Pereira, Benvindo Napuanya and Bosco .

Why is the livestock breeding program important?

In 2010, we asked communities through a survey - what do you need? They answered - increased jobs and income,
increased food security, better education and help with human-wildlife conflict. At the same time data showed that
bushmeat snaring was the major threat in NNR as they were caught as by catch and snaring destroyed their prey.
Bushmeat is a very important source of food and income in NNR. In-depth data collected by Agostinho Jorge
(conservation manager) on the bushmeat trade for his PhD clearly show that the commercial aspect of bushmeat
trade appears to be increasing. In response to these data we started a number of alternative livelihood programs all
following a similar structure – voluntary, group decisions and rules, microloan, we provide technical advice. One of
these programs was the small livestock breeding program.

We believe this program is important for a number of reasons:

1. Households in Niassa Reserve have very low food security and low numbers of domestic livestock. Chickens,
which are the most predominant form of domestic livestock, are frequently decimated by disease outbreaks.
Compared to other districts in Niassa province, Mecula district has the lowest levels of domestic livestock. There
are no cattle and goat numbers are low due to tsetse, lack of experience in stockmanship and high wild animal
densities. This program provides households with an opportunity to own small livestock that are not easily
available to buy in the district. In addition, it diversifies the stock owned by a household which ensures they do
not lose it all when a disease kills animals. Meat protein is largely being sourced from wild animals as bushmeat
or through fish from the Lugenda River. To be able to reduce bushmeat snaring (and manage the fishery) we
need to provide an alternative source of meat. We do not want to encourage production of larger livestock as
this is likely to increase conflict with large carnivores but small livestock provide a logical alternative. A single
animal can be killed at a time to equal one portion of bushmeat. A large animal does not need to be killed for
one meal, no refrigeration is necessary.

2. Initial surveys showed no preference by people for bushmeat over domestic livestock; the choice was driven by
price and availability. Domestic livestock was more expensive and more difficult to get hold of than bushmeat.
Small livestock provides a locally based, sustainable alternative income for very poor households that require
relatively little investment in time, money or equipment. Cash is important so that people can buy basic food
(soap, oil, salt, sugar) and money for emergencies. Research in other areas has shown that ability to generate
cash is a critical element of alleviating poverty and supporting community development. Domestic livestock act
as a bank and insurance against disaster ensuring that families have a source of emergency income and food if
necessary.

3. There is another benefit that cannot easily be monetarized or measured but is just as important. This program is
well liked by communities and District and Provincial government and is considered an example of a positive
conservation effort. The positive support this livelihood program has generated at household, village, district
and even provincial level is important as it shows we are committed to finding real solutions to food security and
the need to generate income. It shows that conservation is not a choice between people and animals and that
we take community development seriously. This creates political will for conservation and increased tolerance
when we push back with antipoaching. This value should not be underestimated. In NNR, we are not engaged in
 fortress conservation. We have 60,000 people living inside the protected area and these people are not going
anywhere. As we reduce illegal activities through more effective antipoaching we have to provide alternatives for
income and food.

4. Literature suggests that alternative livelihood programs, particularly small livestock breeding can be an
important way to reduce the demand for bushmeat however successful examples of this are hard to find. There
are few long-term programs (more than 2-3 years). We focus on adaptive management and have a long-term
view. This is not for a postgraduate degree or a short-term development or government program. We are
focused on experimenting and finding solutions that can be used in other areas over a 20-year period. What are
the elements of success and what are the real on the ground challenges that are never reported in scientific
publications and how can these programs be sustainable? We believe that livelihoods programs are negatively
impacted by short term funding that does not allow a program time to mature (at least 5 years) and buy
unrealistic expectations to scale and become a large-scale program. We are starting to see the natural growth of
the program as it grows sustainably and slowly. We do not expand or scale into new areas until asked to do so
by the villagers themselves. This year three new villages have asked for the program. We have no intention of
this becoming a reserve wide program as diversity is also important in alternative livelihood opportunities.

5. Current literature on poverty alleviation also suggests that cash aid to very poor individuals in communities - as
little as $18 - a month can have a major effect on reducing poverty by encouraging entrepreneurship and making
sure basic needs are met so that other decisions can be made. Recent studies in Zambia and Kenya have
produced startling results in increased food security and diet when families are simply provided with small
amounts of cash each month for a year or two. In addition, families are able to initiate small businesses. While
the alternative livelihoods programs do not function in exactly the same way (not cash hand-outs to every
household), livestock are seen as a savings account – insurance against bad times, and similarly provide ready
cash and food when needed.

In summary the LBG groups aim to:

1. Provide an alternative to bushmeat consumption and increases food security for local
Communities,
2. Generate money for local households through the sale of livestock for household necessities (sugar, salt, soap,
cooking
oil, etc.) or emergencies, and
3. Bring local community needs into our conservation programs.

How does it work?

The program started in 2011 with data collected on snaring, bushmeat consumption and food needs of local
households. The focus is on micro livestock that are already present in Niassa National Reserve. This program has full
community support and assistance with livestock breeding was identified as a priority for community. These are
voluntary groups and no payments for activities are provided. Each group decides on its own name, a leader and
secretary as well as the rules to guide the functioning of the group. The NCP representatives (Agostinho Jorge,
Benvindo Napuanha and Hugo Pereira) provide advice but do not lead the process. Each person wishing to receive
domestic livestock has to first show commitment by building a rabbit hutch and chicken coop before receiving animals.
Guidance is provided on the elements needed in each coop (air, sunlight, safety, slated floor to keep clean, ease of
access etc.).

Each member receives 2 animals in form of a micro loan, ideally two females, and there are some males of the species
that have to rotate among households and the leaders of the group have to control how this happens. Once the animals
produce offspring, 2 animals are given back to NCP to return the initial loan. These 2 animals may be used to seed
another household. Once the group’s dynamic is going independently, Mariri (NCP) stops providing seeding animals,
but continues assisting with the improvement of coops and hutches, and disease management. Each group of breeders
is visited once a month by NCP representatives to monitor their performance and record the number of animals per
group. The intention is for each member, or at least each group, to have a variety of animal species to choose from,
and it will also help reduce the spreading of diseases (rabbits diseases will not be transmitted to birds; ducks are more
resistant to Newcastle’s Disease than chickens). To help the members to improve their performance by sharing
experiences and learning new
techniques, exchange visits between members of different villages or visits to outside breeders are
promoted by NCP.

Does this reduce bushmeat hunting?

Preliminary results from interviews with more than 100 local bushmeat hunters across Niassa Reserve (including
the ones from Mbamba and Macalange) show that hunters kill animals mainly for income and for food. In 2015
and 2016 we showed that the combined effect of our LBG, antipoaching and performance payment programs had
significantly reduced snaring around Mbamba Village. Informer information (same informers both years) shows that
the number of individual animals harvested in Mbamba reduced from 99 animals in 2014 to 61 animals in 2015. The
biomass harvested in the same period reduced from 15,704 Kg to 11,831 Kg. This suggests that not only has the
number of animals harvested decreased but smaller animals are being targeted, perhaps due too effective
antipoaching and difficulties in setting large snare lines. Populations of impala, waterbuck, kudu and warthog have
all increased and there are increasing sightings of animals around Mbamba village. Based on informer information,
27 known bushmeat hunters in Mbamba and Macalange were invited to join the livestock breeding program in
2016; 25 voluntarily joined and two declined.

The records available indicate that 12 bushmeat hunters from Mbamba are still occasionally involved in bushmeat
snaring, killing on average 1 animal per month but that this has decreased from past bushmeat hunting. Six
bushmeat hunters from Mbamba no longer appear to be involved although this is unlikely to be due only to the
LBG. In Macalange the 7 individuals on average still kill 3-4 animals per month. The major difference between
Mbamba and Macalange is that Mbamba Village is a partner with NCP to manage a wildlife area and there is strong
antipoaching as well as multiple benefits. Macalange is currently in an open concession with little antipoaching and
no legal agreement. LBG alone is unlikely to have an effect unless it is coupled with strong antipoaching to provide
the pressure to switch to a legal activity and significant other revenues with a clear partnership.

Anecdotally, one man was caught in 2015 by NCP / Mariri doing bushmeat snaring and was condemned to 10
months of jail, most of the time spent in Marrupa. On his return to Mbamba, he was invited to join the LBG and his
wife and himself also joined the Kushirika craft and design group. He is no longer snaring and is a talented artist
who is selling his work regularly as well having success with ducks. On average, their combined household income
from the two livelihoods groups is currently more than $250 / month. In 2017 he sold one of his artworks for $150
in the US. Two bushmeat hunters from Mbamba stopped hunting permanently after getting seasonal employment
in conservation services.

2017 Assessment of LBG

In 2017 a survey on food consumption and bushmeat was conducted and it included 70 people that were part of
the livestock breeding groups. The person doing the survey, was not involved in the program on a day to day basis
and is not from any of the villages involved. More than 95% of the participants voted this as a good to very good
program. What was most encouraging was that people most liked the program because it supported the
household by helping them buy daily household necessities (42%) and secondly because it provides a legal source of
meat (27%) so they don’t have to kill wild animals. Additional reasons included having domestic livestock for the
first time and first access to a micro credit scheme. These are exactly the reasons the program was initiated –
increase in income and food at a household level.
We continue to see that it is the older women that are the most successful as the bigger breeders of livestock. The
main reason is because these women are sedentary and have no source of income. They focus on these animals and
pay attention to hygiene and husbandry. We continue to see a few entrepreneurs emerging in the longstanding LBG
groups of Macalange and Mbamba from the first-generation breeders, with Macalange becoming best at livestock
breeding overall. These members are not only focused on producing livestock for household use and infrequent sales
but are increasing their stock so they can sell commercially. We are putting in particular effort to improve and extend
their corrals, provide disease management so that they can manage their larger numbers of domestic animals.
The aim is not for everyone involved to become a major producer of livestock but for the livestock to act as a bank
and as an added source of income and food that can lift them out of desperate poverty. Only a few entrepreneurial
breeders will produce excess for general sale.
It is essential that any livelihoods program aimed at increasing income inside a protected area is coupled with
effective antipoaching in the same area. Otherwise the increased income may cause a surge in bushmeat
consumption and sale as people have disposable incomes. We need antipoaching efforts to increase the opportunity
costs for a local hunter so that it becomes unprofitable for him to continue hunting and snaring. This will be
particularly effective if even a few of the bushmeat hunters we catch get jail time or a significant fine as required by
the conservation law. We have effective antipoaching in concession L5-South which has reduced bushmeat snaring
by Mbamba and now Ncuti village. All our antipoaching efforts are monitored through SMART- software program
where our scouts carry digital devices and all information and their tracks are collected onto them (see section on
antipoaching results).

It is clear that LBG provides an important part of a holistic program to reduce bushmeat snaring but is not sufficient
on its own. Antipoaching is also needed to provide the opportunity cost.

Additional Outcomes and Activities 2017

• The LBG are now based in 7 different villages (Mbamba, Ncuti, Lissongole, Cuchiranga, Ntimbo I, Ntimbo II
and Macalange) with 129 full time members all from Mecula District.
• Members of LBG received new t-shirts as an incentive. Having t-shirts that identify them, creates team-spirit
and more ownership of the program.
• 39 animals were sold to Mariri and generated 15,600Mt for members of the LBG. Other animals were sold to
other people but owners do not keep good records.
• 11 members of the LBG exchanged one adult animal, or two young animals for 10m of Chicken wire to
reinforce corrals and hutches from small predators. These animals were used to seed new households.
Members revealed that it was easier for them to exchange animals for wire, instead of having to pay it at a
subsidized amount.

• Among all the species we’ve been experimenting with (ducks, chicken, guineafowls, turkeys and rabbits),
ducks continue to be the species of animals that performs better among the members, and the duck loans
are paid more successfully. Turkey chick mortality continues to be a challenge, with all the offspring
produced by the birds dying before adulthood.
• A trip to Mecanhelas District to learn more about turkey breeding was made with 2 NCP representatives and
4 members of the LBG. In that trip more, turkeys were bought to be
used as seed animals for the LBG.
 • Assistance in improving hutches and coops was done in this year, by working with the members and assisting
with the transport of bamboo and poles to the villages
Control of fleas (“loboto”) in rabbits, chickens and turkeys was successful with the use of an insecticide
“Fendona”, and also with more regular visits from NCP representatives to ensure that hutches and coops
were kept in good hygiene conditions
• Acquiring guineafowls is still proving to be a difficult task, as there’s not a reliable supplier. There’s a
constant need to look for suppliers, as the LBG members are still unable to seed everyone.

• This year, there was an introduction of giant cocks and chickens to try to increase the size of local chickens,
by cross-breeding them with local chickens. A challenge that two breeders faced is that giant chickens do
not incubate their eggs, which means they have to find local chickens that are incubating eggs, to incubate
the ones from giant chickens.

• An additional three villages have sent letters of request asking us to initiate LBG groups in their villages -
Ntimbo 2, Nampequesso, Eruvuka and we will initiate discussions, formations of groups and agreement
with rules in at least two villages before the end of the year.

• Two wildlife clubs have requested livestock as a project for their club and to earn some income for the
children. At this early stage the children have been advised on how to build a corral as a first step and will
need to have the corral ready before they receive the livestock. This will be initiated in a similar way to the
4H youth development programs in the US and to support the One Health concept. Each wildlife club has to
do projects that support -healthy me, healthy community, healthy livestock, healthy environment, healthy
brain.

Challenges and Solutions

• The recent survey on the LBG program highlighted difficulties people are having and this helps guide our
future activities and support. However, there was nothing mentioned that we were not already aware of
and working to resolve. Losses from predation and disease remain an issue. The first can be solved through
better husbandry, better corrals and ensuring animals are inside at night, the second through better
hygiene in corrals and veterinary intervention.

• Until recently chickens were almost the only livestock available in Mecula district and were raised mostly
free range with minimum attention to feeding, protection or husbandry. Through the LBG program we have
going through a process of gradually changing people’s behaviour towards animals and encouraging good
husbandry. This will take time given the lack of previous knowledge.

• Chicken wire is not freely available and remains an important item that we can bring in for LBG members to
secure their corrals and prevent losses from dogs, cats, honey badgers, genets and hyaenas. It is especially
important for those that grow their domestic livestock for commercial sale. The chicken wire is generally
provided by NCP at a subsidized cost of 60Mt per meter and this is given as a loan which can be paid back
through livestock or money. Payback has been poor. The chicken mesh does improve the ability of
households to protect their livestock from wild animals.

• Sourcing additional livestock for the program is still a challenge as they have to be sourced from Marrupa or
Lichinga which are 6-12 hours drive away.
 Summaries of challenges presented by LBG
30% 25% 25% members during the survey
25%
20%
15%
8%
10% 7% 7%
6%
4%
5% 3% 3% 3%
1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
0%

Getting chicken mesh…

Rabbits destroing…

improve the hutch…

Disease
Get animal to breed

Turkeys chasing people

Other
Lack of male

Theft
No difficulties

Pool for ducks

Getting bonus
Attack of wild animals

Improve the hutch

Mortality of animals
Feeding animals

Suggestions for improvement to program

45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%

Solutions
Improved hutches and husbandry

• An improved hutch for rabbits made of bamboo was built in Mariri Environmental centre camp to
demonstrate to local communities how they can improve the safety of animals and also how they can be
better managed by keeping them in separate compartments to allow better control of reproduction, disease
control, feeding, etc. In addition, dung can be collected as fertilizer for gardens. All groups who visit Mariri
Environmental centre (children, government officials, adults) are shown the LBG programs.
• One challenge is that in the wet season everyone moves to the fields to protect and weed their crops.
Livestock needs to be transported with them. We designed and produced 10 mobile hutches for rabbits as
part of the kit for wet season and one big hutch for turkeys. These hutches were delivered to the LBG
members in Macalange, Ncuti, Lissongole-Cuchiranga and Mbamba.
• A big hutch was built for Ms Florinda so that she can keep her turkeys and ducks. The hutch is made out of
local materials (poles and bamboo) with lots of open spaces to allow the circulation of fresh air and prevent
diseases including fleas and others on the animals. It is reinforced with chicken mesh to protect the turkeys
against predators. Mariri provided the labour, bamboo, tyre rope for the construction of the mobile and big
hutches. This was part of the prize to Ms Florinda as best breeder.
Ongoing efforts are being made to support the entrepreneurial individuals that have not only paid back their
loans but have also showed commitment to breeding their animals. We have helped these individuals to
build large predator proof areas for their livestock, provided chicken wire and technical advice. This also
serves as an incentive to other members. This year we have provided focused technical and practical
assistance to the entrepreneur individuals (Mrs. Bibi Amisse, Cassiano Dauda, Mzee Iwene, Fatima Balassane,
Florinda Arde) in different villages to help them increasing their production.

One of the best breeders with ducks she has sold and New hutch built for rabbit and turkey breeding with
money earned chicken wire to improve protection for turkeys.

Benvindo spends time with a LBG breeder in Macalange

Reducing mortality of ducks
Through an ongoing campaign to improve cleanliness of hutches and provide clean water we have been able to reduce
the mortality of baby ducks by at least 50% through the use of water troughs. These tanks are useful especially during
the dry season when water is scarce and baby ducks tend to block their noses with “farelo”. Currently we have built
04 tanks and hope to expand these tanks to other households and villages where members have turkeys. Mariri
support included cement and labor.

Sharing information- Visit to Mecanhelas to learn about turkey breeding

In April Hugo, Agostinho and three LBG members (one from Mbamba and two from Macalange) successfully completed
a trip to Mecanhelas District to buy turkeys and learn from the subsistence farmers on how to breed and raise
successfully turkeys in subsistence conditions that are relatively similar to the conditions inside NNR (although less
predators). They met 4 turkey breeders, who showed and explained what the procedures they follow. One breeder
told an interesting story to the members of Mariri LBG that he uses turkey to get money in moments of economic
crises for example by selling a pair of adult turkeys he gets enough money to pay school fees and buy school materials
for his children or to pay people to help him in the mashamba. He also mentioned that the faecal materials from the
turkeys and other animals from his yard can be used to make compost for his machambas. The breeders indicated that
the black turkeys are more appropriate for areas with predators compared to the white ones because they are less
visible. Turkeys are sold for more money, and are more resistant to diseases than chickens, however, they require
more work compared other birds. One breeder stated that if chickens were more resistant, he would opt to breed
them because they require less work than turkeys and he would not have to spend money with ration for young
turkeys, which is a special food mixture bought in Malawi. The team was also able to buy 11 turkeys to increase the
number of LBG households breeding the animals in the villages and expanded turkey breeding to three villages.
Currently 10 households are experimenting turkeys in these villages. Three households already have eggs.

Within group sharing

We initiated a program for LBG members to visit and spend time with entrepreneurs (individuals doing well) in other
villages. Two farmers from Lissongole-Cushiranga that are showing good performance visited one successful breeder
from Macalange (Mr Cassiano Dauda) to see how he looks after his animals and how he has been overcoming the
challenges he faced with the animal farming. The farmers from Lissongole-Cuchiranga were happy with to see the
condition the Macalange farmer raises his ducks, rabbits and turkey. They spent two nights in Cassiano´s house and
visited three other households in Macalange.

