The Reshaping of a National Park - Magoé

A year ago, Magoe National Park was facing a growing crisis.

Reports from communities, local authorities, and national media pointed to the same reality: people and elephants were colliding at an alarming rate.

In 2025 alone, at least 15 people lost their lives, 10 were seriously injured, and more than 60 incidents of crop destruction and community disruption were recorded.

Something had to change.

Supported by MozRural and BIOFUND, MWA and Magoe National Park launched an ambitious project with a simple objective: move from conflict to coexistence.

The approach was never about a single solution.

It started with science.

Since September 2025, MWA's veterinary team has deployed 12 GPS collars on elephants, allowing movements to be monitored in real time and transforming how conflict is predicted and managed.

It continued with prevention: 3 Protected Farming Communities (PFCs) were established in key conflict hotspots. Communities were trained, Elephant Shepherds equipped, and local systems strengthened before conflict could occur.

Then came the proof.

In December 2025, multiple elephant incursions towards farming areas were reported. None resulted in crop loss. None resulted in injury. None resulted in retaliation against wildlife.

The system worked.

The results achieved during the first phase of the project demonstrated that this approach could work in one of Mozambique's most challenging Human-Wildlife Conflict landscapes.

Recognising this potential, BIOFUND and MozRural renewed their support in 2026, funding a second phase focused on expanding prevention systems, strengthening community capacity, and increasing the park's ability to anticipate and respond to conflict before it occurs.

And the work continued.

Between February and May 2026 alone:

• 554 community members trained in Human-Wildlife Conflict prevention across 20 communities

• 3 new Protected Farming Communities established

• 2 community grain silos constructed, allowing families to safely store harvests and reduce post-harvest losses

• 2 new Elephant Shepherds trained and equipped to strengthen rapid response capacity in Magoe and Cahora Bassa

• Park rangers trained and supplied with mitigation equipment

• New Protected Farming Communities identified and submitted for implementation

These achievements build on the foundations laid in 2025.

Today, the Magoe landscape is home to 6 Protected Farming Communities, protecting 205 families and 153.9 hectares of farmland from elephant incursions and other wildlife-related damage.

At the same time, something equally important was happening.

Two experienced Magoe National Park rangers travelled across the country to learn alongside MWA's Elephant Shepherds and Human-Wildlife Conflict teams. Learning how incidents are prevented, recorded, responded to, and transformed into long-term solutions.

Because the future of Magoe will not be built by projects alone. It will be built by people.

Today, the Human-Wildlife Conflict team returns home after successfully completing Phase 1 of the 2026 programme.

And as they do, MWA's veterinary team has just landed in Magoe to begin the next chapter:

The deployment of 20 additional elephant collars.

More data. More prevention. More communities protected. More coexistence.

And for the first time in a long time, communities across Magoe are beginning to see something that once felt impossible.

A future where people and elephants can share the same landscape and both thrive.

For a landscape once defined by conflict, these numbers represent something far more important than infrastructure.

They represent confidence.

Confidence to plant. Confidence to harvest. Confidence that coexistence is possible.

Thank you to BIOFUND, MozRural, ANAC, Magoe National Park, and the communities leading this transformation alongside us.

These images show different stages of the Protected Farming Community process, including community engagement, site assessments, planning activities, and the implementation of electric fencing infrastructure.

These images document the construction of community grain silos in Daque and Macacate. By protecting harvests after they leave the field, the silos help ensure that months of agricultural work are not lost to pests, weather, or poor storage conditions.

These images capture training activities delivered across communities in Magoe and Cahora Bassa, where participants received both practical knowledge and mitigation kits to strengthen their ability to prevent and respond to Human-Wildlife Conflict.

Effective conflict response depends on being able to reach communities quickly. These images show the handover of motorcycles and mitigation equipment to two new Elephant Shepherds, strengthening rapid response capacity across the Magoe and Cahora Bassa landscapes.