On Wednesday, April 8, Roberto Albino, Minister of Agriculture, Environment, and Fisheries, acknowledged the problem of elephant overpopulation in Southern Africa and called for regional action to balance the population of these animals, Lusa reported.
According to the agency, the minister was speaking on the sidelines of a conference on the Economics of Wildlife in Maputo. On that occasion, Roberto Albino acknowledged that the elephant population has grown significantly “thanks to our regional and international wildlife conservation policy. That is why we are exchanging elephants among ourselves—Botswana gives us [elephants] and we give them to Botswana.”
According to the minister, it is now necessary to take measures at the regional level to control the overpopulation of these animals.
“Something must be done, but it has to be a regional effort so that we can truly have an elephant population balanced in relation to the carrying capacity of our conservation areas,” he noted.
For his part, the Secretary of State for Niassa Province, Silva Fernando Livone, noted that the population of these animals exceeds that of the region itself, a factor that also contributes to the increase in the number of conflicts between humans and wild animals.
“Our province is one of those with the highest levels of human-wildlife conflict, particularly involving elephants and buffalo. For example, our elephant herd is almost twice the size of the province’s human population,” said Livone, noting that Niassa currently has about 2.5 million inhabitants and more than three million elephants.
According to a report by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in 2023, the number of deaths caused by wild animal attacks nearly tripled in a single year, reaching 159 victims nationwide.
Citing the most recent available data, the INE report states that Mozambique estimated a population of 9,114 elephants and 64,800 buffalo in 2018, among dozens of other large species.
According to the same document, in 2023, 205,375 people lived within protected areas, in 162 communities, in addition to 501,737 people in 504 communities in the buffer zones surrounding these parks and reserves.
Previous data from the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) reveal that, between 2019 and 2023, wild animal attacks in the country destroyed a total of 955 hectares of crops, such as corn and cassava.