Improve diet of livestock

A total of 16 species plants used to feed rabbits were compiled in Mbamba and Macalange. The photos will be
printed, laminated and distributed among the members with rabbits to share with them the information other
people are using to feed the animals. This will improve diet of rabbits to ensure they are getting the nutrients they
need. This will be especially relevant during the dry season when the availability of food is reduced. Most of these
plants are available locally available in the villages, other than Lucerne that will be introduced by Mariri in these
villages for the members of LBG. In addition, we tested growing lucerne in the Mariri Environmental centre vegetable
garden with great success and are now testing the potential for LBG members with large number of rabbit to grow
Lucerne in the farmer field school fields to provide additional nutritious food.

Monitoring success - it has become increasingly difficult for us to monitor the number of livestock eaten and sold as
the livestock groups have grown. The majority of the members are non literate and are not able and not inclined to
keep the records themselves. As the program grows it becomes less important to keep the records and important to
just let it go. We will continue to monitor how many people have livestock over time and assist those who show
success in breeding so that they can protect their livestock effectively. The data from the survey do suggest that
people are eating and selling their animals when needed as the major benefit from the program seems to be
providing the income for household necessities and an alternative to bush meat.

Decreasing Chicken mortality -Newcastle’s Vaccination program for chickens.

Decreasing mortality of chickens from Newcastle’s disease will make a huge difference to food security in households
and provision of alternative protein. There is NO reason why this cannot be achieved in NNR. The vaccine is simple to
administer (eye drops, no fridge necessary) and can be done by community assistants. This has been highlighted as
an issue repeatedly by NCP/ Mariri and was again highlighted by the One Health survey completed by Dr. Mike Kock
in a consultancy for WCS/ NNR in partnership with Mariri/ NCP in 2016 (report available through NNR, Kock et al,
2016).).

There was little movement on the vaccination campaign from NNR management since our 2016 report and on
collaboration plan between SDAE, NNR and NCP is in place. In June 2017, the Agricultural and Veterinary Department
from the Mecula District Economic Activities Service (SDAE-Mecula) contacted Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) to ask
for support for their campaign against Newcastle Disease in birds, most specifically chickens. The NCP provided a
vehicle and the diesel to take the SDAE-Mecula team to the villages where they couldn’t get access to. H. Pereira
(Community Liaison Officer) from the NCP went along with Fernando Chambala and Eng. Elídio Maloa (working for
SDAE-Mecula) to vaccinate chickens in 11 villages in Mecula District. In total 197 households were visited with 2976
chickens vaccinated.

NCP wrote a report in June and sent this to SDAE and NNR management. We provided the following recommendations
and suggestions to NNR management team

1. A meeting is held within August / September with SDAE, NNR representations and NCP team to discuss a way
forward – how each partner can help to ensure November follow up vaccination builds on this success.
2. Ask the MOMS wildlife guardians to count chickens in some of the villages where chickens were vaccinated to
assess the percentage of chickens vaccinated
3. To produce awareness material, discussion and messages. Maybe even having a theatre group could help with
spreading information about health
4. SDAE could distribute vaccines in the villages where they have technicians, so that routine vaccinations can be
done. One of the important things is to conserve the vaccines in fridges. Some health posts have fridges, it would be
good if both, human and vet technicians, could coordinate the conservation of medicine
5. Monitoring of success of vaccination. NCP can help with this matter in the villages of Mbamba and Ncuti.

NCP remains prepared to fund, assist with implementation and monitor a trial vaccination campaign in partnership
with SDAE and NNR. However, for this to go ahead we need some response from NNR community and management
team on roles and responsibilities of different partners so we can move forward.

Vaccination of chickens in 2017- assisting SDAE with the eyedrop vaccination

 OBJECTIVE 5: TO DEVELOP WAYS TO INCREASE FOOD SECURITY, REDUCE HABITAT DESTRUCTION, AND
INCREASE ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOODS (CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE, BEEHIVE FENCES, CONSERVATION
TOURISM AND GRUPO KUSHIRIKA)

CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE
Food security is a serious threat to people living inside Niassa Reserve who are some of the poorest in Africa. It is
impossible to have a conversation about conservation when people are food stressed and are worried about where
their next meal is coming from. Most soils in Niassa Reserve, particularly in the eastern section of the protected area,
have low fertility and after 5-7 years’ people move onto new areas. Food security and increasing production on less
land is a critical issue in Niassa Reserve from both a human health and environmental standpoint. As the human
population grows in Niassa Reserve we have to find a way to increase production without an increase in rate and
extent of miombo woodlands cut down for fields.

Our conservation agriculture program has three components

a) working in the fields in villages in situ to improve productivity and teach different technique – Farmer field
Schools

b) testing techniques to recover fallow lands that have been abandoned to create alternative cash crops (2018
onwards) and

c) testing different crops and ideas in the Mariri vegetable garden and sharing our results with visiting local groups to
inspire change,

FARMER FIELD SCHOOLS

The conservation agriculture program that operates in fields in Mbamba village has been running since 2012 and is a
community-based approach to increase productivity of Niassa fields in a sustainable way through farmer field schools
based on the CARE International farmer field schools. Farmer Field School (FFS) aims to improve local techniques for
cultivating agricultural crops for proper soil use and increased yields and productivity. It relies on the farmers to test,
manage and maintain the conservation agriculture plots through a farmer field school (FFS) with technical advice
provided by Mariri / NCP. This mutual teaching is voluntary and FFS members receive agricultural inputs, (seeds),
field equipment (boots, machetes, axes, sprayers, t-shirts and shovels). The farmer field school techniques of
mulching, low tillage, mixed cropping clearly work and much higher levels of production were achieved in the farmer
field school field (see previous reports), Challenges have been that while farmers agree that it works, and results are
obvious, the farmers are unwilling to implement these techniques on a larger scale in their own fields. It has been
very difficult to get from the farmer field school to widespread implementation. The behaviour change required is
not happening. In addition, many people in the community are unwilling to spend time of the farmer field school
without being paid. This program was reassessed in 2016 by our new Community Liaison Officer to experiment with
new approaches to get the community involved and increase effectiveness.

The FFS is a group of farmers in the village of Mbamba and consists of 19 members, of whom 10 are men and 9 are
women. The final objective is the exchange of knowledge, and every Sunday is the fieldwork day where NCP and the
the farmers work together to resolve issues.
2017 progress and results

• In August 2017, it was discussed, with FFS members, which crops would be used to test
and evaluate different agricultural techniques for the 2017-2018 agricultural campaign.
• The techniques tested were planting crops in lines, because it’s easier to control the
growth and removal of weeds, the use of manure to increase nutrients in the field
(production of compost), using remains of maize, sorghum and grass to cover the soil
and retain water (mulching), crop rotation and consortium (planting two or three plants
crops that will help each other grow, i.e.: maize and cowpea).
• For compost, we used two different of piles of manure: V-shaped piles and box piles; and
buffalo, eland and elephant manures were used in different piles (some piles were a mix,
others were just from buffalo) that were collected in the area of the fields and Mbamba
village. Bat guano was also collected and used in the field. Other components of the piles
were dead parts of plants (maize and sorghum), dead grass, dead leaves and sand. These
techniques had all been tested in the Mariri Environmental Centre garden with good
effect.

Building a V-shaped compost Building a box pile of buffalo manure

pile

• The FFS area is of 0,315ha and it was divided into 8 plots and with 5 treatments. It was established that plots
with application of consortium of grasses (Maize) and leguminous and all these plots with the application of
 mulching and manure (guano, buffalo, eland and elephant). There was also the selection of two control
plots:

CP1-Plot was planted maize using mulching only and no manure

CP2-Plot were traditional practices were used

The farmer field school plot was designed using the following layout:

Soy=Mulching. Soy=Muching Soy=Mulching Maize=traditional practices (P2)

BG BEEB E. B
Sesame=Mulching Sesame Sesame=Mulching Pigeon Pea Pigeon pea Pigeon
BM =Mulching BG BEEB BEEB BM pea BG
Maize+Cowpea+La Maize+Cowpea+Lab Maize+Cowpea+La Maize+Cowpea+L Maize+Pigeon Maize+Fava
b Lab Lab BM b Lab ab Lab (P1) pea bean (P1)
BEEB BG Lab=Mulching (P1)=Mulching =Mulching

Maize+Pigeon Maize+Pigeon Maize+Pigeon Maize+Fava Maize+Fava Maize+Fava

pea BM pea BG pea BEEB bean BG bean BEEB bean BM

BG-Bat Guano, BM- Buffalo manure, BEEB-Bat Guano, Elephant, Eland and Buffalo manures

Application of manure/compost in the plots

• A “living fence” with pau-pico (Commiphora africana) was also planted and it’s expected that it grows
throughout the years and will keep away wild animals especially bushpigs and warthogs.
• Seeds of maize, cowpea, pigeon pea, sesame and ground peanuts were distributed to the FFS members, and
it was asked for them to have in their fields, an area of 10x10m where they could practice CA learning (zero
burning, mulching, planting in lines, use of manure, minimum tillage, consortium and/or rotation of crops.
• In CA plots, all the crops were planted in lines and respecting the different spacing for each species, so that

Results will be monitored at the end of the 2018 wet season.

Challenges

• Need expansion to other villages.

• Current team of FFS members need to graduate so that a new team can learn.
• All villages needed to be guarded to reduce attack by animals during the cultivation maturation period since
they are abandoned areas.
 • We need to expand teams to disseminate CA techniques through village and into other villages.

INVESTIGATING ALTERNATIVE CROPS AND SOIL FERTILITY -MARIRI EXPERIMENTAL VEGETABLE GARDEN AT
MARIRI ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE
Lead by Tomas Buruwate – Operations Manager

The aim of the Mariri Environmental Centre vegetable garden is not only to produce vegetables for our staff, school
lunch program, ecotourism camps and visiting children and adults to improve our diet but also to test different
varieties of fruits and vegetables and ways to increase soil fertility and production. All that is learned is passed onto
the visiting groups that come to the Environmental Centre. This information is critically needed to be able to assess
potential livelihoods programs in future.

The vegetable garden is protected from large ungulates and elephants by a simple polywire fence with solar panels.
Water is pumped from the Lugenda River for irrigation. While both of these items would need to be provided to a
community group, the results show clearly that it is possible to grow alternative cash crops in villages in NNR that will
alleviate food insecurity, improve nutrition and could provide an alternative livelihood with a minimum input of a
solar panel, well and pump. The garden is maintained by two gardeners from Mbamba Village that have been taught
by Tomas Buruwate.

Improving soil fertility by using organic manures

Soil analysis showed that soils are low in nitrogen and potassium. The soil fertility was improved by using different
organic matter including elephant dung, buffalo dung, bat guano, ash, compost, food remains, Fahdherbia albida
(nitrogen fixing tree) and sawdust. These techniques were passed onto farmer field school.

Introduction and testing of new potential crops in the garden

Sesame, sunflower, Lucerne (for small livestock), African eggplant, hibiscus, amarathus, sweet potato and two
species of chillies were introduced and tested in the garden and the results showed success. Lucerne in particular is
important as it is a valuable food plant for small livestock including rabbits and goats.
Gooseberry (50), banana (15), strawberry (1200), pawpaw (76), granadilla (20), guava=8, custard apple=4 are the fruit
trees planted in the garden.
Integrated gardening

Integrated gardening involves the planting of cash crops that attract bees for pollination and bee keeping on the
edges of the garden. This reduces the distance for bees to look for pollen and nectar and get double results that is
honey and the fruits from pollinated flowers. Agro forest was also part of this integrated gardening by planting
Faidherbia albida and moringa in the garden.

Challenges

1. Wildlife and climate: Different wildlife species affect different crops in the garden.
Some crop pests

2. NNR has a very long dry season from March to December and the combination of high temperatures and low
water levels in October and November affect the crops. However, the results show the potential for diverse
crops to be produced on NNR soils with the provision of some sort of irrigation for very dry months of the
year and a simple polywire electric fence to keep our herbivores.
3. Resistance to change: We are regularly told by local farmers that farming new crops is impossible and new
techniques don’t work. Creating behavior change is difficult and will take time and effort. The demonstration
garden is essential to prove that this is possible,

Opportunities

The Mariri vegetable garden shows that there is substantial opportunity for agro processing in NNR when the correct
techniques are used. Fertilizers can be made from compost and the dung of domestic and wild animals. Insecticides
can be made from chillies and tobacco that are both already present in NNR. Chillies in particular provide an
opportunity for a cash income and an alternative livelihood, through the making of peri peri sauces for sale, market
for dry chillies for chilli guns used to reduce human-wildlife conflict and sale of fresh chillies in markets in both
Pemba and Montepuez. All vegetables are organic and can be sold for a higher price due to the lack of pesticides.
Crops that have grown particularly well in eastern NNR include strawberries, sweat potatoes, chillies, gooseberries.
Lucerne and moringa can be grown by households to provide alternative food for livestock and the dung of livestock
can be used to fertilise the gardens completing the cycle. An integrated approach to market gardening will reduce
soil infertility and increase production. The horticulture program was implemented and had positive results as most
crops planted and introduced in the garden showed positive vegetative growth results despite the challenges from
wildlife and climate that affected the program. There are many new opportunities that can be explored in
community programs across villages in NNR.
All produce shown here above was grown in the Mariri vegetable garden in 2017

RECOVERING FALLOW FIELDS

Within 5-7 years fields are abandoned due to declining fertility and high levels of parasitic plants and new fields
opened through slash and burn agriculture. Recovering fallow fields for some productive use would make a huge
difference to reducing the amount of habitat transformation in NNR. We need to find alternative ways to use these
fallow lands while still recovering soil fertility. This project is still in early phases.

As a first step we invited a soil scientist, Jacinto Mafalacusser from Maputo to do an analysis of fields, fallow fields
and bush in Nkuti and Mbamba in the wet and dry season to assess ways to productively use fallow fields (those
abandoned as infertile), better understand low soil fertility, and develop a focused plan to increase soil fertility or
increase production by using alternative crops. The soil scientist report was shared with NNR team and guides our
activities.

According to Jacinto Mafalacusser (2017), the soils of the villages of Mbamba and Ncuti are deficient
in Phosphorus, Potassium and Nitrogen (NPK), which are elements that increase the development of
plants. Striga sp., known as witch herb, is a parasitic plant that sucks nutrients from the plant, where
it is housed. It is known locally that when Striga appears in the fields, fertility has declined and new
fields are opened. Corn, sorghum and millet crops are the most affected and the proliferation of
Striga is caused by the practice of monoculture and unsustainable soil preparation. These practices
involve the cutting down of trees, burning in the fields, tilling to make hills for the planting of maize
and, for the most part, the farmers do not do crop rotation and consortium..The soil scientist report
was shared with NNR team and guides our activities.
 Jacinto teaching our team about soils as he takes the soil samples in Mbamba, Nkuti and Mariri

ELEPHANT FRIENDLY HONEY AND BEEHIVE FENCES- REDUCING ELEPHANT CONFLICT AND GENERATING AN
ALTERNATIVE INCOME
(Program managed by Hugo Pereira and Benvindo Napuanha with Bosco Majan)

There is no doubt that beekeeping provides a viable alternative livelihood in NNR. The development of the current
beekeeping program in NNR rests on research and experience gained between 200 and 2012 in commercial and
traditional beekeeping. Between 2000-2004, Keith and Colleen Begg lead the honey badger friendly honey campaign
in South Africa, in collaboration with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, Green Trust and WWF-South Africa to develop
honey badger friendly commercial beekeeping. This included the first sale of honey badger friendly honey. The
auditing of beekeepers and honey badger friendly labelling program continues to date in South Africa lead by the
Endangered Wildlife Trust. It has resulted in a significant decrease of conflict between beekeepers and honey
badgers. In 2002, community beekeeping programs were visited in Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania. In 2004, a short
report on traditional beekeeping (bark hives) and honey gathering in NNR was written (Internal Report B, 2004). In
2012-2016 elephant beehive fences were tested in NNR by Mbumba Marufo with a site and training visit from Dr
Lucy King, from the Elephants and Bees program supported by Wildife Conservation Network. Elephants do not like
bees and avoid beehives. Dr Lucy King from Save the Elephants developed and tested the use of elephant-beehive
fences in Kenya to reduce crop raiding by elephants. They have also tested the use of beehives to protect old trees
from elephants. These beehive fences have now been implemented in many sites across Africa and Asia. More
recently our staff have visited beekeeping program in Ruaha, Tanzania and Catapua, Mozambique and we have
corresponded with Gorongosa National park. Many lessons have been learned. Our aim is not only to develop a
beekeeping program to provide and alternative income but to make sure this is tightly linked to conservation goals
(landuse planning, reducing conflict,). We need to be sure it does not encourage honeygathering and more cutting
down of trees or ring barking of trees to make traditional hives

Our previous community manager, Mbumba Marufo (Mariri Community Manager 2012-2016) and preliminary data
showed that the fences reduced crop raiding by 60%. They are showing similar success all over Tanzania, Kenya and
even in Sri Lanka. This is a long term, cost effective method of reducing elephant crop raiding that is community
based and sustainable with full community participation. Elephants don’t like bees and will alert each other when
they discover that there are bees in the area. Bees produce honey and it is an important source of money and food
in NNR. The idea is that apart from protecting the fields from elephants, farmers can gather the honey produced in
the hives, which they can sell in the markets found by NCP under the specially produced “Elephant-friendly honey”
label. However as more villages move to electric fences to reduce human-wildlife conflict in NNR with the majority
provided by the NNR community team, the possible use of the beehive fences has diminished.
However, beehives can also be used to protect elephant habitats and keep them untransformed through sale of the
“elephant friendly” honey. This has potential as an incentive to keep corridors open across the Mecual-Mussoma
corridor. This was part of our 5 year business plan for eL4.

Importance

In summary, beekeeping provides an alternative food or income source by the production of honey. It can help
reduce elephant crop raids and prevents elephants from damaging a great number of trees (baobab in example). The
placing of beehives in woodland can be used as an incentive to protect natural habitats in NNR and prevent slash and
burn agriculture.

How does the NCP elephant-friendly honey program work?

Each beehive costs $30 to build (4 bottles of honey) on site at Mariri Environmental covering labour and material
costs. We subsidise 50% of the cost of each beehive and therefore each beehive can be bought or paid for with two
bottles of honey. Four local carpenters have been trained to make top bar beehives. Currently the carpenters can
produce top bars with precise 32mm or 33mm of width. Carpenters are paid a basic wage and a bonus for each
beehive successfully produced. Each interested farmer receives a number of hives, and when honey is harvested
each hive is paid off with 2 jars of honey produced by them. The gathered honey is put into specially provided
buckets with a lid that are used only for that purpose to ensure good hygiene; the buckets are then delivered to NCP
who are responsible for bottling, labelling and selling under the elephant friendly label. Each jar is sold at 350Mt and
money is returned to the owner of the hives. If only half of these 24 beehives are occupied and well managed it has
potential of generating 50- 100 litres of honey per year for a single family. This honey can be sold under the
elephant friendly label for $789-$1578 per household per year. This is a significant amount of income and is more
than the costs of producing the fence.
2017 Activities

We reassessed the program given the lack of interest in the fences in Mbamba now that they have an electric fence.
For the year 2017, beehives were deployed in Ncuti village to build a fence that will involve all the fields from this
small, isolated village. At the beginning, it was thought that the fence would take 120 hives, as the perimeter was of
1.2Km (distance between two hives is 10m), but as they expanded the fields (new perimeter is 20Km), it will require
at least 200 hives. The building of the fence started in later 2016 and continued throughout the year of 2017. In
2017e more than 121 Hives were produced at Mariri Environmental Centre by local carpenters trained on site, using
plywood for the box, pinewood for top-bars, and iron sheets and bamboo to make the lids. The goal is to achieve 200
hives produced by the end of June 2018. One farmer from Nauti has already been able to collect 16kg of honey (15
jars) and received 5,250Mt for it.
Honey produced by one Nkuti beekeepers in 2017. We have more demand than supply

Challenges

While more than 200 hives were distributed to Mbamba beekeepers there has been an ongoing issue of people
stealing each other’s honey, lack of maintenance resulting in damage by honey badgers and fire and lack of interest.
Once they bought their electric fence using their community conservation fund, Mbamba village stopped using the
hives to protect the fields. In addition, hives are abandoned in the wet season when people move to the fields to
protect their crops.

