The first sample focused on selected invertebrate groups, small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and fish, using pitfall traps, nets and light traps to catch the study subjects. Having already analysed more than half of the data, the environmental team has processed 888 observations of 388 species. Among the plants and animals recorded were the tiny, exquisitely coloured Pinhey’s sprite and the bladderwort – a carnivorous plant that floats on water.

Guests at Vumbura Plains, King’s Pool and DumaTau camps were given the opportunity to visit and interact with available researchers. In addition, the results were uploaded and regularly updated on iNaturalist.

“The second sample will be taken from December this year to January 2020. Based on the final outcomes, we are looking to expand monitoring to other concessions as a research project, while continuing to publish the species inventory and other records. To further the project, our dedicated Sustainability Fund has also sponsored the setup of hydrological monitoring sites at Little Vumbura, King’s Pool and Savuti camps, and the installation of a long-term data logging system for later in the year”, says Rob Taylor, Wilderness Safaris Botswana Conservation Ecologist.

According to AllAfrica News, the project is set to run until 2024, and will finance the expansion of Mozambique’s conservation areas, and contribute to a better use of the country’s biodiversity.

At the launch ceremony, the Deputy Minister for Land, Environment and Rural Development, Celmiro da Silva, said that one of the government’s priority areas is the preservation of natural resources and of the environment, in order to ensure balanced and sustainable development of the national territory.

“With this project, the government intends to strengthen programmes to conserve biodiversity, with a focus on the fight against poaching and against the illicit trade in wild life products”, said Silva.

She added that the project will promote rural development programmes with communities living in the Niassa National Reserve, in the far north, and in the buffer zone around the Gorongosa National Park in the central province of Sofala. It will also provide institutional support for the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), in implementing its strategy to protect biodiversity.

The UNDP resident representative in Mozambique, Marcia Castro, referred to the devastating attacks by poachers against the country’s elephant population, pointing out that between 2010 and 2014 over 2,600 elephants were slaughtered in the Niassa reserve. She believed that this was not only an environmental but also a security problem.

“We are aware that we need to redouble our efforts and our political, institutional and financial commitments if we want to reverse the current trends in this illicit activity”, said Castro.