The Niassa Game Reserve

The Niassa Reserve is vast – with a total area of some 42 000 square kilometres (making it twice the size of South Africa’s Kruger National Park). It is found in the far north of Mozambique, and spreads from the Niassa Province in to Cabo Delgado Province. The 22 000 square kilometre core area is bordered by the Rovuma River in the north (which is also the border between Mozambique and Tanzania), the Lugenda River in the southeast, the Lussanhando River in the west, and the Luatize in the southwest; the remaining 20 000 square kilometres forms a buffer zone, which has been divided into 6 management concessions. There are also plans to establish a wildlife corridor from Niassa to Tanzania’s Selous Reserve. Although the Reserve was initiated in 1954, it went into a decline in the 70’s and 80’s due to the ongoing unrest in Mozambique. With peace in the 1990’s, the Mozambican Government arranged for the Reserve to be managed as a public-private initiative, which has allowed for good progress to be made in terms of policies and environmental management and community-centred sustainability.

This Reserve is arguably one of the most pristine on the continent, and has the best concentration of wildlife in Mozambique. With such a big area, it is perhaps not surprising that there is also a good diversity of landscape, from the miombo woodlands, interspersed with savanna, and wetlands. There are also beautiful inselbergs (granite), and some mountains, with their associated forests. In addition there are also riparian forests along the perennial rivers. An initial survey of the Reserve has noted some 21 vegetations types, with at least 191 species of trees and shrubs.

Although there has been some neglect of the park until recently, many species seem to be well represented, from the approximately 12 000 elephant, some 9 000 sable antelope, and very good herds of buffalo, hartebeest, eland and zebra. Kudu, impala, wildebeest waterbuck, reedbuck and hippo are also represented. In addition, predators such as lion, leopard, spotted hyena and wild dog are in attendance. Indeed, the Reserve may have one of the best populations of wild dog.

Visitors will also be interested in three endemic subspecies, which are found in the Reserve: Niassa wildebeest, Boehm’s zebra, and Johnston’s impala (Aepyceros melampus johnstoni).

Birding is also good, with such rare species as the Angola pitta, and Pel’s fishing owl, along with an excellent predator population. The Rovuma River is also an important bird area, with over 370 species having been identified to date.

The Reserve is also home to one of the largest miombo forest ecosystem in the world (such an ecosystem includes more than one vegetation type but it is dominated by one or more species of flowering plants if the sub-family Caesalpinioideae). As this is dry miombo woodland (with rainfall of less than 100 centimetres per annum), the tree canopy is generally less than 15 metres in height.

The programme for the running of the Reserve includes the conservation of biodiversity, the implementation of wildlife-based tourism and community development in terms of sustainable use of natural resources.