Some of the villagers continued using them as an alternative, but hive occupancy (20 of 97and honey production was
very low (4 jars of honey, from 2 farmers allowing them to make 700mt each) largely due to lack of maintenance and
care and apathy. This is an ongoing issue in Mbamba where people are uninterested in taking advantage of
opportunities provided to them. We are open to collaborating and supporting Mbamba beekeepers when they are
ready.

To maximize the use of the hives, a natural habitat near the village was selected as a beekeeping area where hives
will be deployed in 2018. In the interim we have started working with Nkuti. This will hopefully provide an example
to Mbamba of what can be achieved with some effort. We are also collaborating with NNR community team to
introduce beekeeping in other areas under a similar system with audited beehives under the elephant friendly label.
The details still need to be worked out as it is not simply a case of providing a community with beekeepers. We need
to collaborate to ensure that this program grows with integrity and continues to support conservation. Honey cannot
be bottled under the “elephant friendly” label unless it is organic, hygienic and elephant friendly. It has to be audited
consistently as the label is a large part of the marketing and must have integrity for buyers to trust it.

The main challenges remain:

Theft: for three consecutive years, honey has been stolen and hives burned. The worst thing beside the theft itself, is
the burning of the beehives as this kills all the bees and destroys a $30 hive. This has to be dealt with by the community
themselves.
Maintenance – Farms that are located far from the village received poor attention if none at all, after the farmer has
harvested his crops. When the crop season ends, the farmers move to the village leaving the bees by themselves. They
hardly return to their fields. The bees suffers when the roofs are taken down and there is no people to put it back and
also repair the grass that gives shade to the bees.
Water – water has been one of limiting factor. At dry season many water sources dry up and as a result bees leave the
beehives. . Water needs to been taken to the beehives regularly during the dry season to prevent bees from leaving
the hives. Regular visits need to be made.
Top bars making – the carpenters in Mariri have been improving in their carpentry skills and the need to make regular
top bars. In order to increase honey production, we need to put wax in all bars to orientate. In some beehives, the
bees build one comb on more than two bars, limiting the efficiency of harvesting the honey. This was largely solved in
2017.
Monitoring the beehives- the beehives need to be monitored regularly. Honey is lost as it is left too long in the hive.
When the beekeepers go to harvest they find many broods and less honey in the combs. This can be resolved by
employing beehive extension officers to encourage beekeepers, monitor maintenance and collect honey when it is
ready.

We still believe that many of these issues will be resolved if honey production can be increased and is clearly seen as
a viable source of income. But the details need to be taken into account before this is scaled. Nkuti village shows a lot
of potential and has few of the issues experienced in Mbamba Village as it is a much smaller village.

CRAFT AND DESIGN GROUP – GRUPO KUSHIRIKA- INCOME GENERATION THROUGH CONSERVATION THEMED
ITEMS
Lead by Colleen Begg

In 2016, we initiated a new livelihoods program focused on the development of skills for local crafts and designs that
can be sold to visitors at Mariri, future ecotourism and markets in the US (Houston Zoo shop, Wildlife Conservation
Network Expo
 In 2016 and 2017, Monique Fagan (Junkanew), from
South Africa who has extensive experience in craft and
design and working with community groups. Monique
came to Mariri again in 2017 working with the Kushirika
group to refine their crafts, learn about colour and
design.

A wide variety of items were created, a name was

chosen (Kushirika means to come together), a label was
designed, and a logo was developed. The first items
were sold in the US. In 2017, these items were refined
and can be broadly categorized into three groups:
baskets and weaving, embroidery of animal designs
(cushions, bags and bed throws) and animals and birds made for flipflop rubber. All have improved substantially in
the past year and are now reaching market quality. Items are bought directly from the artist at Mariri. Glue and other
materials are available.

Activities 2017

• In 2017, a Kushirika craft area was built to accommodate the growing number of artists and their materials.
• The group meet very two weeks at Mariri Environmental Centree between April and December. Items are made
at home.
• While in 2016, 8 people were creating basic items that could be sold this has increased to 26 in 2017 and
includes men, women, old and young. We encourage elders to teach at least one person their traditional skills of
basket weaving
• Items have been sold at Wildlife Conservation Expo in the USA, on site to visitors and items have been sent to
Houston Zoo. $703 has been earned from sale of items.
• The group has developed rules for the group and entrance of new members. Price are set as a group. No person
who is found to be involved in illegal activities may sell their items under the Kushirika label.
• NCP integrates the cost of materials into the sale price to cover cost.
• Items are bought by NCP from the artists and then resold to encourage learning and participation with the result
that $4987 was earned by the group in 2017 alone.
• At present the NCP is operating at a loss as most items are bought but not all are saleable. This is expected
during this learning phase. An apprentice price is provided by NCP to encourage artists to improve and keep
trying.
• We expect sales to increase when Mpopo ecotourism camp is opened.

Beautiful handmade items from Mbamba Village with a biodiversity theme to support conservation and development
 OBJECTIVE 6: TO REDUCE BUSHMEAT SNARING AND OTHER ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES AND PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH EFFECTIVE ANTIPOACHING.
Lead by Silto Cristovao, Fernando Macamero, Agostinho Jorge and Keith Begg

We conduct antipoaching activities in the area under our management - L5-South (58,000 hectare) We collaborate
with NNR antipoaching teams that work across the whole Reserve and neighbouring antipoaching teams in
concessions L7, L5-N and L8. In addition, we are a trial site for implementation of SMART (see below) with the
intention that SMART will be implemented across NNR to monitor and incentivise antipoaching efforts in future. Anti-
poaching is needed to remove snares, apprehend gold miners and increase the opportunity costs for bush-meat and
ivory poachers. In addition, this forms a valuable form of employment and engages communities in the responsibilities
of conserving “their” wildlife. This is part of our goal to manage the L5-South commAs one elder put it “you don’t
steal from your own shop”. Just like a goat is used as a saving account, so are the wildlife and natural resources in the
area a “bank” for the community for the future as wildlife has the potential to generate revenue, employment,
provide skills and continue to provide resources for building, medicinal use etc. into the future. The aim of the
antipoaching activities of NCP is to secure the L5-South concession using men and women from Niassa province
wherever possible as scouts

ORGANISATION OF THE MARIRI / NCP ANTIPOACHING TEAM

a. In 2017, Mariri had 55 law enforcement personnel operating across eL4 and L5S. The scouts were pulled out of
eL4 patrols in January 2018 as no MOU had been signed by NNR management after two years of negotiation, no
process was in place to sign it and we therefore had no mandate to be in the area.
b. 30 patrol scouts permanently patrol 5 critical zones in 4-6 man teams (depending on leave schedules). These
patrol scouts operate on a cycle of 21 days on patrol with 7 days on leave. An additional 7 scouts headed by
Fernando Macamero make up a “Rapid Reaction Unit” with a dedicated vehicle that moves across all patrol
zones to where ever the greatest priority is. Scout density is at least 1 scout / 50km2
c. Another 17 scouts man seven control posts, monitoring vehicle and pedestrian movements and relaying
information on shots fired and relaying information coming from local communities. Cristovao Silto heads up the
SMART law enforcement monitoring in the Mariri Operations Room.
d. One additional 125cc motorbike was purchased in 2017 for the L4-E scout base at Namajati, which complements
the existing 3 law enforcement motorbikes. These motorbikes are used for rapid deployment when vehicle is
away transporting suspects. The motorbikes also transporting sick scouts and deliver equipment and scout
rations etc.
e. Additional Motorola radios, batteries, solar charging kits and an “Air to Ground” radio were purchased and
installed. The main antenna mast at Mariri was upgraded to improve communications. Communications between
aircraft and the Mariri Operations Room have greatly improved, allowing patrolling aircraft to contact “Mariri
Ground” from across all of L4-E, L5 and L7.
f. Radio communications on the reserve wide radio network was poor during 2017 despite two visits by technicians
from Kinetic Six (UK). The Rungwe repeater has not functioned correctly for the past 14 months and this has caused
considerable problems for all scout operations on the eastern half of L5-S. This was partially resolved in January
2018.
g. Mariri raised funds for a repeater to add to the system. However, this decision is being reassessed given that Mariri
is no longer managing eL4 and the installation of a repeater is not justified for L5-South alone.
h. Three new “Raptor” devices were purchased for SMART monitoring, along with 6 Garmin “InReach” and 5 “Spot”
satellite tracking units. These satellite tracking systems allow for continuous “near real-time” monitoring (every 10
minutes) of all 6 patrol teams, and selected vehicles and motorbikes.
i. Eight first aid kits dedicated for law enforcement where all updated and a stretcher with spider straps and head
immobilizer were purchased to help with recovering and evacuating injured scouts. A further 9 scouts received
training from SOS International in 2017.
j. Scout selection courses were held in June and December, with a total of 22 recruits being hired in 2017.
AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS :
a. The project’s dedicated Husky aircraft “ZS-MYK” has been fully operational, flying a total of 242,7 hours during
the year piloted by Operations Director, Keith Begg.
b. In total 75 dedicated aerial patrols (151 hours, 8,544 km) were flown inside the reserve searching for illegal
activities and monitoring collared lion and elephant.
c. In addition, the aircraft was used for 4 casualty evacuations to hospitals and reaction to a very serious vehicle
accident that included the district prosecutor, police, scouts and prisoners. Specific patrols were flown to assist
WCS locate 7 poached elephants in L3. Monthly flights out Pemba were made to collect staff wages and
supplies.
d. 30 drums of AVGAS were purchased to cover an additional 200 hours of flying in 2018.

Aerial patrols 2017

TRAINING:
a. In May an experienced gunsmith came to Mariri for 4 days to train both Mariri and Chuilexi staff and scouts
on firearm maintenance. Firearms were also serviced and repaired.
b. The initial scout training organized for May 2017 was cancelled due to unclear and inconsistent policies within
 NNR management about the type of visa required by the ANAC approved instructor from Conservation
Outcomes. Instructor Andre Badenhorst from Conservation Outcomes (CO) arrived at the beginning of May
to conduct one month of training but had to leave soon after his arrival. Authorities demanded a short-term
work permit, letter from the warden and permission from police, but this was not universally applied for
training in other areas or at reserve head quarters. CO is a designated trainer for ANAC.
c. In July, First Aid instructor Hugo Costa from International SOS spent a week doing training Mariri, Chuilexi and
NNR (WCS) scouts and staff at Mariri (18 people).
d. In August a follow up Law Enforcement workshop was held at Mariri with District Judge, Prosecutor, National
Police, Environmental Police, Border Guards and Operator scouts to discuss constraints, better interpret
conservation law and requirements for building stronger cases and prosecutions.

Second Law enforcement workshop at Mariri

e. In November, a month of training was successfully completed by CO for 24 scouts without further interference.
Specific focus was on scout leaders, firearm skills / discipline A comprehensive scout review has been received
from CO and scouts have shown a marked improvement. Additional training is scheduled for March and
September in 2018.
f. One day of training on Conservation Law of Mozambique was provided by the Warden, Baldeu Chande in
November for scouts as part of the above training workshop.

“SMART” LAW ENFORCEMENT MONITORING:

a. A ten-day SMART training workshop for all NNR technicians was held in April lead by Agostinho Jorge and
Silto Cristovao at Mariri. A follow up 2-day workshop with SMART technicians was held in October to assess
progress and resolve issues. In November a third workshop was held for technicians in Mbatamila.
b. The Chuilexi and Mariri programs are both fully operational. The main constraint for WCS now is that none
of their patrol scouts know how to use SMART in the field and after 7 years SMART is still not implemented
at NNR reserve level. Niassa Wilderness still lacks critical equipment (GPS and Smart devices) to be able to
integrate fully into the SMART system but have plans to purchase these items when funding is available and
this is likely to resolved soon. To resolve the equipment situation, NCP has prepared a document on the
various SMART devices and costs that are needed. The lack of a reserve level SMART implementation is a
major problem for monitoring and protection of NNR.

INFRASTRUCTURE (SEE SECTION ON INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ENTIRE PROJECT)

a. An additional 4 rooms were constructed at the Mariri airstrip for senior scout accommodation and storerooms.
 This main scout base can now accommodate 15 scouts, 1 dedicated land rover, aircraft. A kitchen, mess room,
ablutions and boxing fitness training area are also available at this base.
b. A new scout base in the middle of L4 East is completion at “Namajati”. Permission to start construction was
delayed by the reserve authority and only started in November. This new base camp provides essential support
to the scout teams operating in eL4, particularly those patrols in the LiSimba / Makotwa area. The base consists
of 4 buildings which include 1 kitchen, 1 mess area, 1 store, 1 operations room and accommodation for 11
scouts. A small airstrip will be built to improve access in 2018.
c. 3 new control posts have been positioned along the main access routes in eL4.
d. 53 kilometers of new roads in eL4 have been developed to improve access and 35km of district roads repaired
and drainage added along the boundaries of eL4 and L5-S.
2017 RESULTS OF ANTIPOACHING
• Mariri deployed 212 ground patrols, amounting for 1954 days on patrol. Scout teams covered a total
distance of 17,826 km.
• Tragically one scout, Fernando Alassima was fatally injured by an elephant while out on patrol. He was badly
injured and flown to Pemba SOS clinic by Keith Begg but died en route. We are supporting his family through
scholarships of school going children as well as permanent employment of one son in addition to legal
requirements.
• There were four separate elephant poaching incidents during the year in L5 South, resulting in 9 dead
elephants with nine carcasses unaccounted for but we recovered the ivory. Six of these elephants were shot
during one incident in late December.
• The total number of poaching incidents in eastern L4 is unknown. From ground and aerial patrols, we can
account for 22 carcasses but the actual number is expected to be closer to 30.
• A permanent scout presence in the eastern side of L4 will only be possible once the MOU that is currently at
national level is signed.
• Mariri arrested 39 miners in eastern L4. Mining has decreased dramatically in L5 South in 2017 but remains a
major threat in eL4, L7 and L8. No miners were arrested in this concession compared to more than 2000 in
2016. Mining remains a major threat in L4.
 Antipoaching patrols in 2017 showing the start of patrolling in eL4 in 2017 with patrol tracks and patrol coverage..
Permission was only given for a scout camp to be built in November 2017 by NNR management contingent on
agreement being signed in December 2017. Agreement was not signed after multiple delays and lack of clarity..
SUMMARY OF ANTIPOACHING ACTIVITIES.

Year
Category 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
2 2 2 2
Concession Area 576.5 km 576.5 km 576.5 km 576.5 km 576.5 km2
Númber of scouts 14 20 28 32 37
Number of control posts 3 3 4 4 4 +3 eL4
Area per scouts 57.65 km2b 41.17 28.825 20.59 15.581
Scouts per area 0.017/km2 0.024/km2 0.034/km2 0.094/km2 0.064/ km2
Total number of patrols 102 83 112 199 212
Total distance of patrols 7,380km 7,000km 4,375km 11,579km 18,562 km
Training Courses 0 4 0 2 1
Total number of days in training 0 120 0 60 38
Elephant killed illegally 15 13 1 4 9 (9 not
found)
Number of suspected elephant poachers 1 3 0 0 1
caught
Number of tusks recovered by scouts 7 28 6 12 38

1
Note that scouts were hired for eL4 but due to agreement not being signed these scouts have been absorbed into L5S for now.
We are aiming for 1 scout / 50km2 as a minimum. In 2017 we patrolled in both eL4 and L5S. See SMART report
 Number of tusks recovered by informers. 5 6 4 2 0
Ammunition recovered (AKM) 13 151 9 0 138
Illegal hunters captured 9 1 3 0 3
Snares wire removed 25 45 45 100 20
Rope snares removed 14 1 8 59 56
Guineafowl snares removed 6 0
Illegal miners captured 6 >200 >1000 2277 39 (eL4)
Minerals confiscated 2 2 2 >20 >30
Mining instruments confiscated <20 >200 >600 1961 234

Map showing position of illegal activities where purple is L5 South and concession to the west is eL4. Black is illegal
mining, yellow, elephant carcasses, red old carcasses of elephants.

Wildlife sightings for scouts throughout L5 South and eastern L4 where buffalo is black, eland is orange, elephants are
grey/green, lions are yellow and wildebeest are white. These data form an essential part of our monitoring in L5 South
along with our camera traps.
Conservation threats in L5- South- Note that this only reflects L5-South and does NOT reflect NNR as a whole where
bushmeat snaring, illegal mining and elephant poaching continue to be major threats.

Conservation threat Severity Trend

Illegal mining Medium Decreasing

Bushmeat Snaring Low Decreasing

Elephant poaching Medium Increased in 2017, decreased

overall

Commercial fishing Medium Decreasing

Poison Low Stable

Trade in lion bones Low Increasing

Hunting with dogs Low Stable

Charcoal production Very low Potential- increasing bags of

charcoal seen in Mecula
Town

Logging Low Stable

Domestic dogs- disease and hunting No longer a threat None in Mbamba

Habitat loss Medium Increasing but managed

spatially through land use
agreements – landuse limit

SPECIFIC INCIDENTS OF NOTE IN 2017 INSIDE L5 SOUTH

• 27th December, six elephants killed (one collared female, two elephants were pregnant) and one collared lion
for teeth and claws. Rapid reaction team had contact with these poachers and recovered 30 tusks, 138 rounds
of ammunition, lion parts from one lion and three cellphones. Considered by ANAC to be most significant
recovery since September 2014 due to information on cellphone. All data handed over to Mbatamila for
further investigation.
• 12 December, contact with poachers at Msosa in L7 in joint response with L7, 3 elephants were killed but
resulted in recovery of one set of tusks and arrest of one local elephant poacher. Through investigations by
Mbatamila / NNR management two additional arrests were made included one person from Mbamba Village.
Mariri was asked to arrest this person and transport him to Mbatamila. This was done. Traditional leaders
were informed beforehand. As a result of this event, community wrote a letter to District asking for Mariri to
be removed from L5-South. The letter was written three days after the arrest and was directly related.
• Arrest of 7 miners in L4 east, taken to Mecula. Riot by residents in Mecula resulting in prosecutor asking for
assistance from NCP to transport miners, prosecutor and scouts to Marrupa. Mariri vehicle had an accident
en route, vehicle rolled. All 14 people were transported to hospital in Marrupa and all have recovered. Miners
walked out of hospital with no prosecution.
• 31 December, six poachers were surprised in their camp in eastern L4 during routine aerial patrol and opened
fire on the aircraft with AK-47. Mbatamila and L7 provided back up support. These are likely to be poachers
that killed 7 elephants in L4 West.

ELEPHANT POACHING IN 2017

• In L5-South, 14 elephants have been killed in past 3 years between January 2015 until January 2018 in 7
incidents.
 • In 2017, 9 elephants were killed with six of these elephants killed by one poaching gang in December 2017.
• In December 30 tusks were recovered but only 6 carcasses found. It is likely that the remaining dead
elephants will be located in the dry season. This illustrates how difficult it is to obtain accurate numbers on
elephants killed as only a fraction are found from the air or antipoaching patrols.
• Despite the increase in 2017, largely through the one event in late December, there has been a reduction in
poaching in L5-South since 2012. We are concerned about the increase in 2017.
• This is not due to lack of elephants in the area as herds and bulls are regularly seen.

