A Month of Progress for People and Wildlife

May was a busy month for Human-Wildlife Conflict mitigation in Mozambique.

In a single month, four new Protected Farming Communities were established across two landscapes: Duco and Chivonguene in Magude, and Bairro Guebuza 1, Bairro Guebuza 2 and Nhabando in the Magoé landscape, Tete Province.

For families living alongside elephants, hippos, and buffalo, this means more than fencing. It means sleeping at night without fear of losing an entire harvest before sunrise. It means food security. It means stability.

Reaching this point takes months of community meetings, planning, training, and collective commitment before a single fence post enters the ground.

With these additions, MWA now supports 18 Protected Farming Communities, protecting the livelihoods of 993 families across Mozambique.

At the same time, in the Magoé landscape, 343 community members from nine villages received training on Human-Wildlife Conflict prevention and response, making it the largest single-month training reach of 2026. Women represented 42% of participants, demonstrating the growing role of women in protecting livelihoods and leading coexistence efforts.

And the impact is becoming visible.

Human-Wildlife Conflict incidents recorded by MWA dropped from 29 in March, to 14 in April, and 11 in May. May was also the second consecutive month without a human fatality resulting from Human-Wildlife Conflict, with every reported incident successfully resolved.

These results are not driven by a single intervention. They are the outcome of communities, rapid response teams, training, and preventive infrastructure working together.

As of the end of May, MWA was tracking 74 potential Protected Farming Community sites across nine landscapes - 18 operational and 50 currently under evaluation. If you'd like to follow their progress and learn more about our work, explore our live tracking platform here: machambas.co.mz.

The direction is clear.

When communities are equipped with the right tools, coexistence becomes possible.