The Minister of Land and Environment, Ivete Maibaze, on 11 June 2021, launched, in the Gilé National Park, in Zambézia province, the biodiversity conservation programme, known as “PROMOVE Biodiversidade”.

This is a programme lasting for six years, financed by the European Union (EU), to a total sum of 13 million Euros. It is being implemented by the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), the Foundation for the Conservation of Biodiversity (BIOFUND), several community-based NGOs, the private sector, and bodies linked to research, among others.

The Programme will benefit three conservation areas located in Zambézia and Nampula provinces, namely the Gilé National Park, Mount Mabu and the First and Second Islands Environmental Protection Area (APAIPS).

The aim of the “PROMOVE Biodiversidade” programme is to protect biodiversity and improve the livelihoods of the communities living in the buffer zones of these areas, through the sustainable management of the natural resources. “PROMOVE Biodiversidade” will also contribute to strengthening the national capacity to implement the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Specifically, the programme envisages implementing sustainable initiatives and strategies that improve management and administration capacity in the areas of its intervention, adopt sustainable livelihood practices among the communities living in the interior and in the buffer zones of those conservation areas, and encourage participatory studies to influence natural resource management policies.

The programme will strengthen the mechanisms for the sustainable management of endangered species, through the establishment of specific normative frameworks and the development of the institutional technical capacity of the sectors that deal with natural resource management, to ensure the participation of the local communities and other stakeholders in the management of National Parks and Reserves, as well as improving the management of the partnerships and co-management of Mozambican Conservation Areas.

It is expected that, at the end of the “PROMOVE Biodiversidade” programme, the administration and management of the Gilé National Park will be strengthened, including activities with the local communities; that the initial conditions for management and administration in APAIPS are set up, and that Mount Mabu is officially designated as an area of environmental protection, with the active participation of the local communities.

It is also intended that, by the end of the implementation of this programme, the country will rise to the maximum category in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, through the updating, adequacy and effective implementation of the respective regulations.

The strengthening of the capacity of local communities to use natural resources sustainably, and the formalisation and consolidation of the models of co-management of the conservation areas are also among the results to be attained by the end of “PROMOTE Biodiversidade”.

Present at the event were the Ambassador of the European Union, the Secretary of State and the Governor of Zambézia province, representatives of the Council of State Representation and the Provincial Executive Council of Nampula, staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MINEC), and of the Ministry of Land and Environment, ANAC, BIOFUND, members of the district governments covered by the intervention of “PROMOVE Biodiversidade” in Zambézia and Nampula, representatives of the beneficiary communities, and civil society organisations involved in the implementation.