Number of elephants killed illegally in L5-South between 2012 and 2017.

Number of elephants killed illegally in L5-South per month since January 2012. These data show the successful reduction in elephant
poaching incidents in L5-South since Mariri Investimentos/ NCP took over management in 2012 with a spike in poaching in last two
months of 2017. This spike in poaching was widespread across NNR in 2017.

ILLEGAL MINING
Gold Mining has increased exponentially in NNR and increased dramatically in L5 South in 2016 culminating in a riot in
December 2016 when Mariri arrested 19 gold miners. As a result of this riot, Mariri suspended our conservation
partnership with Mbamba Village until May and redoubled efforts to get mining under control through education,
awareness at District level of the issue and continued antipoaching pressure. Theses combined efforts seem to have
had a major effect and mining in L5 South is largely under control in 2017.
 Miners apprehended in L5-South between 2012 and 2017

Mining is still a major problem in eL4 and is the biggest risk to ecotourism development and community partnership in
L4 east and is connected to bushmeat snaring, siltation and pollution of the rivers with mercury and possible human
health risks in future. Mining is increasing in several areas of Niassa Reserve not only L5 South (L8, L7, L4, L5N,).
Experience in many other conservation areas is clear about the devastation this can result in a protected area. A
standard operating procedure to deal with mining in Niassa Reserve has yet to be developed though this has been
extensively discussed as part of the General Management Plan. This causes confusion. We require guidance on
reserve policy.

A young male lion collared in L5-South, appears to have died in L7/L8 close to the large mining camp “Maningi Nice” in
March 2018. Bushmeat poachers were arrested in the same area by Edwin Young in March but neither the collar nor
the body has been recovered. A lion was snared in this same area, 3 years ago.

Images of a gold mining camp in a neighbouring concession inside Niassa Reserve – L8 near to which a lion was killed

BUSHMEAT SNARING AND LION TRINKET TRADE

Bushmeat snaring and hunting is a major threat to carnivores and their prey in NNR. Snares are used to kill wild
animals for meat and non-target species like carnivores are killed inadvertently. It is the major threat to lions,
leopards, spotted hyaenas and African wild dogs in Niassa Reserve. These species are critically important for
ecotourism and ecological stability. Unless bushmeat is taken seriously and acknowledged as a major threat to Niassa
Reserve not simply a livelihoods issue, Niassa Reserve will not be able to achieve conservation success.

As a result of our concern, Agostinho Jorge (Conservation Manger) has been conducting a study on bushmeat
consumption and trade in NNR for his PhD whilst working for NCP. He is currently writing up his thesis though the
University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa on a scholarship from NCP and Wildlife Conservation Network. He
provided a “Summary of key finding from the bushmeat survey in NNR and surrounds) in 2017” in advance of his final
thesis to assist with management. This was sent to NNR management team in 2017 with no response.

Of major concern in this report is the level of bushmeat snaring and trade which confirms it is not subsistence but
commercial trade. In order of preference, buffalo, zebra, lion, kudu are targeted. This confirms that the trade in lion
parts is now a real threat to lions in NNR. The lion trade came up in the hunting surveys, bushmeat historical data,
informer reports, national survey and consumer survey and it is clear that it is now happening at multiple levels. For
management purposes, the regular and substantial movement of meat through Kiboko gate in Taxis, government and
reserve vehicles is of major concern.

A full set of lion teeth and bones is now reaching $1000-$1500. This is similar to prices offered regionally in
Zimbabwe. A collared lioness was killed in December in L5-South simply for teeth and claws. A second lion was found
with face and paws missing near Kiboko by NNR management team in 2017. This is escalating in NNR and beyond
across Africa.

Lion paws and teeth recovered with ivory and ammunition in December 2017 in L5-South

In 2017 20 wire snares, 56 rope snares were pulled out of L5-South and eL4. We regularly arrest bushmeat hunters
that have been arrested before and then released.
For the first time in 2017, a “gintrap” or steeljawed trap was found near Mbamba Village. There are used in many
areas of Mozambique to catch wildmeat rather than snares but are not common in Niassa.
NIASSA CONSERVATION ALLIANCE
Through collaboration as the Niassa Conservation Alliance (an informal alliance of likeminded neighbouring
concessionaries in eastern Niassa) – Chuilexi Conservancy, Mariri Investimentos / NCP and Luwire have achieved some
success in securing 11,000 km2 in eastern Niassa National Reserve. This collaboration is governed by an MOU and
regular communication and meetings. We are collaborating to secure this eastern section. Significant investment and
results are being achieved by this effort. Niassa Conservation Alliance (NCA) collaborate on a daily basis through
“WhatsApp” group messaging and have conducted joint patrols and operations on multiple occasions.

In 2017 collaboration included:

• Two joint patrols with the Chuilexi canine unit in hot pursuit of poachers.
• One aircraft casevac for L7 scout to Montepuez hospital.
• In November, an emergency meeting was held to discuss the dramatic increase in elephant poaching and
possible actions. Our combined data show that 93 elephants had been killed in NCA concessions between
January to November alone. This has now risen to more than 115 and only accounts for NCA concessions. NCA
believe there are now 1200-1600 elephant left in NNR Based on these data, NCA wrote a combined statement
to NNR management authority and ANAC to express concern about the level of elephant poaching in eastern
NNR (Annex D). There was an immediate response at National level from ANAC and NCA was invited to the
NNR Management Meeting in Maputo to express their concerns and present an action plan. This was later
refined and a series of immediate steps identified.
• Two critical action identified were to improve current temporary holding cells at the Mecula district police to
assist police, increase safety and reduce prisoners escaping before prosecution and assistance with a vehicle
to transport suspects, police, and prosecutor to Marrupa for court cases. NCP/ Mariri offered to raise the
funds for this in a joint proposal (NCA, ANAC and WCS). In late December the full amount was raised by NCP
through a private donation and WCN, Lion Recovery Fund.
• The vehicle (new Toyota Landcruiser) has been purchased, modified and delivered to NNR to be used to help
transport people, Prosecutor and Judge to Marrupa as needed.
• There has been no progress or further support on the building or plans for theholding cells by NNR
management or WCS despite the joint proposal. These fnds will therefore be returned or reallocated by NCP
in communication with donors.
.
Pamphlet highlighting the Niassa Conservation Alliance and its collaborative approach.

THREAT 2: RETALIATORY KILLING DUE TO ATTACKS ON PEOPLE OR

LIVESTOCK

OBJECTIVE 7: TO REDUCE HUMAN-CARNIVORE CONFLICT THROUGH LIVING FENCES, SAFE SHELTERS AND
SAFE BEHAVIOURS
Human-carnivore conflict results in retaliatory killing of lions and leopards. Human – wildlife conflict in general leads
to a loss of support for all conservation initiatives. While human carnivore conflict in NNR is much lower than in other
East African countries due to the absence of cattle it still erodes conservation efforts. Research in previous years has
shown that lion and leopard attacks can be reduced through behavior changes, specifically sleeping inside a shelter
during the wet season, never walking alone and improving goat corrals etc. A safe behavior poster was developed to
promote awareness of behaviours that make people vulnerable and what actions people can take to reduce attacks
themselves. We have developed a toolkit of methods used to protect livestock across Africa in collaboration with
other lion projects which is available in Portuguese, English and French.

NCP is committed both to assisting the Mbamba Village community reduce all human-wildlife conflict within our
concession L5-South and to reduce human-carnivore conflict across NNR through the Niassa Carnivore Project with
the Reserve management team. We firmly believe that coexistence between carnivores and other wildlife and people
is possible if we take precautions and are proactive about protecting ourselves, crops and livestock. We collect
detailed information on all human –wildlife conflict events through our partnership with Mbamba Village and collect
data on human wildlife conflict events across NNR through the MOMS wildlife guardian program that we manage in
partnership with NNR team.

As has been requested since 2005, we request that an agreed NNR Protocol is developed for dealing with problem animals
and reporting on attacks across NNR: NCP has repeatedly requested that NNR management team develop clear protocols
to deal with problem animals (What is a problem animal? Who should be contacted? Who should get the meat? How
can conflict be prevented etc., who can destroy the animal) and these need to be made clear to scouts, communities
and operators and the district government. Once these protocols have been developed then these guidelines can be
included in the Environmental education and outreach programs at Mariri Environmental Centre. There is still a
widespread attitude that animals should be destroyed rather than livestock protected. This message has also been
spread by District, National and Provincial Government officials who visited NNR. This is incompatible with long-term
conservation goals. A decision tree would be useful. We are happy to be able to assist with this. This is a fundamental
need for NNR

We believe that killing an animal in a protected area should be the last resort and only implemented when all other
options have been exhausted and there is a clear danger to people. Livestock need to be effectively corralled and this
should be responsibility of the owner. NO meat from a problem animal that is killed i.e. buffalo should be distributed
to community which reported the problem.
REDUCING AND MONITORING CONFLICT THROUGH THE MOMS WILDLIFE GUARDIANS
The MOMS wildlife guardian program provides critical information on human -wildlife conflict (HWC)\\across NNR
and helps communities reduce conflict through extension work and assistance with constructing safe shelters and
effective goat corral. The 2017 activities are reported on elsewhere under conservation monitoring. Here we report
only on HWC data.
CONSTRUCTION OF CORRALS AND SAFE SHELTERS- SAFE BEHAVIOUR / SAFE SHELTERS
The MOMS guardians have been playing an increasingly important role in reducing human -carnivore conflict through
working as extension agents promoting safe shelters and safe behaviours. There is a need to adapt traditional
methods to reduce conflict to make them more effective. It is possible to coexist with carnivores. This message of
coexistence and taking responsibility to reduce conflict has been an ongoing message from the MOMS guardians that
is met with resistance by the communities who believe that the reserve is responsible for the animals. One practical
problem is that people say they need assistance to transport logs for building corrals as they are now too far away
from communities where the livestock are held. As habitat is converted to fields through slash and burn agriculture,
woodlands becoming increasingly far away from where the livestock is kept. In every village we do have a few people
that have taken the effort and time to improve their corrals and shelter but we will need to look for alternative
materials for making shelters.

In 2017, 17 safe shelters were built with the help of the guardians in Gomba, Negomano headquarters, Mecula
headquarters, Guebuza neighbourhood, Lichengue, Nampequesso, Ntimbo, Mussoma, Manhur, Mucoria and Luatize.
An additional 15 corrals for goats were built in Negomano headquarters, Mecula headquarters, Lichengue, Mussoma,
Manhur, Maolela, Nkalapa and Nsacalanje. Whenever an attack of livestock occurs, the guardians assist with collecting
information, improving the corral and using fox lights to dissuade the carnivore from returning to the corral or house.
Most import is to reduce the attraction of carnivore into the villages and keep people and their livestock safe. No
“problem” carnivores were destroyed in 2017 in MOMS wildlife guardian villages as far as we are aware.
INCIDENTS OF HUMAN WILDLIFE CONFLICT
During the year the wildlife guardians registered 4098 incidents of human wildlife conflict in 33 villages across all three
districts. The majority of events (77%) recorded were damage of mashambas (fields) by ungulates, primates and
elephants. Most of the damage was caused by baboons (40%), bush pigs and warthogs (29%), with elephants
responsible for 13% of the incidents.
Number of Incidents of Human-Elephant conflict recorded per village in 2017 by 33 MOMS guardians

Number of incidents of human-carnivore conflict recorded per village by hyaena, lion and leopard across Niassa villages. This includes
attacks on livestock and people.

Sadly 4 people lost their lives to wildlife in 2017 in the MOMS villages. They were killed by buffalo, crocodile, bushpig
and elephant while 29 people were injured.

No-one was injured or killed by lion, hyaena or leopard in 2017. There were also no incidents with people or livestock
being attacked by lions in 2017 in any of the 33 villages. While this may be due to the excellent work done by the
guardians to reinforce corrals and teach people about safe behaviours, we need to be cautious that this is not simply
due to a decline in lion populations. The 2018 lion survey will help us understand this better.
People killed and injured by wildlife in 33 MOMS guardian villages in 2017

In 2017, 422 domestic animals were killed by carnivores or birds. Of these the majority were chickens (81%) taken by a
wide variety of animals including eagles, side striped jackal, snakes, genet, small cats, hyaena, leopard, baboon, and
honey badgers. Attacks by eagles on chickens is difficult to prevent as chickens are free range during the day. Attacks
on chickens at night by small cats, hyaenas, honey badgers and jackal can be prevented by having secure chicken
coops off the ground.

Domestic livestock killed in 2017 by carnivores

 Carnivores that killed chickens in 2017.

In 2017, 20 goats were killed; mainly by hyaenas, with one goat killed by an elephant, one by a honey badger and two
by crocodiles. While this shows the low level of human-carnivore conflict in NNR compared to other areas in East
Africa, the loss of a goat remains a major loss to the livestock owner. Predation by hyaenas and leopards on goats is
almost entirely preventable through using effective goat corrals and corralling goats at night.

Overall (2006-2017) ten carnivores have been reported to be causing problems across NNR. Of the 18,543 conflict
events reported over the past ten years between 2006 and 2016, only 4 % were by carnivores (753 events). Hyaenas,
side striped jackal and leopard were the main culprits and were responsible for 56% of the events reported.

Human carnivore conflict in Niassa Reserve is relatively rare due to low numbers of domestic livestock and no cattle. It
can be reduced even further if households take responsibility for their livestock and put it into corrals at night and do
not allow animals to move around free range. There is a tendency for households to leave goats, rabbits and ducks
outside at night. This encourage conflict. There is no tradition of livestock husbandry inside Niassa Reserve.
SAFE BEHAVIOURS
NCP has spent a lot of effort in the past 10 years helping people avoid attacks by carnivores on livestock and people by
identifying safe shelters and behaviours that make people vulnerable to attack. Attacks on people can be minimised if
people sleep in safe shelters in their fields in the wet season when 80% of the attacks by carnivores have occurred.
These safe shelters or Sanja have been used for 100s of years by local people and represent the best way for people
to reduce risk. Goats should be in a strong goat corral with a secure roof and door. The data suggest this campaign
has been successful with a reduction in people injured or killed by carnivore over time – there were no attacks on
people in 2017.The Portuguese version of the Lion-Human Toolkit produced by NCP details ways to reduce attacks on
people and livestock and is freely available here:
http://www.niassalion.org/library_files/Portugese_Toolkit_May_2016_small.pdf

This toolkit was distributed to all MOMS guardians, NNR community team and others in NNR in 2016. It is freely
available for download and can be distributed as necessary. It is also available in English and French for conservation
programs across Africa.
 THREAT 3: UNSUSTAINABLE SPORT HUNTING

OBJECTIVE 8: TO ENSURE SPORT HUNTING OF LIONS AND LEOPARDS IN NNR IS SUSTAINABLE AND MEETS
CONSERVATION OBJECTIVES.
Overview of the sport hunting of lions and leopards in NNR

A detailed internal report is provided to NNR management each year on the auditing of lion and leopard trophies
taken in NNR as required by our MOU with ANAC. A summary is provided here.

In NNR sport or trophy hunting is allowed inside the protected area across nine hunting concessions covering 27,989
km2 (66.6%) of the protected area estate (42, 500 km2. This is regulated by the Government of Mozambique not NCP.
At present only 8 of the sport hunting concessions are active. Sport hunting is increasingly controversial particularly
for species that are facing widespread declines across their range like lions, leopards and elephants and particularly in
a protected area that also has high levels of illegal offtake of both leopards and lions, such as NNR.

Sport hunting was identified as a threat to lion, and leopard populations by Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) in 2003 due
to the lack of monitoring, and the lack of a rigorous system for quota setting. The Lion regulations were implemented
in 2006 by SRN in partnership with NCP, and updated by WCS/ ANAC in 2013, while the leopard regulations were
implemented in 2010 by SRN and updated by WCS/ ANAC in 2013. National regulations following the NNR regulations
are currently in draft format and have been out of comment in 2017. NCP has been independently monitoring the
offtake and age of lion and leopard sport hunting trophies in NNR for more than ten years. With regard to sport
hunting it is the responsibility of NCP to provide annual independent monitoring and auditing of the offtake, age, and
distribution of lions and leopards taken as sport hunted trophies for Mozambican authorities and Reserve
management team, to ensure that the NNR (and in future national) regulations for the sport hunting of lions and
leopards are adhered to and advise WCS/ MITUR on sustainable quotas. We also collaborate with NNR to monitor lion,
leopard and hyaena population densities and threats to these carnivores throughout NNR to determine the trend in
the population densities of these species. It is important to recognise that this work is funded by NCP by independent
donors and is not paid for by either WCS, Niassa hunting operators, animal welfare or animal rights organisations,
sport hunting clients or ANAC and we do not have any vested interest in sport hunting. Our goal is simply
conservation of these species.

Sport hunting has been directly implicated in population declines and altered sex ratios of both lions and leopards
when offtake is too high and/ or young or female animals are taken (Loveridge et al. 2007; Lindsey et al, 2013).
Research has also shown that the sport hunting can be sustainable with little to no negative impact on the long-term
persistence of a lion or leopard population if sport hunting is restricted to males that are at least six years of age in
lions, seven years in leopards and offtake does not exceed 2-4 % of the adult male population. However, these quotas
are based the assumption that the offtake is the only (or at least main) source of non-natural mortality and that the
total numbers of animals killed in an area in a year do not represent more than 2-4 % of the adult male population.
This is clearly not true in areas where there are high levels of illegal offtake and poaching. In these areas the danger is
that the illegal offtake and legal offtake combined are unsustainable. Sport hunting can only be considered
conservation if the sport hunting operators are reducing the illegal offtake through antipoaching. Simply put for sport
hunting to be conservation more animals must be saved through antipoaching and community engagement in each
sport hunting concession than are killed as trophies.

It is unlikely that illegal hunting is currently under control in most sport hunting concessions given the low density of
scouts, seasonal presence in blocks and presence of villages inside hunting block or in close proximity. The 20% of the
concession fees and trophy fees that are meant to be returned to communities by law are not tightly linked to wildlife
presence so are unlikely to be acting as an incentive for communities to reduce illegal offtake or increase tolerance for
human wildlife conflict are seen more as compensation than an incentive. As shown by Jorge et al 2013, very few
economic benefits are trickling down to communities from the sport hunting of leopards and this in no way
compensates for attacks by leopards on livestock. There is no reason for this to be any different for lions. However,
this could be improved through better communication of where the 20% comes from, increased and better managed
benefits flowing from operators to communities and better operator/ community relationships. There is therefore
little evidence that sport hunting is specifically benefitting lions and leopards or communities or reducing their specific
threats other than in a general way.

Lions and leopards are the highest value species for sport hunters, since elephant hunting was stopped in 2016. There
is a risk in NNR that stopping legal sport hunting of lions and leopards may increase poaching of all species either
because sport hunting operations become unviable as a business and the operators leave and these large areas are
left open (as is the case for some concessions inside NNR where high levels of poaching have been reported – L4) or
because less profits are generated and there is therefore less money available for effective protected area
management. Sport hunting without protected area management is just a business not conservation. Without further
data and economic analyses, it is impossible to know how realistic these scenarios are. Is an operator that does no or
little antipoaching but does still hunt better than no operator at all as the presence reduces illegal activities and
expansion of agriculture and mining?

