The Zinave National Park, in the district of Mabote, in Inhambane, received 37 elephants that come to join more than 200 others. Elephants attract tourists, but also furtive ones and, therefore, control needs to be strengthened.
It was in that reserve where “O País” met Sansão Eduardo, Forestry Inspector who has been protecting forest resources for over 25 years. Today, he is the Enforcement Coordinator at PNZ.
Samson says he has already faced several poachers and remembers an episode in which he and his team came across poachers who, affronted, dropped their weapons and, thus, their capture was possible.
From the top of an appropriate vehicle, Maida Mulungo was accompanying the arrival of elephants, which she will have to monitor from the Park’s operations room, where she works every day.
In fact, Maida has the mission of monitoring the movement of animals throughout the park, as well as controlling the entry and exit of people, including tourists and furtives. She says that several times she had to wake up in the middle of the night to help her colleagues in the field.
The efforts of men and women in Zinave, such as Samson and Maida, resulted in several unsuccessful attempts at poaching in that conservation area.
According to the Administrator of the Zinave National Park, António Abacar, from 2017 to date, 31,044 steel cables used to neutralize animals, 1,060 hunting bows, 287 homemade firearms were seized in the Park, and 179 poachers were captured. .
The elephants that arrived in Zinave came from Matutuíne district, in Maputo province.
The elephant capture and translocation operation is coordinated by ANAC, in partnership with the Nunley Family (from Texas, United States of America), through the organizations “Ivan Carter Conservation Wildlife Alliance”, “The Aspinall Foundation”, “Wildlife Emergency Fund” and the Peace Parks Foundation.
The technical component of the translocation operation is led by the Mozambican Association for the Conservation of Fauna (Mozambique Wildlife Alliance) which receives support from the Saving the Survivors Organization, based in London.