However, measurable benefits to Niassa Reserve as a whole from sport hunting in eight concessions are not trivial
and include individual benefits to local people living inside NNR through employment as camp staff, trackers and
antipoaching scouts in an area that has very few alternative sources of employment and currently no operational
ecotourism; the establishment and maintenance of roads, camps, airstrips, and other infrastructure that allow the
Niassa Management team access to remote areas for antipoaching efforts; daily communication by people on the
ground of poaching events (particular elephant poaching) and informer information on poisoning, logging, mining,
snaring etc. that allow for rapid response; provision of additional aerial support; and the employment and training of
operator antipoaching scouts (+- 60 in sport hunting concession) that complement the NNR antipoaching team. In
addition, the concession fees generate about $200,000 for conservation management for NNR. It is naive to suggest
that sport hunting should be replaced by ecotourism at this point given that there is no viable ecotourism in NNR at
present despite concessions being available. At present, the alternative to sport hunting is not ecotourism, it is open
concessions or concessions run through conservation philanthropy. What would happen if these areas were open?
These hunting concessions are very large (2200-4300km2) and more open concessions at this point may be disastrous
for many species including elephants, lions, leopards, hyaenas, pangolin, plains game etc, as it would lead to less
conservation management at a time when threats are increasing.

We recognise that this is a complex situation however it raises a number of questions that need to be answered with
data and clearly articulated by NNR management to local, national and international partners given the current
controversy about sport hunting, growing illegal activities inside NNR and concern about lion and leopards.
.
1. Is the continued sport hunting of lions and leopards justifiable given the threats simply because of the
economic contribution sport hunting makes to NNR and National Government (concession fees, trophy fees)?
2. Is the continued sport hunting of lions and leopards justifiable given the threats due to greater conservation
benefit (local employment opportunities, infrastructure, antipoaching scouts) that sport hunting operators
bring to NNR? In other words, does NNR risk leopards and lions declining for the “greater good” of the overall
benefits and income provided by sport hunting operators.
3. When does NNR decide that a species can no longer be sport hunted as it would be detrimental to the
population of that species in a conservation area? If a species is declining in NNR, can it continue to be sport
hunted? When is the threat level and risk too high to continue to allow sport hunting of that species?
4. If lion and leopard hunting were stopped until illegal poaching had been brought under control, how many of
the sport hunting operators would leave NNR and how many would commit to finding funds for additional
conservation efforts to secure their area until the situation improves? What are the real consequences for
stopping lion and leopard hunting in terms of conservation, local economy, funding for protected area
management of NNR.
5. What are the objective contributions of current sport hunting operators to conservation management –
number of scouts, proportion of finances to community programs, antipoaching, local employment, reserve
conservation?
6. How is the quota given to each block affected by the area actively managed by an operator? If an operator
does no or little antipoaching and only hunts in a small fraction of the block should the quota be given for the
 whole block? Is the quota they receive simply linked to the geographical area (block) in their contract and
concession fee or is it linked to the area which they actually manage and hunt?

LION AND LEOPARD SPORT HUNTING IN NNR IN 2017

1. For lions, the NNR regulations and the “points system” for assigning quotas implemented in 2006 coupled with
ongoing monitoring of lion and leopard sport hunting trophies have been successful at reducing offtake in NNR
and increasing age of lions taken as trophies (Begg et al. 2017). These results were published in a peer review
journal in 2017. Begg, C.M., Miller, J.R.B., Begg, K.S. 2017. Effective implementation of age restrictions increases
selectivity of sport hunting of the African Lion. Journal of Applied Ecology 2017: 1-8. DOI:10.1111/1365-
2664.12951.
2. In 2017, two lions were taken as trophies from two hunting concession, the other concessions did not sell lion
hunts in 2017. One lion was in the 4-6 age category and the other was over 6 years of age. One lion was killed in
an area for which no lion quota had been given however an abate ticket had been issued.
3. In total in 2017, there was a quota of 22 lions provided by the Government for lion hunts in Niassa Reserve.
Offtake was 9%. The majority of operators did not sell lion hunts in 2017 due to USFWS ruling.
4. There was only one unsuccessful lion hunt as no suitable lion was seen. It is unknown how many abate tickets
were purchased and not used.
5. The number of underage lions take as trophies has decreased from 75% to less than 25%.
6. The sustainability of leopard sport hunting is more difficult to assess as leopards are very difficult to age from
visual criteria and most of the animals taken as trophies are not over 7 years of age (Packer et. al 2009). The
potential negative effect of infanticide caused by sport hunting young leopards in NNR should not be
underestimated (Balme et al. 2010, Ray 2011). In most areas old leopards can be identified by a dewlap, increased
facial scaring and wear on their ears. A male leopard is fully mature at 4 years old (Balme et al 2012). Since 2007
concern has repeatedly been raised by NCP (Annual report from 2007 to 2012; Jorge et al 2012) that many of the
leopards taken as trophies in Niassa Reserve are under 4 years of age with no wear on their teeth, that baits are
set in the same trees every year acting as a population sink destabilizing leopards in that area and very small areas
of the concessions are hunted although quotas are set for the entire area.
7. In total 213 leopard trophies have been aged from tooth wear since 2005 into broad age categories. Of these
65% have been younger than 4 years of age and only 17 leopard trophies (8%) can be considered old leopard and
likely to be over the recommended 7 years of age. 25% of the leopards taken as trophies show no wear on their
teeth at all.
8. In 2017, 16 leopards from NNR assigned quota of 25 were taken as trophies from seven hunting concessions. This
is 64% of the offtake overall.
9. Only 3 leopards taken in 2017 were over the age of 4 years from tooth wear. Six of the leopards shot in 2016
showed no wear on their teeth at all and cannot be over 2-3 years of age.
10. There has been no improvement in aging of leopards over time. This suggests that PH are unable to age leopards
from visual cues and using age limits is not possible for leopard hunting in Niassa and a rule of thumb based on
area is more pragmatic.
11. We continue to recommend that the leopard quota is reduced from 40 to 29 to follow the 1 leopard / 1000 km2
of the area hunted rule. This was for the most part achieved. Currently only two concessions are receiving more
than the recommended quota.
12. It is notable that despite operators stating that there cannot be a problem with the leopard populations as several
leopards coming to the baits, few of the leopards taken as trophies are old. This suggests that these areas are
“sink” populations that have been destabilized.
RECOMMENDATIONS

1. We strongly recommend that a temporary moratorium on lion sport hunting be put in place for two years or
until the illegal poaching, lion trade and illegal mining in NNR is under control. At present, armed poaching,
illegal mining and bushmeat snaring are not under control in NNR. A temporary moratorium would allow NNR
management team and operators time to put a focused plan in place to improve antipoaching strategies to
reduce the trade in lion bones and bushmeat snaring as well as illegal mining and armed poaching and
improve intelligence to counter this trade. This will also show the international community that NNR is
serious about lion conservation and that sport hunting in NNR takes place within a conservation framework as
a conservation tool and is not simply a business that continues regardless of the threats to and status of the
lion population. In our opinion it is impossible to justify sport hunting of lions in NNR when the threats are
increasing dramatically both within and outside the sport hunted concessions inside NNR. The lion survey in
2018, which is to be completed by NCP in collaboration with NNR management team and coupled with data
on lion mortality and intelligence will be used to assess the situation further. This is unlikely to have a major
effect on most concessions as only 2 lions were hunted in 2017 due to USFWS ban on import of lion trophies.
2. A similar situation exists for leopards. There is clear evidence that the combined offtake of illegal and legal
hunting is currently not sustainable. From the point of view of the leopard population in NNR, leopard hunting
should be stopped until illegal activities are under control. However, we recognise that stopping leopard
hunting along with lion hunting may cause sport hunters to be unprofitable and perhaps abandon their blocks
or become even less able to do antipoaching and this will have consequences for multiple species. We
therefore suggest that leopard sport hunting should continue in 2018 with quotas strictly following 1 leopard
/ 1000km2 but it has to be recognised that this is not sustainable for leopards in the long term, and a major
improvement in reducing illegal offtake is required.
3. A study is urgently needed to assess objectively whether stopping the sport hunting of lions and leopards
could be done without causing operators to become economically unviable and to assess what alternatives
are available to secure the land currently occupied by sport hunters i.e. a Plan B or to provide financial or in-
kind assistance to sport hunting operators so that they can effectively protect the areas they manage inside
NNR.
4. A major effort is needed to reduce illegal hunting of leopard and lions in NNR if sport hunting is to remain
feasible and linked to conservation in Niassa Reserve. This has to be done by improving antipoaching across
NNR and for these antipoaching efforts to be monitored through SMART. If the moratorium is not possible,
then lion and leopard regulations need to be strictly enforced and antipoaching and community engagement
insisted on.

GOAL 3: PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY CONSERVATION

PARTNERSHIPS (L5SOUTH POSSIBLY L4)

See Objective 6- for antipoaching results

OBJECTIVE 11: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY BASED MODEL OF CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT IN L5-

SOUTH
In 2012 we were awarded the management lease for concession. L5-South (580km2; 58,000 hectares) by the Ministry
of Tourism through an open tender process. This is the smallest concession in Niassa Reserve and has been the
intensive study area and base of the Niassa Carnivore Project since 2003. This concession, is being managed by us
(NCP, TRT Conservation Foundation in partnership with the Mbamba Village community (2000 people) who live inside
the concession as a Mozambican company Mariri Investimentos (name chosen by the community).
Our goal is to successfully manage and secure this wildlife area in Niassa Reserve in partnership with the local
community with decreased poaching (bushmeat snaring and ivory poaching), increased wildlife populations, reduced
human-wildlife conflict, increased food security and real benefits from conservation flowing to the Mbamba
community and people across Niassa (revenue, employment, conservation assistance).

The concession also provides security of land tenure for the Mariri Environmental and Skills Training Centre and
Headquarters of NCP. In 2016 and 2017 we hoped to initiate management of the eastern section of concession L4-
East, our neighbour to our west. This concession is currently open and is a major poaching and mining hotspot. This
has not been possible. Through initial discussions with the NNR Management team and traditional leaders we hoped
and planned to to work with 7 villages in this concession, who have already expressed an interest in partnering with us
in conservation as we have done with Mbamba village. The MOU was not signed by the NNR management despite
promises made, funds raised, people hired , mapping completed, expectations raised and buildings built.

Block L5-South

It lies in Niassa Province, Mecula District inside Niassa National Reserve (NNR) in the south eastern Lugenda Valley. L5-
South borders two sport hunting concessions on the south bank of the Lugenda River (L8, L7) with ecotourism
concessions to the west (L4, not occupied) and east (L5-north). It includes Mbamba village, a major village inside the
protected area which supports approximately more than 2000 people and 410 households) and encompasses a
mosaic of habitats. The southern boundary of the intensive study area is a 30 km stretch of the Lugenda River, which
is the most intensively fished area along the 350 km of the Lugenda River contained within NNR. The river provides a
critical protein and income source for several communities. This is the smallest concession in Niassa Reserve and has
been the intensive study area and base of the Niassa Carnivore Project since 2003.

Eastern L4

In 2015, we were asked to manage the eastern section of block L4 by NNR management and GDA partners as part of
ECOSMART Alliance for USAID funding. In the past two years, there have been signed letters of permission from
warden’s (Baldeu Chande and Cornelio Miguel) and Management Committee in this regard. We raised the funds,
wrote the 5-year business plan and budget, and developed a draft MOU. In October in good faith we started
construction of antipoaching scout quarters in eL4, staff were hired and roads opened with the intention to start full
activities in January 2018 (this was agreed by warden in a minuted meeting of the GDA partnership in December). By
January 25th, this agreement had still not been signed by NNR management. On the 26th January 2018, we sent a letter
to the Director General of ANAC copied to the warden as well as all GDA partners, informing that we would,
regrettably, not be able to continue without a mandate given the security risks in the area and all staff were pulled out
and buildings handed over to NNR. Director General of ANAC, Dr Soto, asked if we would reconsider as our assistance
was needed and promised that MOU would be signed and our assistance was needed to manage this area. To date
(March 2018) this has still not been resolved. We were committed to investing significant funds, skilled staff and
experience in community engagement to secure and stabilize this area and work with the 7 communities therein. This
is a lost opportunity and impossible for us to understand given the high poaching pressures in this area, the needs of
the communities and given that we are a not for profit conservation organisation with no business interest in the area.
 MAP OF NIASSA RESERVE, SHOWING THE LIPUMBULU MTN AND THE EASTERN LUGENDA RIVER
POSITION OF CONCESSION L5-SOUTH, THE INSIDE CONCESSION L5-SOUTH
SMALLEST CONCESSION IN NNR

L5-South block contains one community, Mbamba Village with approximately 400-500 households. Our intention is
for L5 South to be managed in a conservation partnership between Mariri and Mbamba village (Mozambican partner).
This is proving to be challenging largely due to low understanding of business principles of transparency and effective
conflict resolution as well as partnership being undermined by political and other agendas and ongoing wildlife trade.
Another small village, Ncuti which supports approximately 40 people lies just outside the boundary of L5-South in
Block L4 which is currently unoccupied. Macalange Village is in our northern corner currently outside L5 South but
included in eL4-East. Both these villages are included in eL4. We provide some livelihoods support, employment and
other benefits to both these villages.

Mbamba Village inside concession L5South – approximately 420 households surrounded by extensive mashambas in all
directions. This village is situated in a high-density wildlife area and our partnership with this village has resulted in
substantial increase in wildlife populations with a decrease in poaching and mining as well as an increase in revenue
flows to the village through salaries and direct funds. Through agreement with Mbamba Village expansion has been
stopped due east to provide a wildlife area for ecotourism and environmental education centre to generate funds for
 Mbamba. This is currently the only successful micro landuse agreement in Niassa Reserve. Mariri Mountain and then
Lipumbulu Mtn can be seen in the distance, both within the concessions with the Lugenda River on the right-hand side.

NCP/ Mariri Inveestimentos considers sustainable social, economic and community development in Mbamba Village a
priority and an integral part of our conservation strategy. Communities are a part of all our conservation, education
and ecotourism programs. However, we do not believe that handouts without responsibilities will build a sustainable
future. We have a two-pronged approach – social responsibility programs (school, alternative livelihoods, human-
wildlife conflict) and benefits and revenue sharing through community conservation partnership agreements linked to
incentives and performance payments.

Our approach is to concentrate employment and benefits into the Mbamba community that live inside the concession
unless these skills are unavailable as it is these people who are helping to manage this area and living with L5-South
wildlife. The Mbamba Village community is involved in all aspects of conservation and social development of L5-
South. Substantial investment into the Mbamba community was made in 2017 following our investment in 2013 to
2016 and based on specific responsibilities.

Meeting with Traditional Chiefs and Comite to discuss electric fence and new materials needed. Mariri assisted the community by
providing a GPS track of the current fence and new mashambas to help the community decide how much electric fencing they wished
to buy and visually see the current area of mashambas

CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP AGREMEENT WITH MBAMBA VILLAGE

The Community Conservation Fund was established in 2011 as part of Marri’s commitment to partnering with local
communities and formalised in 2013. In 2015 NCP initiated the implementation of a performance payment scheme
(conservation incentive scheme) to ensure that revenue sharing is tightly linked to conservation activities. The funds
come to the village from animals and conservation. This was introduced by Mariri/ NCP but negotiated and agreed on
through several additional meetings over several years. The performance payment scheme runs for 12 months at a
time between July of one year to June of the next year culminating in the AGM.

The performance payment scheme was first discussed, at Mariri Environment Centre in 2014 and implemented for
2014/2015. The performance payments scheme was first negotiated by Mbamba Association and traditional leaders
and then communicated to community by Mbamba Association at the June 2015 AGM and through door to door
outreach campaign in 2016 and 2017. People from the village were invited to contribute addition criteria. This is
assessed each year. The only criteria for the performance payments are that they must be easily measurable and
related to conservation. This program has been completely transparent and communicated to the Chefe de
Localidade, District Administration and Warden and WCS at all stages and progress assessed in all our Annual reports.
This is an innovative program that forms part of our adaptive governance and management approach
HOW IT WORKS AT PRESENT
A baseline fund is provided to the community for honouring a landuse line/ limit on the eastern side of Mbamba
Village delineating an area for agriculture and development and an area for nature based tourism. This line, shown
by a road and GPS was agreed to through multiple negotiations and oversight by NNR warden, Cornelio Miguel and
District Administrator. It is 500m on the western side of the Mbamba River. This does not involve anything other than
agreeing not to cut down woodlands for more fields on the eastern side of Mbamba Village (north, south and west
expansion has no limits) and limiting motorbikes east of this line. Resource use such as fishing and honey collection,
and pedestrian rights through the area are allowed with no restrictions other than those in the current conservation
law (fishing license, no uncontrolled fires, snares etc). Illegal activities (bushmeat snaring, mining, elephant poaching,
poisoning, logging) are not allowed in any part of L5 South as it is completely within the NNR protected areas.

In 2017, the Mbamba Community Conservation partnership was not in place between January and May due to riot in
December at Mariri in response to arrest of illegal miners. This was against the agreement and it was suspended. A
new agreement was negotiated that was signed in May 2017 after a full participatory process. Before the signing of
the agreement it was taken door to door in Mbamba village to ensure residents were aware of what was being
negotiated and canvas ideas. Various drafts of the agreement were sent to NNR management team including warden,
and WCS Country Director for comments and edits. The agreement was negotiated in four in-person meetings with
Association and Chiefs until all were in agreement. A public meeting was organized for signing the agreement. The
agreement was signed eventually signed by traditional leaders and President of the Association, witnessed by the
Chefe de Localidade, Mbamba Community, Mariri team and traditional Leaders (Annex f) as well as more than 150
members of the Mbamba community.

Signing of the Mbamba-Mariri Conservation partnership agreement in June 2017

This signed agreement was provided to the District and NNR management team. This agreement was in place until
December 2017. It details responsibilities and benefits for both Mariri and NCP. For example Mariri/ NCP will be
fined if
Table: 2017 Revenue sharing and benefits and responsibilities for the Mbamba community and Mariri

. Benefit Details in agreement Received

Employment of Mbamba people for 14400 work days (80 people for 6 173 people employed;
months in seasonal conservation months) 16631 days,
services

School Lunch program All children to be provided with one 129 children who
meal a day if they attend school, came to school
teachers to monitor and Comite to pay between June-
for the cooks November received
lunch

Community Conservation Fund base 247,000 for honouring the landuse 123,500 Mt
fund limit 500m from the MBamba river to
ensure an area for agriculture and an
area for ecotourism (6 months)

Performance payments for tourism Mt4000 for each visitor that stays at 452,800 Mt
(Mariri and Mpopo) Mpopo trails camp

Payment for children who write exams 271 children wrote exams 27, 100Mt
at end of year

Payment for months without 4 months with a dead elephant 30, 400 Mt
elephants killed

Payment for each time visitors see key Each time visitors see key animals, 4, 500 Mt
animals (lion, leopard, buffalo, funds are paid to community
wilddog, hyaena, elephant)

Funds taken off for elephants illegally 9 confirmed elephant, plus 9 - 228,000Mt
killed unconfirmed but ivory confiscated off
poachers in L5-South

Funds taken of for large canrivores Lion killed for teeth and claws, - 27, 100 Mt
illegally killed collared and killed next to village

Funds taken off for each snare or traps - 2, 300 Mt

removed by scouts

In January 2018, a total amount of 444,100 Mt (US$7,162) was paid in full to the Mbamba community conservation
fund for 2017. The funds were used by the community to buy materials for their electric fence (new batteries,
energisers), pay for controllers of fence, pay for school cooks. All documents are available. No money was taken off
for elephants killed outside L5 South, more employment was provided than required and funds were paid in full.
SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
The school lunch program is one of the benefits provided to Mbamba Village as part of the conservation agreement.
Mariri and the Mbamba community have been increasingly concerned about the low level of school attendance in
Mbamba village and the low number of children reaching Grade 7. The Community suggested that this was due to
parents who did not want to send the children to school and teachers who were seldom at the school. For every child
that completes the school exams an additional bonus will be given to the Community Conservation Fund (US$3 per
child). Education is a key part of conservation as without an education, adults cannot find work and therefore rely on
natural resources for income and food. We are committed to providing better education in Mbamba Village as part of
a benefit from conservation. For better running of the program, responsibilities were given to three parties, Mariri,
School and Community.

NCP/ Mariri Investimentos: Buys food for the program, provides cooking materials, pots, cups, spoons, forks, etc.;
monitors the program.

School (teachers): Controlling food and materials of the program provided by Mariri; ensure only children who come to
school receive lunch, request food from Mariri when the school is running shortage of it; provide a monthly report to
Mariri about food program

Community: hires cooks to prepare food for children, fetches water and firewood for food program; monitor the
program and the well.

Impact of lunch program in 2017

In 2017, the lunch program again showed a positive impact in bringing children to school when we look on number of
children who were attending classes before the program started this year (February to May) and after it started (June
to November). In September and October, the average number of children who were coming to school on each day
was 164 students, an increase of 72 children simply due to the lunch program. However, 300 children were registered
at the beginning of the year and there are still 136 children that are not going to school even with a lunch program.

A meeting was held at the school with school teachers, school committee and Mariri to try and understand the reasons
for such low participation. It was pointed out that there were lots of absences on part of teachers. Out of the nine
teachers at the school, only 4 were there regularly, others were on maternity leave or doing distance learning courses
which meant they were often away. The absence of teachers had a great impact on the children. Sometimes children
were returning to school but no teachers were there and this badly affected the morale of the children. Some parents
decided not to send their children to school given that the teachers were not there. Many parents also seem to have
the attitude that it is the children’s choice (not the parents) whether they go to school or not and they could not be
forced to do something they were not interested in doing.

Way forward

There needs to be much better monitoring of the teachers to ensure that they are actually at their posts. This is a
community and district responsibility. Teachers seem unmotivated to teach and more interested in their own careers
than future of the children. It needs to be explained that children are required to go to school – it is not a choice. Good
leadership of the school is essential. A general campaign in village by leader, and teachers to ensure that parents are
aware that children must be sent to school is needed.

REVENUE SHARING THROUGH CONSERVATION TOURISM- MPOPO TRAILS CAMP

The Mpopo Trails camp was built with philanthropic funds to provide an ongoing, sustainable, increasing livelihoods,
and revenuefor Mbamba Village. It has been designed at every level to provide a sustainable, locally derived, revenue
for Mbamba Village and NNR. It was purposefully built with donor funds not investor funds to ensure there were no
loans needed to be paid off by the community and revenues could immediately be generated for direct cash
payments to the community conservation fund through a community conservation bed levy and in future additional
funds could be generated to support the community conservation partnership and performance payments.
The entire camp cost $70,000 to build and set up with annual refurbishment of approximately $10,000 a year covering
local employment and local materials (thatching grass and bamboo). While the camp is expected to cover all its costs
and generate a profit for community performance payments the intention is not for it to cover all the conservation
management costs in L5 South. This will continue to be done through philanthropy. We do not subscribe to the idea
the conservation should rely on funds from tourism alone. This is just one tool and alternative livelihoods.
This low risk, high return model is specifically suited to the current Niassa Reserve environment which is insecure, with
high logistics costs. Above the costs of operation, all “profits” will be used for community performance payments and
projects and the revenue sharing begins immediately and will grow over time. .
At every level we are focused on keeping benefits within 100km of the camp; from the staff, the seasonal refurbishment,
the food, the crafts, the quilts and the experiences to ensure growth of the local economy. These camps are semi-
permanent, with no running water, electricity, internet or cellphone coverage. These are simple camps with an
extremely low ecological footprint that focuses on the Niassa experience not luxury and have been extremely well
received. These decks are based on the centuries-old Mozambican tradition of sleeping on raised platforms, called
Sanja, for safety from wild animals during the wet season. These Sanja are locally built and cane be seen in fields
throughout Niassa. The decks were built by the team of Mbamba artisans who have honed their construction skills over
the past four years whilst building NCP’s Mariri Environmental and Skills Training Centre.
By charging a per visitor bed night fee of Mt 4000/ pppn ( at least $50 dependent on exchange rate) we expect this
camp to more than double the community conservation fund in the first year in bed night levy’s alone. This is a much
higher bed night levy than the majority of community ventures and these funds go directly into the village held
Community Conservation Fund with no restrictions on use but requirements of transparency and planning (budget,
AGM, public noticeboard, accounting, minutes etc.). The method of calculation is simple and verified through receipts
to ensure the community understand the calculations (not a % of profit which is a difficult concept to portray).

This trails camp is entirely handcrafted and locally maintained (combed thatching grass, woven rope, bamboo screens
and mats, furniture etc.), and has not used any cement or permanent structures to ensure the least possible disturbance
to the riparian habitat and highest possible employment in future in replacing materials (thatching grass, mats, screens
each year). Dry toilets, solar lanterns and bucket showers ensure the camp has a very low footprint in keeping with our
mission. We are still investigating way to ensure that no single use plastics, such as water bottles are used. Food will
come locally from vegetable garden and local fields with a focus on Indigenous food.
Initially walking safari guides will be from outside Niassa but the objective is to train local guides over the next 5
years.Traditional eco-tourism activities will be based around walking and canoe safaris on the spectacular Lugenda River
and surrounding mountains. Tourists can visit NCP’s Environmental and Skills Training Centre, and our conservation
programs should they wish. .
Progress and challenges in 2017

• Progress on this camp has been detailed in all our workplans and annual reports since 2013 and was part of
our 5-year business plan (2012-2016). Mpopo Trails Camp was completed and design tested in 2017. It will be
ready for visitors in 2018. The first “guineapig” guests were hosted very successfully to test ideas and provide
proof of concept. Furnishings have been made by Grupo Kushirika and local carpenters including quilts,
cushions, chairs, ornaments to generate additional local livelihoods.
• The camp was visited by Mecula District Administrator, government officials, Reserve staff, local chiefs and
traditional leaders at various stages to get ideas and ensure local communities were part of the process.
• All plans and description are completed and have been submitted to Provincial Director of Culture and
Tourism for licensing. Process has been delayed by long response times (months) for support letters from
NNR and District.
• The increasing banditry and lawlessness in NNR and northern Mozambique, poor governance of the reserve,
ongoing elephant poaching and uncontrolled illegal mining across NNR as well as the ongoing rioting by
communities when people are arrested for illegal activities, stone throwing, and intimidation and threats to
our staff by community members all undermine the potential for successful conservation and ecotourism in
NNR and development of local communities. This needs to be urgently addressed if ecotourism is to be
successfully developed in NNR.

CHALLENGES WITH CONSERVATION AGREEMENT AND REVENUE SHARING

There continue to be challenges with implementing the partnership largely due to lack of understanding by everyone
of how the partnership work, lack of District and NNR support and manipulation by high level officials with other
agendas, low governance of NNR and lack of implementation of the conservation law.
Part of our mandate and contract from the Government of Mozambique for management of L5-South is to support
and implement antipoaching inside the concession. However, each time miners or elephant poachers are arrested the
community responds through riots, intimidation, accusations, assault, stone throwing. This has happened two years in
a row in November / December. The agreement is then suspended until the issues are resolved and better
understanding is reach. This is an exhausting but important process. In both cases, the actions against NCP/Mariri
(riots, letter of accusations) were encouraged by people outside of L5 South with other interests. In both cases an
inappropriate response by NNR and lack of support for private investors enflamed the situation and resulted in a loss
of trust. We remain committed to providing revenues to local communities in the areas in which we work when they
have committed to conservation in the area. We believe this is an ethical duty and good for conservation.
Community conservation agreements with defined revenue sharing, cash performance payments and benefits linked
to conservation responsibilities are an effective and innovative way to incentivize communities to engage in
conservation and provide support for development.

However, the current culture in NNR of lawlessness, criminal gangs with high levels support, lack of accountability,
competing interests, lack of aligned district, provincial and reserve plans, no general management plan, low levels of
governance of NNR and a culture of riots, intimidation and accusations with no implementation of the law is making
investment and community conservation more difficult than it needs to be. These are business agreements and
partners have to be professional, and illegal activities have to prosecuted. These benefits are linked to performance
and are not social responsibility handouts. They are voluntary agreements/ partnerships and should a community not
want to engage in conservation (over and above the law) then that is their right but then they are not entitled to
these specific benefits.

Challenges

• The low number of people that come to community meetings. As a result, meetings are frequently not
representative of full community. It is hoped that as the fund grows and has the potential to affect more
individual lives, attendance will improve. Similar problems have been encountered by district government
officials.
• Communication is still poor and many people in the community still do not understand how the partnership work.
This is despite public meetings, door to door campaigns in local languages, and public noticeboards. Some of this
is due to very low literacy levels in the village. Some of this is also due to deliberate spreading of misinformation
for those that want to undermine conservation as they have other interests. We need to find more effective ways
to communicate to large numbers of people – perhaps theatre and films.
• Lack of clarity on how the budget is determined. This could be resolved by deciding ahead of time on the goal for
fundraising by the village and providing a vision representation of how the fund is growing as visitors come to
Mariri and payments are earned. This might develop a sense of accomplishment and engagement in conservation
activities rather than passively waiting for the money.
• We are still not actively able to engage community in conservation management other than through employment.
We need to spend more time including community in fire management (early burning,) removing of snares etc.
• The lack of skills in literacy, leadership, administration, minute writing, and budgeting result in poor decision
making. This will improve with skills training. We need to provide more focus of this. We also hope that as the Lion
Scholarships results in children returning to the village with an education over time there will be more literate
adults.
• There is still a perception by some that Mariri has “bought” the Chiefs and village. This is largely due the high
levels of poaching and low levels of implementation of the conservation law. People see Mariri as in direct
competition with the poachers who also pay the community members to provide assistance rather than a
voluntary business transaction.
• There is a perception that only Mariri is against poaching when this is the Mozambican law in a protected area.
This leads to confusion in the village. Prosecutions are essential if illegal activities are to be implemented and
understood.
• Lack of support from NNR management team to ensure that false accusations and intimidation of private
investors are not supported and there is a clear “code of conduct” for how business is conducted. Lack of
peacebuilding and facilitation skills of NNR management team designed to reduce conflict rather than enflame
OTHER SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SUPPORT IN 2017
Each year NCP also provides some social responsibility support in the communities in which they work untied to
conservation outcomes These activities are simply intended to provide assistance where it is needed and build
relationships. In 2017, Mariri painted the school (Escola Primaria Completa 7 de Abril – Mbamba), the only school in
L5 South concession. Two classrooms, office and roof were painted and fixed. We also fixede doors and windows and
strengthened the foundations of the old colonical era school rooms.

Mbamba school- painted- first classroom and office- back

Donation of laptop computer to Community Radio

We donated a laptop to the children who run the Youth Program for Mecula Community Radio to enable them to
improve their youth program and record their programs. These children are dedicated to spreading messages on health
and conservation. Mariri donated a brand-new laptop computer to the program. The children also visited Mariri to learn
more about conservation.
 Mecula Community Youth Group with new computer from NCP

GOAL 4: TO DEVELOP AN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

PROGRAM FOR NIASSA RESIDENTS – MARIRI ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTRE

OBJECTIVE 10: TO DEVELOP A COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAM IN NNR
THAT INCREASES TOLERANCE AND REDUCES CONFLICT AND PROVIDES NIASSA RESIDENTS WITH LOCALLY
RELEVANT CONSERVATION MATERIAL
This program is led by Andrew Mkanage (Education team) with his team of Pascoal Anselmo and Pedro Sandali.

Our environmental education program includes

a) Overnight bushvisits to Mariri Environmental Centre,

b) Wildlife Clubs in schools in the Mecula Corridor
c) Conservation workshops for adults
d) Partnership with Still Standing “Joy of Life” to bring basketball with a conservation message to NNR schools
e) The Annual Lion Fun days in Mbamba
f) Development of educational materials and games to meet the needs to communicate critical conservation
education
The aim of the Mariri Environmental and Skills Training Centre is to provide a field venue for bush visits by adults and
children to see animals, conservation programs and hold locally relevant community workshops. We hope to build a
relationship between Niassa residents based on locally relevant information and exposure to wildlife and nature,
foster conservation values and provide skills training for adults to enable them to seek alternative nonextractive
livelihoods and a place for community training workshops.

In 2012, a long-term dream became a reality with the building of an Environmental and Skills Training Centre in Niassa
Reserve inside concession L5-South as part of our concession agreement and NCP MOU. This consolidated our
Environmental Education programs that were initiated in 2009. In 2015, the Mariri Environmental and Skills training
Centre was opened and is fully operational with overnight accommodation for 19 adults or children in cottages with
three additional guest cottages (6 beds) when needed. Additional tents are put up when necessary (i.e. for the MOMS
annual workshop where 35 people are hosted for three days).

We do not have time to only educate the children of Niassa, we must educate the adults too. Many of the children and
adults living in one of the largest remaining wilderness areas in Africa do not know what it means to live inside a
protected area, and the importance of sharing this wonderful place with wildlife. They have never seen wildlife in a non-
confrontational way and never seen Niassa through the eyes of a visitor. The aim was to bring people who live inside
Niassa Reserve to a place where they could see conservation in action and to a beautiful area of Niassa Reserve where
it is possible to understand what conservation and ecotourism are and to see animals. Through the M. E. C, we are also
able to disseminate information on human –carnivore conflict, elephant beehive fences, small livestock breeding,
conservation agriculture, rabies, SMART, reserve regulations, mining, safe behavior in protected areas, ecosystem,
conservation law, etc.

We believe in environmental education tightly linked to conservation action and as part of the One Health philosophy
– healthy people, healthy animals. healthy planet. For this reason, the Environmental Centre is at our HQ for Mariri /
Niassa Carnivore Project. The visitors to the Environmental centre are therefore able to see aspects of conservation
they might not have thought about – beekeeping, the vegetable garden, goat corral, safe shelter, beehive fence and
livestock breeding as well as interact with our team from our scouts to our bookkeeper. We include parts of the
school curriculum and health aspects to create an experience that is relevant to their lives. The aim is to improve
knowledge and increase tolerance through knowledge. This forms part of a holistic program to encourage behavior
change through education,
MARIRI ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE – BUSH VISIT PROGRAM
Since 2015, 901 people (adults and children) have been hosted at Mariri to appreciate, research and learn about
conservation. Our target is conservation messages should reach all levels, from adults to children, government officials
to local people. In 2017, we hired Education assistant, Pascoal Anselmo, from Marrupa to assist in all activities of
education department as our program have grown.

We have a guiding curriculum for the Mariri Environmental Centre however activities are adapted based on the literacy
and age of the children, how they are responding, current conservation activities going on at that time. The value of
the having the Environmental centre as part of our conservation headquarters is that children meet our conservation
staff, visiting researchers and are active participants in our conservation and research programs.

Nearly 300 adults and children visited Mariri in 2017. This number includes Chiefs, government officials, groups of
children from various schools, wildlife guardians from 33 villages inside NNR, researchers and visitors. This included
more than 100 children from villages within NNR enjoyed bush visits (4 days overnight visit) to Mariri Environmental in
2017. For most children and their teachers this was the first time they had done anything like this or seen wildlife in a
safe and enjoyable way

Visiting researchers are asked to share their research with children visiting Mariri. Prof Claire Spottiswoode, from
Projecto Sego (Honeyguides and Honey gatherers) took the children out to teach them about the birds and using
binoculars with simple checklists of the common birds, other researchers did a talk on bats. Jen Guyton from Princeton
University and Gorongosa National park did a talk on bats.

Niassa Bingo! To help children learn the animals in Niassa Learning about food webs
Reserve

Art and craft while learning about wildlife Conservation Jenga without community manager, Hugo –
how a food web works and what happens when too many
animals are removed

Elephant memorial – what is happening to elephants and Learning from the Niassa Conservaiton storybook which
what does this mean for the future (maths and conservation) was developed especially for Niassa children by NCP in
partnership with Mecula Director of Education
 We use every opportunity to talk about health and the environment. This is a pool in the Mamba River and a good
opportunity to talk about clean water and health. Clean water was identified as a major health risk in the Onehealth
survey we took part in with Dr Mike Kock and WCS.

Children from Msawize and Matondovela visited Mbatamila, Niassa National Reserve headquarters.
In 2017, we learned a new game from our partners in Pride Lion Conservation Alliance, Ewaso Lions, called the lion-
habitat game. Children are blindfolded as “lions” have to move through a complicated landscape filled with fire, water,
snares, poachers and villages until they reach the safety of the antipoaching scouts.

Challenges

- Long distances to get children to camp, for example we have to drive almost 200 km fetch children from some
communities inside Niassa Reserve.
- Low literacy on part of children and some adults that come for bush visit and workshop, this complicates our
ability to evaluate our program.
- Poor collaboration with NNR education team to partner on design of environmental education program for NNR
to ensure there is limited overlap and maximum effectiveness. We have sent all our materials to NNR
community team and suggested that we design an environmental program together so that all our activities
complement each other but do not repeat each other and we can together make the best use of limited
resources and funding under challenging conditions We have not been involved in NNR education program or
plans and neither has there been collaborative planning of activities. We risk overlapping our efforts, not
reaching all the villages inside NNR and causing confusion with two education centres, two programs of wildlife
clubs.

Way forward

To minimize driving long distances, Mariri asked help from Mbatamila and Luwire to pick some groups from their schools
and transport them to the main road or Mecula district Centre. All the groups that did not come last year will be included
on 2018 bush visit plan. Too solve low literacy problem, most of the topics are taught in local languages, and Mariri
implemented the use of an app that was especially developed to evaluate the program and information retention. We
remain open and keen to collaborate. We have productive, ongoing relationships with the Hogle Zoo and Houston Zoo
in the US who have extensive experience in environmental education and they provide advice, materials and skills
training to out teams.
MARIRI EDUCATION APP
In 2017, Mariri developed and tested an innovation evaluation tool (app) with Wild Knowledge that will be used in 2018
to monitor the effectiveness of our environmental education programs. The aim was to develop a simple, time effective
way of evaluating the programs that did not require high levels of literacy. Otherwise we are testing literacy not
knowledge. The app tests the knowledge and tolerance of people on a variety of conservation issues using a touchscreen
and series of pictures. Questions are written in Portuguese and spoken in CiYawo. We test people before they take part
on our programs, immediately after and then a long time afterwards (3 months). This will help us assess the transfer of
knowledge over time along with other more subjective methods (plays, essays, drawings). We tested the use of apps to
evaluate kids at camp in 2017 and made adjustments as required where questions were not understood. This will be
implemented in 2018. Not only does it provide us with the information we need to evaluate our programs but is also
enjoyed by the children and adults and introduces them to additional technology and is a learning tool on its own.

Children testing the Mariri Education App in 2017.

PARTNERSHIP WITH NURSES FROM MBAMBA CLINIC

In 2017, we worked with nurses from Mbamba clinic on several occasions to teach and explain to teenagers and adults
about the disadvantage of premature marriage and pregnancy, ways to prevent sexual transmitted diseases, i.e.:
HIV/AIDS; prevent malaria, and fight against cholera and diarrhea. A group of girls from Mbamba were hosted at Mariri
and they learnt about involvement of women in conservation, they were taught art and craft by Monique and spent
some time with the nurse, Ana, in the library.
 Mbamba nurse talks to a girls group

WORKSHOPS
Lugenda river and Fishery workshop

In 2017, Mariri Environmental Centre hosted an informal Lugenda river and fishing workshop where chiefs from twelve
villages, namely: Ndirima, Mpamanda, Mussoma, Manhuri, Cuchiranga, Lisongole, Ntimbo 1 and 2, Nampequesso,
Makalange, Mbamba and Nkuti participated. Also present were the District Director of Agriculture of Mecula (SDAE),
Mbatamila, fishermen and Niassa Carnivore Project team. The objective was to provide an opportunity for an informal
discussion on the ways we can work together to preserve Lugenda River, hear ideas from all parties about what fishing
methods should and should not be used in this precious river that runs across Niassa National Reserve, and to provide
an understanding of what the law says related to fishing and why licenses are important to fishermen. Most importantly
the aim was to bring people together that have a common interest in the long-term health of the Lugenda River. A
separate report on this was written and distributed.

Traditional Leaders and representatives from 12 villages, active fishermen, Mbatamila team, SDAE and Niassa Carnivore Project
gathered at Mariri Environmental centre for 3 days to discuss the Lugenda River and fishing

As with all our workshops, while they were with us at Mariri, we were also able to introduce all the participants to game
drives in L5-South (ecotourism), visiting the Mpopo Ecotourism camp which was built to generate fund for Mbamba
community and provide job opportunity to local people. The camp gives clear example of the importance of the river,
it is built on island in Lugenda river where visitors can come to see hippos.
 Traditional Chiefs on their first ever
game drive inside Niassa National
Reserve – building a conservation
culture one person at a time.

Teachers Workshop

In 2017, Mariri hosted a conservation workshop with teachers from various school to encourage teachers to use the
environmental education materials (Niassa Conservation Storybook and ABC capulana). Various ideas were developed:

• Capulana can be used to teach and learn alphabet and teach and learn capital and small letters;
• Storybook can be used to teach about animals that are found in Niassa National Reserve and explain about bush
fires.
• Talk about safe behaviour in the classroom. This is important as we live in a protected area where we share the
same habitat with animals (Temas Transversal Subject - grade 6 and 7);
• The book can be used to teach biology (ecology) in secondary school as it shows ecological interaction
(interspecific ecological - interaction between individuals of different species);
• The book can also be used in language classroom (Portuguese subject) to describe narrative text, as the text in
the book is narrative;
• Also teach about poetry (verses of the poem, type, etc) and grammar aspects.

Working with teachers to design lessons around the Niassa Conservation Storybook

Conservation workshops for Government officials at Mariri Environmental centre

We held a conservation workshop specifically with government officials where District Administrator and directors of
different departments participated; we discussed issues related to conservation and development, livelihood programs
and conservation agriculture. They visited the Mpopo tourism camp that is due to open in 2018 and discussed
importance of community-based tourism with rights and responsibilities as well as benefits.
The District Administrator of Mecula visited the Mariri vegetable garden, MPOPO tourism camp and small livestock
breeding program at Mariri Environmental Centre.

Workshop to develop Wildlife Clubs

In 2017, we held a workshop with board members of wildlife clubs where four clubs (Makalange, Mecula, Ntimbo 1 and
Lugenda clubs) participated and we discussed key issues on how they can run clubs and activities to be carried out in
2018.

Conservation workshop for our staff

One of assumptions we make as conservationists is that our team understand conservation and understands what our
values, mission and objectives are. In 2017, we held conservation workshop with all staff where we discussed who we
(NCP/Mariri) are, our mission, how everyone’s work is so important to conservation. We collected litter around the
camp, have debates on conservation topics. This builds trust and an understanding of conservation.

CAMPFIRE CONVERSATIONS
Conservation is not only about wildlife, plants, rivers, etc. it is also talking about human health and traditions/culture.
At Mariri visitors regularly sit around the fire at night during their visit, telling stories, riddles, traditions of ancestors and
talking about health. Our environment is part of all our stories. This was especially important with the Traditional Chiefs
visited Mariri, they shared traditional songs, dances, riddles and telling stories. Conservation can reaffirm cultural values
and the importance of being human in a diverse landscape that includes animals.

VISIT TO MARIRI GARDEN

Mariri is very fortunate to have Tomas Buruwate as our Operations manager as Tomas has extensive knowledge of
gardening and agriculture and has developed an extensive vegetable garden at Mariri. All visitors to Mariri not only eat
the produce from the garden but visit the garden to learn from Tomas and our two gardeners how to recover infertile
fields and how to increase crop production, for two years Mariri garden has been feeding Mariri staff and Mbamba
school and no chemicals are used. Animal dung is used as manure and a natural fertilizer and tobacco and chillies are
used as insecticides to reduce pests.

Chiefs, elders and other workshop participants visiting Mariri garden

PARTNERSHIP WITH STILL STANDING’S JOY OF LIFE PROGRAM TO BRING BASKETBALL TO SCHOOLS IN NNR
WITH CONSERVATION, HEALTH AND EDUCATION MESSAGES
Since 2015, Mariri has been partnering and helping to fund the mini basketball program lead by Still Standing, Edison
Saranga and to bring this program to Niassa Reserve. The aim is to promote and teach basketball sport to kids around
Niassa National Reserve while promoting conservation, health, leadership, and enthusiasm to children living inside
conservation areas. This embodies the One Health concept. Basketball sport is a sport taught in Mozambican education
curriculum from primary school, but many schools in remote areas have no equipment and facilities to teach and learn
this sport.

In 2017, Mini-basketball program was done in Mbamba, Mecula district Centre and Lissongole, and directly involved
270 girls and boys from eight villages and nine schools. Children learned basic skills. District Education office and
teachers from various schools were directly involved and helped in organizing children. Messages were about
mosquitoes / malaria, clean water, fires and conservation. Books were donated by Still Standing to the Mecula Library,
prizes were given to the children. More than 700 children and adults came to watch the program.

We will continue to support and partner with Still Standing moving forward and hope to grow this program. More
details on the 2017 program can be seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOImQsESyoY&app=desktop)
WILDLIFE CLUBS
Since 2016 wildlife clubs have been being created in different schools within NNR to link with the Mariri Environmental
centre bush visits. The aim is to reach more children with a focused program of activities focused on One Health
concepts- healthy me, health environment, healthy livestock, healthy community and healthy mind (A hand with 5
fingers). Wildlife clubs have a variety of activities and projects which cover the 5 Onehealth concepts. A full curriculum
is being developed with a pack for each club to assist them with their activities.

The first year, it was just two clubs, Makalange and Ntimbo 1, in 2017 we added another two clubs. There have not
been any wildlife clubs in Niassa National Reserve since 2009 when one was created in Mecula Primary School. Clubs
are created slowly and regularly mentored to ensure they are sustainable. In 2017, two new clubs were created in two
new schools, Lugenda Primary School and 16 de Junho Primary School. We expect to create more clubs in 2018 and
follow up their progress as well as develop a more focused curriculum of activities. This is being developed and will be
tested and adapted in 2018.

Two clubs (Makalange and Ntimbo) have implemented livestock breeding in their communities; they built corrals and
were given ducks. In 2017, Ntimbo 1 wildlife club planted Moringa around their school, and 75% of the plants grew well.
In 2017, Mariri held various meetings with wildlife clubs. We discussed issues related to health and conservation. In
Ntimbo 1 and Makalange, after watching a short film of cholera, members decided to clear school surrounding of litter.
Makalange and Ntimbo 1 wildlife clubs promoted awareness campaign in their communities, they performed theatre
and sung songs. At the end they did cleaning in historical places, water wells, mosques and schools
Escola Primaria Completa 16 de Junho (16th of June Primary Ntimbo 1 Wildlife Club
School) wildlife club created in 2017

Livestock breeding Ntimbo planting Moringa

Cleaning
Watching a short film on cholera about their village

Malanga club cleaning their Heroes monument

Cleaning up around the well
LION FUN DAYS
Lion Fun Days Festival was started in 2009 by Niassa Carnivore Project and it has now become a tradition. It has become
a celebration to conservation, fun and games to build collaboration and release tension. Conservaiton is often about
saying no, the fun days are about making conservation fun and for the past 5 years have been linked to the NNR Cultural
Festival held in the same month. The Lion Fun Days are held in Mbamba Village every year for two mornings in early
November. The activities aim to involve all parts of the community with a variety of activities that include theatre, art,
races, car toy design and car race, three-legged relay game, women running with bucket of water on their heads, goat
and corral game, etc that include both children and adults with a conservation theme. The Mbamba villagers, cultural
groups (Nsege, Resa-Resa), Mariri staff) and school all take part with the days lead by Mariri/ NCP staff and funded by
Houston Zoo with support from Valesquez Elementary School and Utah’s Hogle Zoo.

In 2017, conservation messages included vaccination of chickens for Newcastles disease, importance of lions in
ecosystem, importance of animals for ecotourism, risks to lions in the landscape, illegal mining and poaching. Other
races included men (10km), women (5km), girls and boys, mango and spoon race (for 100 small children, relayrace, car
toy design and car race, bao competition for elders, soccer and painting, theatre and dance all with a conservation
theme.

About 500 people participated on this festival from the community including Chefe de Localidade, traditional Chiefs,
elders, school teachers and children. The lion fun days were also attended by NNR community team and the warden of
NNR. Prizes are given for the main races including medals, bicycles, home ware, cellphones, seeds and farming
implements. For children prizes include clothes, seeds, bags, toothbrushes, soap, bracelets and school materials.
Highlights in 2017 were the Nsegue and Reza dance groups who had developed special conservation anti-poaching
dances but still celebrated culture and tradition. Lion Fun Days are all about celebrating conservation, honoring the
name of our project ‘Niassa Lion Project”, having fun and binding the reserve and its communities together.
Positive energy and enthusiasm from young and adult Nsegue groups brought people together to celebrate the days – picture
taken by Dr. Colleen Begg

Women running with bucket of water on their heads without holding it, this is real in communities where every day women have
to pay attention to animals, more especially in moments when people and animals share the same water points. In this moment,
concentration is very important to save lives and make sure they get home with water.
Children running with mango on the spoon, it is all about concentration and health mind

Boys were involved car toy race

Safe behavior is one of our messages on Lion Fun Days through goat and corral game

The warden of Niassa National Reserve and Chefe de Localidade helped us celebrate the day with messages of conservation.

LION SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

(PROGRAM MANAGED BY ANDREW MKANAGE IN COLLABORATION WITH CHUILEXI CONSERVANCY

The Lion Scholarship Program was initiated in 2013 with the first recipients finishing Grade 12 in 2017. We believe
that this will make a long-term difference for conservation in NNR in the long term. It aims to provide secondary
school scholarships to children living inside Niassa National Reserve. The scholarships are funded by NCA partners
(Chuilexi, Mariri) with the program managed and mentored by the Mariri / Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) and the
Mariri Environmental and Skills Training Centre based in concession L5-South. The scholarship program has two
objectives: a) to promote education by providing an opportunity for children in remote villages with only a primary
school to go to secondary school so that they have an increased opportunity to get a job rather than earning a living
through fishing and poaching and b) to provide a strong benefit to communities from wildlife conservation. This
scholarship comes to children from the wildlife in Niassa National Reserve. The need for secondary school education
was identified as a critical need by fishermen and farmers in Mbamba Village (survey conducted in 2009 by NCP). This
program also directly involves the Lion scholars in Niassa Reserve conservation through a mentorship program and
visits to the Mariri Environmental and Skills training Centre with game drives and links to research and community
conservation programs and our conservation staff (who are mentors). This program has the full support of the Mecula
Director of Education and currently forms part of the benefits provided to Mbamba Village as partners in Concession
L5-South – Mariri. In the first phase of this program (2013-2015), it was children from Mbamba village benefited from
the lion scholarships to the Mecula Secondary School. Since 2016 we have also included children from villages of
Gomba, Erevuka, Naulala sponsored by Chuilexi Conservancy. In 2018, NCP also included children from eL4 villages
(Macalange, Ntimbo 1, Ntimbo 2, Cuchiranga, Lissongile and Nampequesso).

40 Lion Scholarships were awarded in December 2017 for 2018 by Chuilexi and Mariri.

What the scholarship includes

The scholarship has a value of $600 per child per year (excluding the time of our team to mentor). It includes school
materials (note books, pencils, pens, rulers, textbooks for library, etc), school fees, costs for boarding school, school
uniform, school shoes, school bag, casual shoes and casual clothes, food. It also provides pocket money, mentorship
and travelling allowance for holidays so that the children can return to their home village (sometimes this is done by us-
Mariri and Chuilexi).

In 2016, we identified a number of challenges for scholars. Most significantly, many children coming from primary
schools in remote villages are not able to read, write, speak and understand the Portuguese language even in Grade 7.
This is the language learnt at school as it is the national language and all subjects are taught in this language, however
this is resulting in a low literacy level and poor performance in other subjects (Mathematics, Science). We identified and
hired a tutor to provide extra, private lessons for all scholars as part of scholarship. A very important part of the program
is the link to conservation, wildlife and research through visits to the Mariri Environmental Centre.

Criteria for selecting scholars

The selection of lion scholars is based on the following criteria:

• The candidate (child) must pass with good marks (13 above) in grade five (5) or seven (7);
• The candidate (child) should write a short (less than one page) essay on why he/she needs a scholarship and
what his/her future dreams (who does he/she want to become? E.g: nurse, teacher, manager, etc.);
• Family conditions (the candidate can have an access of the scholarship if his/her parents are not able to pay for
secondary school education or any level of education far from home;
• The candidate should have a record of good behaviour at school;
• The candidate’s parents/guardians should show their interest in their children’s career and give permission for
their child to go to secondary school or for further education.
• Children will continue to receive a scholarship for subsequent Grades as long as they pass and receive a
favourable report from the Boarding School Director and their teachers.
• Those children that receive 14 or higher in Grade 10 will be considered for a technical school.
2017 Lion Scholars

In 2017, Niassa Carnivore Project and Chuilexi Conservancy sponsored scholarships to children from four villages:
Mbamba, Revuka, Naulala 1 and Gomba distributed in the following way: Niassa Carnivore Project/ Mariri –fourteen
(14) from Mbamba village; Chuilexi sponsored two each from Gomba; two from Naulala 1 and two from Revuka.

Mecula Secondary School (Escola Secondaria Geral 16 de Junho

Name Grade Accommodation

Antonio Francisco 9 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula Boarding school)
Horacio Andre 9 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano - Mecula (Mecula Boarding school)
Mustafa Issa 9 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)
Sabado Bacar 9 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)
Angela J. Mandrasse 10 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)
Raimundo Carvalho 10 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)
Santos Celestino 10 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)
Mario Julio Rent house – Lichinga

Juma Issa 12 Lar de Estudantes Paulo S. Kankhomba – Lichinga (Kankhomba boarding school)

Maico Mauricio 12 Lar de Estudantes Paulo S. Kankhomba – Lichinga (Kankhomba boarding school)

Omar Mauricio Changa 12 Lar de Estudantes Paulo S. Kankhomba – Lichinga (Kankhomba boarding school)

Moniz Herculano 11 Lar de Estudantes Paulo S. Kankhomba – Lichinga (Kankhomba boarding school)

Santos Manuel 11 Lar de Estudantes Paulo S. Kankhomba – Lichinga (Kankhomba boarding school)

Amade Eusebio 2st year Lar de Estudantes Estrela Vermelha – Lichinga

16 de Junho Primary School – Mecula

Carlos Mayelezo 6 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school) Gomba

Luisa Iassine 6 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school) Gomba

Alberto Abdala 6 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)

Aida Fabiao 6 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)

Jose Dos Santos 6 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)

Novinha Alberto 6 Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissano – Mecula (Mecula boarding school)
2017 Lion Scholars, picture taken after arriving at Mecula boarding school, one scholar is missing on this picture.

Lion scholars during their visiti to Mariri Environmental Centre after they climbed Mt. Minhanga

Maico Mauricio Waite, the best scholar of 2017 receiving part of his prize, a flight in the Mariri aircraft with Director, Keith
Begg. He also received a cellphone and food for his family.

Activities 2017
 • At the beginning of the year, all lion scholars were registered and paid fees in three schools: 16 of Junho
Secondary School (Escola Secundaria Geral 16 de Junho – Mecula); Samuel Kankhomba Secondary School
(Escola Secondaria Geral Paulo Samuel Kankhomba - Lichinga) and 16 of June Primary School – Mecula (Escola
Primaria Completa 16 de Junho); and two institutes: Insituto Comercial de Gungunhane – Lichinga and INAFP.
• Boarding fee was paid for all scholars in three boarding schools: - Lar de Estudantes Alberto Joaquim Chissamo
– (Mecula boarding school); Lar de Estudantes Estrela Vermelha – Lichinga; and Lar de Estudantes Paulo Samuel
Kankhomba (Paulo Samuel Kankhomba boarding school), one scholar lives in a house in Lichinga.
• During the year, school materials, clothes, shoes, uniforms, mosquito nets and school bags were bought and
distributed to scholars, the distribution of school materials is done regularly, each scholar received three pairs
of school uniforms, and three pairs of shoes (sport, casual, school).
• In 2017, Mariri hired a tutor for Mecula Lion scholars, and a teacher of English in Lichinga to prepare grade 12
students who were going for exams and an education assistant based in Lichinga.
• Based on the experience from 2016 where in some occasion boarding school ran out of food and requested
Mariri to help, in 2017 we supplied food (maize meal, rice, cooking oil, tomato paste, beans meat, fish, sugar,
etc) to lion scholars at Mecula boarding school and we hired cook to prepare food for scholars. While we paid
a boarding fee there does not appear enough fund to feed students for the whole year.
• During the year Mariri regularly held meetings with the Lions Scholars and director of boarding school to ensure
that everything is well with them.
• We regularly provide hygiene items to scholars (two toilet soaps, 2 washing soap, toothbrush, colgate) and
pocket money (500 mt to girls and 300 mt to boys each month).
• In 2017, Mariri assisted all scholars to get Identity card done and other relevant documents.
• We managed to pay for university admission exams for three children who finished grade 12.

As part of our conservation mentorship program, in 2017, seven lion scholars based in Lichinga visited Lago district
where they visited WWF conservation programs as part of conservation mentorship and interacted with Mbumba
Marufo. Most of the Mecula students visited Mariri Environmental Centre for their annual bush visit where they interact
with our conservation team, go on game drives and learn about conservation and the environment. Out of twenty
scholars (one in a short course and nineteen in primary and secondary schools), eighteen (18) passed and two failed.

Challenges

• The boarding school is a military base and children were about to be kicked out when large number of army force
(Environmental Police) came to Mecula in 2016. This creates a very uncertain situation as at any time children might
be moved from the boarding school.
• In addition, the conditions of the Mecula boarding school are poor and this is not a safe place for the children,
rooms have broken glasses in the windows, there are not enough beds in the rooms, and some children lie on
mattresses on the floor and the doors do not have locks. Children are not controlled at night.
• The low literacy on part of scholars who are awarded scholarship remains a challenge, particularly their low literacy
in Portuguese as all subjects except English language are taught in Portuguese.
• The Boarding school directorate board is not happy that Mariri and Chuilexi are only providing food for the Lion
Scholars. They feel that the other children at boarding school feel like they are discriminated against. We understand
the issue. However, our intention was not to provide food we are only doing so because the boarding school was
unable to do so and the children are our responsibility. We are paying a boarding fee for these children and food is
meant to be provided by government funding and is meant to be part of boarding fee.
• We did not manage to buy uniform for all scholars at once due to the time taken to make each uniform by local
tailors.
• At the beginning of the year, the boarding school had no good mosquito nets. This has been resolved. We had two
scholars sick in first semester, Carlos Mayelezo and Francisco Antonio who had malaria
• We no longer have a library room for scholars. The one we rehabilitated last year was taken over by the military
troops when they moved back into the building and all bookcases, tables and chairs had to be removed.

Way forward
There is no doubt that there are still many challenges for children to attend school in Niassa Reserve and we continue
to look for solutions in collaboration with the Education Department.

A dream -The Lion House- Boarding House

• The school boarding house is a military base and is not suitable or safe for the children to live in, particularly
girls. Environmental Education Manager had regular meetings with boarding school director so that we are
updated on what was going on at boarding school.
• NCP would like to build a boarding house for Lion Scholars in Mecula or Marrupa– 50 beds with a housemaster,
kitchen and library. This would be for children from villages outside of Mecula Town that have done the best
in the class and have received a Lion Scholarship to ensure they have the best possible hope for a future
education.
• This lion house will be built by “the lions” of NNR – conservation supporting development.
• In October 2017, we have developed provisional plans and raised some initial funds for this ($80,000) and now
need to present this to the Education Department and Reserve management to discuss how this can be
implemented and changes that need to be made.
• However, the lack of a clear governance structure for NNR and low collaboration by NNR team, confusion,
growing insecurity has delayed these discussions. Once a mechanism for success in NNR is in place we will move
forward with this. We find the general attitude to be one of creating obstacles to partnership not finding
solutions and trusting partners.

Provisional Plans for Lion Boarding House to be built and funded by NCP for Mecula district scholars – available for further discussion.

Tutors

• Lion scholars based in Lichinga showed interest to hire a teacher of English to prepare them for exams as they
had low marks and this was done
• Low literacy: we hired a teacher to tutor lion scholars in Mecula so that they can be literate, and speak
Portuguese and understand other languages
• Library: Mariri bought bookcase for scholars to put in books and read whenever they had time, but this was not
effective enough as the reading was done in public rooms where it was too noisy.
• We hired a cook to prepare food for scholars.
• We bought mosquito nets for scholars
• Uniform: we are thinking to contact PEP store in Lichinga so that they have uniform ready for scholars.
GOAL 5- CAPACITY BUILDING AND AWARENESS

OBJECTIVE 12: MENTOR, GUIDE AND TRAIN MOZAMBICAN CONSERVATIONISTS AND STAFF AND IMPROVE
OUR SKILLS
Skills development is a critical component of our conservation strategy. See previous reports for other training
supported. In 2017, 79 people received training paid for by NCP/ Mariri.

In 2017

• Our Conservation Manager, Agostinho Jorge is on sabbatical completing his PhD in Bushmeat Consumption.
Between July 2017 and end of 2018, he will be on paid sabbatical writing up his thesis.
• SOS international completed a second first aid course for 18 local conservation staff from Mariri, Chuilexi
Conservancy, Luwire and NNR management.
• Rachide Herculano, our Human Resources and Accounting assistant spent a few days at Chuilexi Conservancy to
work with their human resources expert as part of NCA collaboration.
• 26 People continued to receive training in craft design and production from Monique Fagan.
• All scouts received one month (30 days) Basic and mentorship training from Conservation Outcomes in November
with additional training in the Conservation Law from the Reserve warden.
• Hugo Pereira, our Community Manager completed a course in Conservation Peacebuilding (HWCC) in Washington
DC, USA.
• Five of our team went on a trip to Ruaha Carnivore Project in Tanzania to learn about their community incentive
program, wildlife warriors, and conservation programs (Tomas Buruwate, Hugo Pereira, Horacio Murico, Eusebio
Waiti and Samuel.

Our team visiting Ruaha National Park and Ruaha Carnivore Project in Tanzania

• Director Colleen Begg was selected for a international leadership program for 1000 women in Science (STEMM).
This program aims to increase leadership skills, strategy, visibility to influence Climate Change and Biodiversity
Conservation. She is part of the third cohort of 80 women from across the world. The transformational program
culminates in a trip to Antarctica in January 2019.
OBJECTIVE 13: INCREASE AWARENESS OF NCP WORK AND IMPORTANCE OF NIASSA NATIONAL RESERVE TO A
BROADER AUDIENCE BOTH NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY
ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS
• We continued to work with our long term partners Houston Zoo, and Wildlife Conservation Network to
develop multiyear funding and increase our skills. Ongoing fund raising continues and remains a challenge
given the level of funding required.
• The Niassa Lion Project Facebook page was regularly updated to ensure regular communication with donors
and friends of the project and reached 20,000 followers. Conversations with donors showed that it achieving
its aim of keeping people involved in what we are doing.
• We remain members of the African Lion Working group, IUCN Cat Specialist Group and Canid Specialist Group
and WAZA and are also represented on the Lion SSP conservation projects website.
• We are part of the WCN Lion Recovery Fund and played a critical role in initial development and are on the
granting committee.
• We provided funds from TRT Conservation Foundation for the Limpopo Transfrontier Predator Project to
support their lion conservation activities.
• We continue as a founder and member of the innovative Pride: Lion Conservation Alliance with presentations
at Jackson Hole, USA.

GENERAL OUTLOOK FOR 2018

• We remain deeply committed to Niassa Reserve both as the Niassa Carnivore Project and Mariri Investimentos
and hope to collaborate further with NNR management to support conservation efforts of carnivores across NNR
and secure and develop L5-South. We have a long-term vision of more than 20 years but the increasing level of
insecurity and threats to our team concern us.
• We are very positive about our collaboration with our neighbours Luwire (Niassa Wilderness) and Chuilexi
Conservancy as the Niassa Conservation Alliance. NCA were instrumental in bringing the current level of the
elephant poaching crisis and the low number of elephants (~2000) to the attention of ANAC, other partners and
donors in late 2017. The level of support from national government for NNR is high.
• However, we remain very concerned about the deteriorating security in NNR, lack of clear governance and lack of
conservation effect. We do not see a clear mechanism of success for the conservation of NNR as a whole and we
remain deeply disappointed and concerned by the lack of a co-management agreement in NNR and lack of
progress from the NNR management team on all levels. The constant turnover in WCS staff has resulted in a
constant loss of information and impact in the past 7 years with no institutional history. The management team
has not stabilised.
• The delays and reluctance to engage on signing of eL4 MOU for 12 months during 2017 with no reasons given or a
clear process agreed to and promises broken has broken trust, shows lack of respect for investors and donors and
reduces confidence for investing in NNR. It also seems incomprehensible given the level of threat to wildlife in eL4
and lack of community engagement and benefits to the 7 villages.
• The lack of support for conservation law by the District remains a major stumbling block for conservation in Niassa
Reserve. This is particularly worrying for bushmeat trade and mining which are both seen as livelihoods issues but
are destroying NNR. We believe that engaging the district in our conservation activities should be a focus moving
forward if conservation is to be successful in NNR however this is not encouraged by NNR management team..
• In general, the NCP team is growing in efficiency and skills and we have a loyal and stable team of 100 permanent
employers, all Mozambican and a strong middle management and senior management team. We are still
hampered by a lack of training courses for local staff that don’t require large levels of literacy or English, however
we are countering this through in situ training at mariri..
• Our conservation agriculture, livestock breeding, craft and design and beehive fences programs continue to grow
and are showing very positive results with more than 200 households in 7 villages benefiting. We would really like
 to scale these up into other areas in partnership with the Reserve management team and we look forward to
working with NNR teams but collaboration has been poor.
• We are very encouraged by the continued increase in the lion, hyaena, impala, waterbuck, and populations in L5
South, Niassa Reserve. It shows our combined approach of effective antipoaching and community engagement
has resulted in a dramatic decrease in elephant poaching. Risk remains high as poachers are still in the area and
elephants are still being poached in surrounding areas.
• However, the status of carnivores across NNR is not positive. In 2015-2017 lion trade in skins, bones and parts and
poisoning became of increasing concern across Niassa Reserve. This seems to be escalating and needs immediate
attention but does not seem to be taken seriously by NNR management despite us sharing our data and our
concerns.
• We are very excited about the use and support the Mariri Environmental Centre is receiving as it is bringing all the
strands of our holistic programs together and allows us to scale up and share what we have learned. We continue
to ask the Reserve management team and District department of Education formessages they would like to see
from the environmental education program.
• For NCP / Mariri and our conservation programs, our general outlook is good with increasing support from donors
and a significant amount of benefits flowing into the Mbamba community and Nkuti community and signs of
success from all our community programs (increased participation, decreased bushmeat poaching, decreased
elephant poaching, increased engagement in meetings by community, increased food security, increased income
for more than 100 people.
• We are excited to be initiating conservation tourism in L5 South in 2018 at Mpopo trails camp to start to generate
increased income for Mbamba Village through employment, bed night fee and camp maintenance. This is in line
with our first 5-year plan. Our second 5-year plan has been handed in with no comments from NNR management
team. However, increasing insecurity both within NNR and in Cabo Delgado Province could undermine our
efforts.

At our scale, our outlook as NCP is good (team, governance, impact, plans) but at Reserve level we remain deeply
concerned about lack of leadership, governance, clear mandates, focused programs, positive collaboration and
partnerships and conservation success. It has been heart breaking to see Niassa Reserve deteriorate rapidly in the past
few years. We cannot be successful without a successful NNR as a whole.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is a team effort; nothing is achieved alone and there are many people to thank. We have been working in
Niassa for 16 years now and it is impossible to mention everyone individually who has been a positive part of this
journey but you are remembered and your help is appreciated.

We would like to offer special thanks to the Government of Mozambique and Ministry of Rural Development,
Agriculture and Tourism for granting us permission to work in the Niassa National Reserve. We thank the Niassa
Reserve Management team, and Wildlife Conservation Society (Alastair Nelson, Rob Craig, Jim Bampton) for
assistance, with particular thanks to the previous warden, Cornelio Miguel and current Warden Baldeu Chande and at
national level, Carlos Lopes Pereira for their ongoing assistance

For 2017, we particularly thank our major partners who provide funds and/ or technical advice on so many levels.

Thank you to our major multiple year donors who have provided so much support over the past 17 years and have
been instrumental in allowing us to grow and believing in our vision and objectives. Many have become friends over
the years and are part of the NCP family. We hope you know how much you are appreciated.
For 2017, we specifically thank -
African Wildlife Foundation, Alex Krawarik, Anje van der Naald, Becci and Mark Crowe, Betsey Brewer Bethel, Bruce
and Lori Laitman-Rosenblum, The Blue Foundation, Beverly Spector and Ken Lipson, Bruce and Trish Campbell, CGMK
Foundation, Diane Green, David Posner, Foundation Beagle, Gemfields, Gillian Zank, Houston Zoo, International Fund
for Animal Welfare, Iri Cermak, James and Lolly Nivison, Jeff and Connie Woodman, John and Audrey Ruggieri,
Johnson Scholarship Fund, Karie and David Thomson, Lanmar Foundation, Laguntza Foundation, Margaret McCarthy
and Bob Worth, Mary Boardman Foundation, Meredith Watts, Meryt and Peter Harding, Michael Piuze, Michael
Schaeffer and Michelle Maton, Pittsburgh Foundation, Predator Conservation Trust, Pride Lion Conservation Alliance,
Rebecca Patton and Tom Goodrich, Safari West, Sandra Fletcher, Sandra Spears, Searle Family Trust, Stephan Meyer-
Ewald and Andrea Ewald, Steven and Florence Goldby, Sue McConnell and Richard Scheller, Stuff and Peewee
Marshall, Sudie Rakusin, Tracy and Michael Dileo, The Tapeats Fund, Utah’s Hogle Zoo, Vincent Pardieu, Wildcat
Foundation, Walli Finch, Wildlife Conservation Network, Woodman Foundation, The Woodtiger Fund, Zoological
Association of America, as well as several anonymous donors.

For significant support over the past ten years that has not been mentioned above we remain grateful to the late
Mary Boardman, Kris and Peter Norvig, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Fair Play Foundation, John Stuelpnagel,
Rare Species Fund, Rufford Innovation Award and Wildlife Conservation Society.

We thank all our donors who keep us in the field, no matter how big or small the donation. Small gestures added
together and result in us meeting our budget each year. Thank you over the years for in kind donations from Claire
Spottiswoode, Chip Owen, Utah’s Hogle Zoo, Vincent Pardieu, Houston Zoo, Genentech, and One Africa.

We reserve a very special thanks to Lisette Gelber for spending time with us each year to refine our financial system
and make it transparent but practical and for teaching us how to write a proper financial report. Thank you, Lisette,
you bring so much for NCP and we appreciate it hugely. Thank you to Alastair Barnes who created Mary Boardman’s
bench, the baobab floor and crocodile floor and helped in a multitude of other ways, We are very grateful to Peter
Lindsey who provides ongoing advice and assistance and who was instrumental with Michelle Moehller from Panthera
who came to help us develop SMART and work with Agostinho. For assistance with our environmental education
initiatives we thank Houston Zoo who assist us in a multitude of ways including grant writing, funding, training and
development of educational materials with particular thanks too Renee Bumpus, Peter Riger, and Sara Riger. Thank
you too to Liz Larsen and Chris Schmidt from Hogle Zoo for their assistance with her masks and crafts for children.
Special thanks to Glen Carrie for help with the website and Sam Worsley, our Executive Assistant in South Africa for
ongoing assistance with donor database, accounting, development of app, mapping and much else. In 2016, and 2017,
we were particularly grateful to Monique Fagan who came in to help with our newest livelihoods programs – Grupo
Kushirika and bringing her artistic talents to Mariri Environmental Centre.

We thank all the Niassa tourism operators for their support and collaboration with sightings, logistics and information.
A particular thanks to Niassa Wilderness and Chuilexi Conservancy, our neighbours in Niassa and members of Niassa
Conservation Alliance.

Niassa Carnivore Project is administered by TRT Conservation Foundation and we thank Stephen Clark for his on-going
legal and financial assistance in his capacity as a Director and Chairman of the Mariri Investimentos Board
A very special thanks to our managers, Agostinho Jorge, Tomas Buruwate and Andrew Mkanage and Hugo Periera–
they are the future of conservation in Mozambique.
FINANCIAL REPORT
In 2017, The Ratel Trust transitioned into the TRT Conservation Foundation. We have four bank accounts -the
“mother” TRT CF US$ account” for all donations, a ZAR account for purchase of equipment in South Africa and two
accounts in Mozambique for in-country expenses through Mariri Investimentos Lda. This financial report includes
expenditure from both accounts to reflect total expenditure of NCP funds for the Niassa Carnivore Project for the year
2017. In 2017 we were able to maintain the operating reserve of $300,000 and emergency response fund of $30,000.
Our aim is to increase our operating reserve to $600,000 by 2020 to ensure we have sufficient to cover salaries for a
year and increase the Emergency Response Fund to $50,000. This will go a long way to stabilising our programs in
these uncertain times.

CHANGE IN NET ASSESTS FOR YEAR ENDING 31ST DECEMBER 2017

Changes in Net Assets for the year ended 31 December 2017

Temp Restricted Unrestricted Total
OPERATING REVENUE AND SUPPORT

Revenue from Donations 353 175,41 1 316 204,09 1 669 379,50

Release from Temp Restricted Assets- 2016 donations for 2017 (191 000,00) 191 000,00 0,00
Revenue from Research Activities 4 153,64 4 153,64
Total Revenue 162 175,41 1 511 357,73 1 673 533,14

OPERATING EXPENSES
Program Expenses 0,00 (1 270 293,64) (1 270 293,64)
Total Operating Expenses 0,00 (1 270 293,64) (1 270 293,64)

NON OPERATING ACTIVITIES

Investment Income - interest 0,00 2 253,37 2 253,37
Foreign Exchange Gain (Loss) 0,00 686,00 686,00
Total Non Operating Activities 0,00 2 939,37 2 939,37

CHANGE IN NET ASSETS 162 175,41 244 003,46 406 178,87

Net Asssets Beginning of Year 191 000,00 424 464,95 615 464,95
Net Assets End of Year 353 175,41 668 468,41 1 021 643,82
 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION 31 ST DECEMBER 2017

Statement of Financial Position- 31 December 2017 2017

(US Dollars) USD
Assets
TRT USD Account 971 194,34
TRT ZAR Account 17 564,33
Mariri BCI USD Account 20,28
Mariri BCI MT Account 327,87
Mariri Petty Cash 23 627,41
Total Cash and Bank 1 012 734,23

Amounts Receivable 19 230,98

Total assets 1 031 965,21

Liabilities and Net Assets

Short Term Liabilities 10 321,68
Net Assets
Emergency Response Fund 30 000,00
Operating Reserve 300 000,00
Temporarily Restricted Net Assets - donations for 2018 353 175,43
Unrestricted Net Assets- Credit from 2017 338 468,41
Total Net Assets 1 021 643,84

Total Liabilities and Net Assets 1 031 965,52

*Note – Temporarily restricted refers to donations obtained in late 2017 for 2018 work
SUMMARY EXPENDITURE REPORT

CATEGORY EXPENDITURE BUDGETED

01.1 Administration Costs -54 521 50 000
01.2 Capital and Infrastructure -62 035 56 200
01.3 Promotion, fund raising and awareness -8 549 14 000
01.4 Meetings -2 103 3 600
01.5 Travel Costs -17 480 14 400
01.6 Permanent salaries outside specific programs -240 812 228 960
01.8 Shared Operational costs including vehicles outside specific programs -76 421 80 100
01.9 Operational costs of Mariri Environmental Centre and HQ (food, visits) -107 689 125 400
PROGRAMS
Goal 1: Monitoring
02 Objective 2 -Conservation monitoring -37 398 65 552
03 Objective 3 &4 MOMS -Monitoring by Communty wildlife Guardians and reducing Human wildlife conflict
-46 249 36 765
Goal 2- Reduce Direct threats to canrivores
05 Objective 5 -To reduce deaths from snaring -11 465 10 000
07 Objective 7- Reduce Disease Eradication -1 000 5 000
08.1 Objective 8 - Alternative Livelihoods-LBG -49 137 43 409
08.2, Objective 8 - Alternative livelihoods Craft and Design Grupo Kushirika -12 837 6 350
08.4 Objective 8- Alternative livelihoods -Conservation Agriculture -3 058 5 178
08.5 Objective 8 -Alternative livelihoods- Beehive fence and honey production -7 595 8 650
Goal 3- Protected area management and community partnerhsips (L5S and eL4)
09 Objective 9 Antipoaching operational costs in L5S and eL4 -237 276 203 535
10 Objective 10 -Mpopo Trails Camp- revenue generatio and sharing -28 280 31 500
11- Objective 11 - Extend community management to L4E -15 031 29 000
12 Objective 12 -Community partnership -L5S -Mbamba Village -103 275 127 600
Goal 4- Environmental Education and outreach
13.1 Objective 13 - Environmental Education and Outreach -115 535 128 700
Goal 5 - Conservation Capacity building Awareness, training
15 Objective 15 Conservation Capacity Building -26 350 27 000
16 Contingency and Miscellaneous -6 197 10 000
Foreign Exchange 686
/ Total Expenditures -1 269 607 1 310 899

2018
Colleen Begg

Director/ TRT Conservation Foundation